Hunter's Mt Status and Snow reports

[abc]

Well, I feel I made the right decision canceling all my reservation (up to Sunday, which I booked when I first saw the on-coming storm).

Went xc skiing at Minnewaska. Spectacular day with a "crowd" of may be 30 people I ran across the entire afternoon (yes, 30 would be a "crowd" for a mid-week day). I think I'll stick with that till the madness subsides a bit.

In the mean time, almost all cross country ski gear had sold out from most shops! (like bikes in the spring).

 

[ScottySkis]

Well, I feel I made the right decision canceling all my reservation (up to Sunday, which I booked when I first saw the on-coming storm).

Went xc skiing at Minnewaska. Spectacular day with a "crowd" of may be 30 people I ran across the entire afternoon (yes, 30 would be a "crowd" for a mid-week day). I think I'll stick with that till the madness subsides a bit.

In the mean time, almost all cross country ski gear had sold out from most shops! (like bikes in the spring).

U could check out other hills that are less crowded like Catamount

 

[abc]

U could check out other hills that are less crowded like Catamount

That's a thought.

But I like xc skiing just as much. Now that most xc centers is open, I'll ski it till the snow is gone. It's really rare to have a big dump like that down here in the flatland. I'm going to milk it as much as I can.

The mountains will have snow a lot longer than the flat land. Having missed the actual powder the day after the dump, I'm now far less motivated to chase the remaining snow.

 

[crank]

That's a thought.

But I like xc skiing just as much. Now that most xc centers is open, I'll ski it till the snow is gone. It's really rare to have a big dump like that down here in the flatland. I'm going to milk it as much as I can.

The mountains will have snow a lot longer than the flat land. Having missed the actual powder the day after the dump, I'm now far less motivated to chase the remaining snow.

We went xc ing at Fahnestock yesterday. Trails were mostly packed and smoothed. It was actually closed but the road in was open and the parking lot plowed. There were maybe 4 cars in the lot. Groomers were out and saw us. Didn't seem to mind that we were out poaching. Awesome day! Perfect xc snow and temps. I just replaced my 30-year ole 3 pins with some brand new skis and boots. Yesterday was their first outing. Much better glide and so much more confidence and control going downhill!

 

[kingslug]

Check the incoming weather..its why I get it while its good.

 

[kingslug]

looking at their cam again..barely a line...
oh well...

 

[jg17]

It was plenty packed this morning, waited about 30 minutes for the Flyer around 11am. D and B also had sizeable lines in the morning. F lift was a disaster, one giant crowd with zero attempt at even separating lines and zero mask enforcement. Bailed around 12:15 after Overlook became dangerously crowded with folks who didn't belong on the dust on crust. As I left, the line for the Flyer was shorter since everyone was at lunch, but the outdoor seating area was absolutely packed and there still was a steady stream of people just arriving for the day.

I was expecting a mess, but today was bad even by Hunter standards. Truly Epic.

 

[kingslug]

Wow..guess the cams just don't show it well enough..glad ( well not really) I'm not skiing this weekend. Not that I didn't try. But I underestimated the storm and its impact on reservations all over NY.

 

[MidnightJester]

This year the storms will bring out the storm seekers Covid or not. Add in weekends at tmes where the kids are more off from school and you have the recipe for packed mountains and locked out parking and tickets to bow to to Govt overreach.

 

[So Inclined]

In the mean time, almost all cross country ski gear had sold out from most shops! (like bikes in the spring).

I was interested in hitting Fahnestock's trails Thursday or Friday so gave their Twitter a look - they said no rentals this year due to Covid. Not sure if other places are proceeding the same way, but it may help explain why x-country gear is getting thin on the shelves.

 

[abc]

Not really. It's just people are buying outdoor equipment left and right.

I had some stuff that needs "re-newing". Gloves for example. Can't find stock in most places.

 

[kingslug]

Skiing used to be a way of getting away from it all...nit so much now..more like diving...into it all.

 

[da-bum]

Is the coming week (specifically the weekdays) considered a week where people go on holiday and go skiing in Hunter? I have the Epic Northeast weekday pass and next week is not a blackout week, implying it will not be a week where vacationers will be flooding the resort. But I don't want to come up and end up in a place where there are long lines and crowding all over the place. I looked at a few places to stay and they are completely booked out, which is a bad sign. I usually don't go anywhere near the ski resorts around this time since around this is roughly the time I would have came back from a warm weather vac, but this year, I went early in oct, and also, I am lingering at home this couple of weeks having to burn up my vac days. I would have headed to VT, but that quarantine requirement threw everything off

 

[ss20]

Skiing used to be a way of getting away from it all...nit so much now..more like diving...into it all.

Agreed. Well-hyped midweek powder days and the following weekend are just stupid busy. So much more so than just a few years ago. I really like the "sleeper" days of 4"-6" on top of a solid base. Add a "1" in front of those numbers and what would be a busy day becomes sheer insanity.

I remember a powder day at Stratton after 2 feet I think the last year of the MAX pass (RIP). I'm walking to the hill and a pretty nice luxury car is flying up the access road with a flat tire, full steam ahead. Maybe he had run-flats but still zero f's given gotta shred hahaha.

 

[RichT]

It's less (lift lines wise) this weekend then it was last Thursday Friday. They didn't have as much open or lifts as they do now.

 

[abc]

Is the coming week (specifically the weekdays) considered a week where people go on holiday and go skiing in Hunter? I have the Epic Northeast weekday pass and next week is not a blackout week, implying it will not be a week where vacationers will be flooding the resort. But I don't want to come up and end up in a place where there are long lines and crowding all over the place. I looked at a few places to stay and they are completely booked out, which is a bad sign. I usually don't go anywhere near the ski resorts around this time since around this is roughly the time I would have came back from a warm weather vac, but this year, I went early in oct, and also, I am lingering at home this couple of weeks having to burn up my vac days. I would have headed to VT, but that quarantine requirement threw everything off

Traditionally? No. People would have been too busy shopping for Christmas gifts.

But this year? Who knows. Consider this: people aren't getting together (as much). So there will only be half (or less) of the boxes under the tree. The rest would be mail ordered. So people maybe free to go skiing.

Third consideration, like you, a lot of white collar folks have vacation days to burn. Many are just taking them off to do "nothing". Then all of a sudden, snow storm! What do you think folks will do?

As for the booked up places though, that may have more to do with a lot of places closing down or "rotating" rooms. I know the lodges I normally go to are doing that. So there's less availability across the board.

 

[kingslug]

Snagged an opening at Hunter this morning..Got there at 11:00...had a damn good day. Lines were manageable..Lots of moguls to bounce around on. Glad I went...oh and it snowed all afternoon.

 

[da-bum]

Traditionally? No. People would have been too busy shopping for Christmas gifts.

But this year? Who knows. Consider this: people aren't getting together (as much). So there will only be half (or less) of the boxes under the tree. The rest would be mail ordered. So people maybe free to go skiing.

Third consideration, like you, a lot of white collar folks have vacation days to burn. Many are just taking them off to do "nothing". Then all of a sudden, snow storm! What do you think folks will do?

As for the booked up places though, that may have more to do with a lot of places closing down or "rotating" rooms. I know the lodges I normally go to are doing that. So there's less availability across the board.

With not much places to go in the middle of the year, it seemed pointless to take a day off since it is not much different from a light wfh day. Wanted to do a 5 days or so on the passholder only days, but Hunter closed prematurely, thus never got to use vac days on them.

Some places seem to rotate rooms if possible, but not sure about the smaller places. Anyway, in prior years, I just do day trips before the holidays due to the extremely limited number of trails open, so I never knew whether they were fully booked around this time.

Since many places' rooms are unavailable on monday night, decided to shorten trip from 3 to 2 days, staying over tues night. Some weather site's forecast calls for foggy day on monday, which could mean nothing or skiing in the clouds.

 

[kingslug]

If at Hunter check out the Sunview motel...

 

[da-bum]

I was browsing booking.com and Sunview sold out by saturday. I presumed all these sites queries each hotel's site, but apparently not because last night, I inquired tripadvisor and it showed Sunview available through other travel sites except booking.com. I didn't think anybody bulk buy rooms on such a small place like Sunview.

Anyway, Hunter is fully booked M/Tu/Wed (somehow, Mon became available again). And looking at the webcam, I see sunny sky instead of fog. Some weather prediction.