Hunter vs Windham Bus Trip Article in Powder Mag

[catskillman]

https://www.powder.com/latitudes/to...C8C8197569E655B6E9540F595CCA1B902B9CCC6764A74


Interesting, Hope Hunta Mgt reads this.

 

[skimagic]

I'm surprised hunter only averages 120" year, I thought it was at least 50" more.

 

[cdskier]

I'm surprised hunter only averages 120" year, I thought it was at least 50" more.

Nope. In fact 120 is a bit higher than the numbers I saw back when I had a spreadsheet tracking snowfall totals at various areas I was interested in at the time. From 2005-2013 they only broke 100" twice (107 in 2005 and 140 in 2010). Belleayre on the other hand regularly was hitting 120 or higher in that same time-frame (only 1 year were they below 120 in that time). Platty is the Catskills winner though and usually ends up with the highest total snowfall.

 

[skimagic]

Nope. In fact 120 is a bit higher than the numbers I saw back when I had a spreadsheet tracking snowfall totals at various areas I was interested in at the time. From 2005-2013 they only broke 100" twice (107 in 2005 and 140 in 2010). Belleayre on the other hand regularly was hitting 120 or higher in that same time-frame (only 1 year were they below 120 in that time). Platty is the Catskills winner though and usually ends up with the highest total snowfall.

Thanks ,do you have a number for Windham ? I thought the cats would be similar to southern
VT since it's pretty high elevation with nothing to northwest squeezing moisture. Too far south I guess.

 

[cdskier]

Thanks ,do you have a number for Windham ? I thought the cats would be similar to southern
VT since it's pretty high elevation with nothing to northwest squeezing moisture. Too far south I guess.

For some reason I only have the 2010 number for Windham in my spreadsheet. It could be that many years they either didn't list the total snowfall number in their ski reports or by the time I went to grab the number they were closed and had deleted the info from the reports. Windham had 136 that year (vs 140 at Hunter, 182 at Belleayre, and 210 at Platty). One of the things I was fascinated looking at was how ski areas in different parts of the northeast fared compared to their reported averages. 2010 was a year the Cats all over-performed with above-average snowfall. Meanwhile VT seemed to be below average that season.

 

[abc]

Interesting, Hope Hunta Mgt reads this.

I'm sure they did. But I'm not sure what's there for them to read. Ski buses had been rumbling up to Hunter for years. Most of people know what they're going for.

As for the the low snow fall record for Hunter, it's almost irrelevant. Hunter's claim to fame is its snowmaking capacity. 100% coverage and the amount them guns can shoot out, completely blanket every inch of the runs in 24 hrs once the temperature drops to that magical number.

The crowd. It's crowded because it's better than the alternatives. (disclaimer, I'm not a fan of Windham, more a Platty fan)

 

[Harvey]

These are the numbers we have:

http://nyskiblog.com/directory/weather-data/eastern-ski-area-snowfall-averages/new-york/

...with Hunter at 100.

Honestly I think all the numbers are high if you look at the last ten years.

 

[180]

Hunter is further east. Belleayre measures at a higher elevation and Platty is the first ridge

 

[jimk]

I've done a few bus trips in my ski life, both day trips and weekends. It's not my favorite way to access the slopes, but you do what you have to do. Seems like the author was pretty accurate about the different vibes at Hunter vs. Windham. I prefer the terrain at Hunter, but last time I was at Windham, 2008, I was impressed with how far it had come since my first visit there in the 1980s.

That Powder story led me to another good one I could better relate to about skiing with your kids: https://www.powder.com/stories/opinion/kids-will-ruin-life/
My bottom line on that subject is that it's great to fulfill all the fun and skill of skiing for yourself, but you can't really call yourself a zen master of skiing until you've converted at least one other soul (spouse, kid, friend) to the rapture of the sport.

 

[catskills]

In early January you want to watch which trails they are making snow on. Hunter can pound out the snow like no other place. I have had some awesome man made boot top powder days on the west side of Hunter. Unfortunately these days are usually mid week, which rules out a NYC bus trip. Its not waste deep powder like Jackson Hole but its still a lot of fun.

 

[BenedictGomez]

These are the numbers we have:

http://nyskiblog.com/directory/weather-data/eastern-ski-area-snowfall-averages/new-york/

...with Hunter at 100.

Honestly I think all the numbers are high if you look at the last ten years.

Platty gets 20% more snow on average than Gore? That seems tough to believe.

 

[Harvey]

These are the "commonly accepted" numbers that generally come from the mountains, probably from marketing. We've got no way to actually verify actuals.

One pet project of mine has been recording Gore numbers. I've done it since 2007-2008 and the average we have for Gore over that time is 120:

http://nyskiblog.com/directory/weather-data/gore-mountain-snow-totals/annual-average/

5 of the 9 seasons recorded have been within a few inches of that 150 average and the other 4 seasons have brought the average down to 120.

Plattekill certainly gets more lake effect than Gore, and likely more rain as well. Other than that I don't know what to tell you.

 

[cdskier]

I think the 180" average number for Platty is a bit high, but there are quite a few years where they do seem to receive more snow than Gore (based on the numbers I have). Some years it is only a foot or so more, while in other years like 2010 Platty received nearly 90" more than Gore (in general the Cats outperformed their averages by a good deal that year...certainly not normal). There are of course also years where Gore does better than Platty (in 2013 Gore had almost 4' more snow).

And then like Harvey says, there are other factors that may make one area seem to have more snow relative to another area even if actual totals don't match that perception. This is why I really hate when some resorts brag in their snow reports about receiving x" of total snow so far in a season when in reality that snowfall was coupled with multiple freeze/thaw cycles and non-snow events. Snowfall totals can be quite misleading for comparing one season to another or even one resort to another.