oakapple
New member
Date(s) Skied: Feb. 7, 2010
Resort or Ski Area: Windham Mountain
As I mentioned in my review of Belleayre Mountain, I am an intermediate skier who never ventures on the black or double-black diamonds, so I come to this from a different perspective than most who post here.
I've been driving from NYC to various ski areas, but for this daytrip I decided to take the bus offered by Urban Sherpa Travel. They offer departures from Union Square and Times Square to a number of different ski areas, though Windham and Hunter are their two most popular destinations. They have buses every Saturday and Sunday throughout the season.
The bus has a few advantages. It is well run and comfortable, and it relieves you of the burden of a long drive after a long day of skiing. It is also cheaper than any other way of getting there, as the $85 fare includes the lift ticket, which would be $65 on its own if purchased separately. The bus leaves Times Square at roughly 6:15 a.m. and arrives Windham at 8:30, leaving there at 4:30, so you get to ski pretty much the whole day.
Taking the bus makes for a longer day, because you need to add extra time to get to Union Square or Times Square, and extra time to get home from there after the evening drop-off. And if you decide to finish a bit early, you still have to hang out until 4:30. Having a beer in Windham's spacious bar isn't the worst thing that could happen; still, by my reckoning the day was about 2½–3 hours longer than it would have been if I had driven.
The mountain started out in good shape, but I found most of the trails skied off to ice by the mid-afternoon. Windham claims to have 30 percent beginner runs, but this is highly deceptive, as a number of those coded green cannot be reached without skiing a blue trail first. Some of the longer greens would be a bit daunting for a true novice, like the suitably named Wanderer, a long cruiser with several short curves and steeper sections that I would not have enjoyed skiing in my pizza-wedge days.
Among the blues, I particularly enjoyed the oddly labeled Lower Wipeout, which despite its name is not particularly difficult, and takes you past tree-shaded luxury homes and condos. This might be the most relaxing blue on the mountain: it's on the far edge of the beginner area, and so it gets very little traffic. A few of the harder blues struck me as rather steep and icy, bordering on black.
The mountain has two peaks. I understand that several new trails joining the two were added a year or two ago; before then, it was difficult to traverse from one to the other. The map gives the appearance that there is still considerable room to expand. Each of the two peaks has an express quad. On the main peak, next to the express lift is a slower triple that has almost no line. For the quads, I generally waited around ten minutes or so each time, which isn't bad.
As usual, there was never a significant line at either of the main beginner lifts. But because the step up from green to blue is significant at this mountain, some of the green trails were pretty crowded.
The lodge has an ample amount of space and is a bit more upscale than other places in the region, though nobody would confuse it with Vail. I will probably go back to Windham, but I don't think I'll take the bus next time.
Resort or Ski Area: Windham Mountain
As I mentioned in my review of Belleayre Mountain, I am an intermediate skier who never ventures on the black or double-black diamonds, so I come to this from a different perspective than most who post here.
I've been driving from NYC to various ski areas, but for this daytrip I decided to take the bus offered by Urban Sherpa Travel. They offer departures from Union Square and Times Square to a number of different ski areas, though Windham and Hunter are their two most popular destinations. They have buses every Saturday and Sunday throughout the season.
The bus has a few advantages. It is well run and comfortable, and it relieves you of the burden of a long drive after a long day of skiing. It is also cheaper than any other way of getting there, as the $85 fare includes the lift ticket, which would be $65 on its own if purchased separately. The bus leaves Times Square at roughly 6:15 a.m. and arrives Windham at 8:30, leaving there at 4:30, so you get to ski pretty much the whole day.
Taking the bus makes for a longer day, because you need to add extra time to get to Union Square or Times Square, and extra time to get home from there after the evening drop-off. And if you decide to finish a bit early, you still have to hang out until 4:30. Having a beer in Windham's spacious bar isn't the worst thing that could happen; still, by my reckoning the day was about 2½–3 hours longer than it would have been if I had driven.
The mountain started out in good shape, but I found most of the trails skied off to ice by the mid-afternoon. Windham claims to have 30 percent beginner runs, but this is highly deceptive, as a number of those coded green cannot be reached without skiing a blue trail first. Some of the longer greens would be a bit daunting for a true novice, like the suitably named Wanderer, a long cruiser with several short curves and steeper sections that I would not have enjoyed skiing in my pizza-wedge days.
Among the blues, I particularly enjoyed the oddly labeled Lower Wipeout, which despite its name is not particularly difficult, and takes you past tree-shaded luxury homes and condos. This might be the most relaxing blue on the mountain: it's on the far edge of the beginner area, and so it gets very little traffic. A few of the harder blues struck me as rather steep and icy, bordering on black.
The mountain has two peaks. I understand that several new trails joining the two were added a year or two ago; before then, it was difficult to traverse from one to the other. The map gives the appearance that there is still considerable room to expand. Each of the two peaks has an express quad. On the main peak, next to the express lift is a slower triple that has almost no line. For the quads, I generally waited around ten minutes or so each time, which isn't bad.
As usual, there was never a significant line at either of the main beginner lifts. But because the step up from green to blue is significant at this mountain, some of the green trails were pretty crowded.
The lodge has an ample amount of space and is a bit more upscale than other places in the region, though nobody would confuse it with Vail. I will probably go back to Windham, but I don't think I'll take the bus next time.
