jamesdeluxe
Administrator
Still waiting for spring.
Early in the week, NOAA had the Catskills at sunny and 40 degrees on Sunday, so Jason and I penciled in a daytrip while keeping in mind that the forecast was five days out and could obviously change, which it did. While the "sunny" part of the equation held -- deep blue skies the entire day -- the temperature was almost ten degrees colder than we had hoped for. At 8:30, it was a brisk 9 degrees and I'm reasonably sure that the mercury never got above freezing. Too bad as everyone else in the northeast is getting really impatient for some proper spring skiing.
Despite a mostly full parking lot, the trails were pretty empty and all of the chairs were ski-on through final bell. While you could certainly get an edge into the groomers, the blazing sun didn't manage to completely move them out of the hard-and-fast zone. Here we are on Deer Run with Plattekill in the distance:
The woods were in better shape, so I clucked around the extensive new Dreamcatcher glade -- the trees have plenty of cover despite snowfall being about three feet below average.
Early afternoon, we zipped over to Highmount -- closed since April 1992 -- where the cut trails are continuing to grow in:
Still a decent base:
We were able to put together some nice turns amidst the brambles. This was Jason's first run at Highmount and he could see that the terrain over there is nice and consistent.
View from the bottom:
We eventually made it back to mid-mountain and relaxed on the deck. A fun day, but it'd be great if you westerners would stop hogging all of the warm weather.
Early in the week, NOAA had the Catskills at sunny and 40 degrees on Sunday, so Jason and I penciled in a daytrip while keeping in mind that the forecast was five days out and could obviously change, which it did. While the "sunny" part of the equation held -- deep blue skies the entire day -- the temperature was almost ten degrees colder than we had hoped for. At 8:30, it was a brisk 9 degrees and I'm reasonably sure that the mercury never got above freezing. Too bad as everyone else in the northeast is getting really impatient for some proper spring skiing.
Despite a mostly full parking lot, the trails were pretty empty and all of the chairs were ski-on through final bell. While you could certainly get an edge into the groomers, the blazing sun didn't manage to completely move them out of the hard-and-fast zone. Here we are on Deer Run with Plattekill in the distance:
The woods were in better shape, so I clucked around the extensive new Dreamcatcher glade -- the trees have plenty of cover despite snowfall being about three feet below average.
Early afternoon, we zipped over to Highmount -- closed since April 1992 -- where the cut trails are continuing to grow in:
Still a decent base:
We were able to put together some nice turns amidst the brambles. This was Jason's first run at Highmount and he could see that the terrain over there is nice and consistent.
View from the bottom:
We eventually made it back to mid-mountain and relaxed on the deck. A fun day, but it'd be great if you westerners would stop hogging all of the warm weather.