Saturday was Press Day at Belleayre, so I invited rising blog star Harvey 44 for his first-ever skiing experience at New York State’s red-haired stepchild. After seeing my dozens of TRs about Belleayre over the years (and the fact that Jason and I ski there much more than the other Catskills areas), he was curious to check it out.
We and eight other writers had breakfast with the Belleayre crew, including master of ceremonies Tony Lanza, whom we grilled on a variety of subjects. Tony did his usual superlative job of explaining the very complicated ins and outs of running a ski area under the aegis of the state and the Department of Environmental Conservation. It was especially interesting for Harvey to note the differences between Belleayre and Gore/Whiteface. Besides the fact that they’re all state-run mountains, there are actually not a lot of similarities, and it could be argued that Belleayre –- despite being able to draw from a huge population base within a 2.5-hour drive –- has the most challenges.
Breakfast wrapped at 9 and Tony took us out for a morning tour, starting with the beginner’s trails at the bottom of the hill. Belleayre has a great network of green runs that are completely separated from the blue and black terrain, and it’s something I plan to take advantage of with my son. We then got on the HSQ, which already had a five-minute line (that would more than double in size during the afternoon). I’m pretty sure that yesterday was Belleayre’s biggest day of the season so far with more than 4,500 guests. Thank god that we had line-cutting privileges as even the normally ski-on Tomahawk and Lift 7 chairs had waits… something that is rare, even on weekends.
The trails we skied before lunch were a bit crunchy for my taste, especially up top, but I told Harvey to withhold judgment until the afternoon when ski-school director Don Boyce took us up on the Belleayre Beast. Not quite a typical snowcat, more like a 35-year-old re-purposed amphibious military assault vehicle, we loaded up at the top of the Super Chief lift and drove ¾ of a mile to the far skier’s right. There, we took two runs on the beautiful Cathedral Brook trail… a narrow, rolling East-Coast special that had everyone smiling. Jason and his two kids loved it too. I don't think that any other NYS ski area has something like the Beast, and it's a great feature, especially if you don't want to do the 15-minute skate out to the Cathedral area.
For anyone doubting the ability of Bellayre’s natural-snow terrain to be skiable on only 48 inches (and that's total snow this season, not the base), this was Exhibit A. The snow was fantastic and even in spots where the loose powder was skied off, it was completely edgeable… beautiful. I pointed out some of my favorite tree-skiing out there (the woods to the right and left of Cathedral Brook). The only disappointment was that we couldn’t ski all the way into Pine Hill village (a 2,100-vert run) because they decided that it was a bit thin down toward the bottom. In any event, that’s something to look forward to after the next storm.
The rest of the afternoon, we did laps on the upper mountain, hitting Winnesook, Tongora, and Yahoo repeatedly. As opposed to the morning, everything we touched (including the upper bumps) was in sterling condition. All of us were in awe of Don Boyce's steeze (pic below)... truly something to admire. In the lift line, we even saw his teenage daughter, who is an instructor there.
I think that Harvey (the two pix are from him) now sees the differences between Hunter and Belleayre, and why I generally spend more time at the latter... just a matter of taste BTW. Here's his version of yesterday:
http://harvey44.blogspot.com/2010/01/be ... 11610.html
Thanks to the Belleayre crew for a great day.
We and eight other writers had breakfast with the Belleayre crew, including master of ceremonies Tony Lanza, whom we grilled on a variety of subjects. Tony did his usual superlative job of explaining the very complicated ins and outs of running a ski area under the aegis of the state and the Department of Environmental Conservation. It was especially interesting for Harvey to note the differences between Belleayre and Gore/Whiteface. Besides the fact that they’re all state-run mountains, there are actually not a lot of similarities, and it could be argued that Belleayre –- despite being able to draw from a huge population base within a 2.5-hour drive –- has the most challenges.
Breakfast wrapped at 9 and Tony took us out for a morning tour, starting with the beginner’s trails at the bottom of the hill. Belleayre has a great network of green runs that are completely separated from the blue and black terrain, and it’s something I plan to take advantage of with my son. We then got on the HSQ, which already had a five-minute line (that would more than double in size during the afternoon). I’m pretty sure that yesterday was Belleayre’s biggest day of the season so far with more than 4,500 guests. Thank god that we had line-cutting privileges as even the normally ski-on Tomahawk and Lift 7 chairs had waits… something that is rare, even on weekends.
The trails we skied before lunch were a bit crunchy for my taste, especially up top, but I told Harvey to withhold judgment until the afternoon when ski-school director Don Boyce took us up on the Belleayre Beast. Not quite a typical snowcat, more like a 35-year-old re-purposed amphibious military assault vehicle, we loaded up at the top of the Super Chief lift and drove ¾ of a mile to the far skier’s right. There, we took two runs on the beautiful Cathedral Brook trail… a narrow, rolling East-Coast special that had everyone smiling. Jason and his two kids loved it too. I don't think that any other NYS ski area has something like the Beast, and it's a great feature, especially if you don't want to do the 15-minute skate out to the Cathedral area.
For anyone doubting the ability of Bellayre’s natural-snow terrain to be skiable on only 48 inches (and that's total snow this season, not the base), this was Exhibit A. The snow was fantastic and even in spots where the loose powder was skied off, it was completely edgeable… beautiful. I pointed out some of my favorite tree-skiing out there (the woods to the right and left of Cathedral Brook). The only disappointment was that we couldn’t ski all the way into Pine Hill village (a 2,100-vert run) because they decided that it was a bit thin down toward the bottom. In any event, that’s something to look forward to after the next storm.
The rest of the afternoon, we did laps on the upper mountain, hitting Winnesook, Tongora, and Yahoo repeatedly. As opposed to the morning, everything we touched (including the upper bumps) was in sterling condition. All of us were in awe of Don Boyce's steeze (pic below)... truly something to admire. In the lift line, we even saw his teenage daughter, who is an instructor there.
I think that Harvey (the two pix are from him) now sees the differences between Hunter and Belleayre, and why I generally spend more time at the latter... just a matter of taste BTW. Here's his version of yesterday:
http://harvey44.blogspot.com/2010/01/be ... 11610.html
Thanks to the Belleayre crew for a great day.
