powderfreak
New member
Made a snap decision to head down to Plattekill from Albany last night
after seeing Dan's (telenaut) post. It ended up being Dan Barron
(telenaut), Rich Weir, and his nephew John. 14" of fresh snow since they
last ran the lifts (Sunday) and all trails open was hard to turn
down...especially since tickets were $10. $10 for a day of powder skiing
with MAYBE 50 people riding the lifts which decreased after lunch time to
what seemed like only a handful. They advertised $10 lift tickets for the
first 100 skiers...they never made it to 100 skiers. This is what the
parking lot looked like at 930am:
18 or 20 cars, maybe.
View from the lodge:
It isn't a big ski area in size, but it skis big. There is an incredible
mountain bike network and local fire prevention work that provides some
absolutely amazing tree lines. There are wide open spaces between every
trail and we didn't come close to tracking them all out. The Catskills
have been getting some good snow, too. It snowed all day and only
accumulated a dusting, but there was some serious snow from the last
storm. The scenery was beautiful, classic Catskill look.
The base lodge of this place is classic...its an old building with a bar
up top (I would've joined Rich and John for a reeb but I'm 72hrs shy of
being able to) and wood tables, etc. Picnic tables outside and a perfect
deck for spring skiing except it was snowed in this go around.
From left to right: Dan, Rich, John
The four of us skied some awesome tree runs after several powder runs on
the cut trails...and I'm not talking 8:30 in the morning but like 11am we
were still skiing wide open runs with plenty of fresh turns. It was like
catskiing...but with a lift and for only $10.
A few video clips on the trails:
John in the powder... http://www.uvm.edu/~sbraaten/Plattekill ... Powder.MOV
Telenaut in the powder... http://www.uvm.edu/~sbraaten/Plattekill ... Powder.MOV
Then we moved into the trees in the afternoon:
Rich standing above some very nice lines that are not on the trail map:
Telenaut and Rich video clip: http://www.uvm.edu/~sbraaten/Plattekill ... 20Rich.MOV
We also found some nice drops and even soft, pillow-like lines that
included occasional two to six foot drops with soft landings. Fun stuff.
I think Dan's got a good picture of a launch but here's a shot looking up:
At 3pm we decided to drop into a shot we had been looking at all day.
Here's Rich, Dan, and John dropping into a boot deep, wide open, untracked
shot:
http://www.uvm.edu/~sbraaten/Plattekill ... Powder.MOV (video)
I then followed and Dan took a few pictures on his digital camera of me
absolutely eating bark. No one except those who were there will know how
close I came to meeting face to face with a very large tree. I did take a
fair amount of bark off it and ejected from both skis but dodged it to the
right, landing in some very soft powder. A large diameter tree would've
been quite different.
Late in the day the legs got tired, but when 3:30pm rolls around and
trails still look like this, you know its a great day:
After that run, Dan and I found an especially nice tree shot that would
give any Vermont resort a run for it's money. Here are my tracks; Dan's
tracks are to the lookers left of mine but I don't think you can see them:
Honestly, look at that photo again and factor in that this is between 3
and 4pm and completely untracked. Then, look at it and really think about
how wide open the trees are at Plattekill. It is ridiculous; that line
isn't on the map like all the lines at this little area that rocks. There
is only 14" of snow on the ground...probably 4" with an unbreakable crust
covering everything and then 10" on top, and it is still this wide open.
Really consider this place the next time it snows in the southern portions
of the northeast. It might be worth the stop on your way to Vermont or
areas further north.
All in all, I hope the pictures and videos show at least a fraction of how
great the day was...top 5 of the season for me easily; probably top 3.
Great company, great powder, untracked all day long, and fun exploration
all for $10. It was great to see Dan again (only met him once during a
skivt-l party two years ago) as well as meet Rich and John. Quite the
pleasure and makes an amazing day like even better to share it with other
like-minded souls. John kept up all day long even though he was on skinny
rental skis. He was a great skier and really nice guy; I'm sorry my
Bandit XX's didn't fit.
Anyone who could've come but didn't, missed out on a great day. Hopefully
Dan will be able to get some of his photos online in the next few days as
there are likely some very good and humorous shots of us.
Plattekill is the MRG of the south. Highly recommend it.
-Scott
after seeing Dan's (telenaut) post. It ended up being Dan Barron
(telenaut), Rich Weir, and his nephew John. 14" of fresh snow since they
last ran the lifts (Sunday) and all trails open was hard to turn
down...especially since tickets were $10. $10 for a day of powder skiing
with MAYBE 50 people riding the lifts which decreased after lunch time to
what seemed like only a handful. They advertised $10 lift tickets for the
first 100 skiers...they never made it to 100 skiers. This is what the
parking lot looked like at 930am:
18 or 20 cars, maybe.
View from the lodge:
It isn't a big ski area in size, but it skis big. There is an incredible
mountain bike network and local fire prevention work that provides some
absolutely amazing tree lines. There are wide open spaces between every
trail and we didn't come close to tracking them all out. The Catskills
have been getting some good snow, too. It snowed all day and only
accumulated a dusting, but there was some serious snow from the last
storm. The scenery was beautiful, classic Catskill look.
The base lodge of this place is classic...its an old building with a bar
up top (I would've joined Rich and John for a reeb but I'm 72hrs shy of
being able to) and wood tables, etc. Picnic tables outside and a perfect
deck for spring skiing except it was snowed in this go around.
From left to right: Dan, Rich, John
The four of us skied some awesome tree runs after several powder runs on
the cut trails...and I'm not talking 8:30 in the morning but like 11am we
were still skiing wide open runs with plenty of fresh turns. It was like
catskiing...but with a lift and for only $10.
A few video clips on the trails:
John in the powder... http://www.uvm.edu/~sbraaten/Plattekill ... Powder.MOV
Telenaut in the powder... http://www.uvm.edu/~sbraaten/Plattekill ... Powder.MOV
Then we moved into the trees in the afternoon:
Rich standing above some very nice lines that are not on the trail map:
Telenaut and Rich video clip: http://www.uvm.edu/~sbraaten/Plattekill ... 20Rich.MOV
We also found some nice drops and even soft, pillow-like lines that
included occasional two to six foot drops with soft landings. Fun stuff.
I think Dan's got a good picture of a launch but here's a shot looking up:
At 3pm we decided to drop into a shot we had been looking at all day.
Here's Rich, Dan, and John dropping into a boot deep, wide open, untracked
shot:
http://www.uvm.edu/~sbraaten/Plattekill ... Powder.MOV (video)
I then followed and Dan took a few pictures on his digital camera of me
absolutely eating bark. No one except those who were there will know how
close I came to meeting face to face with a very large tree. I did take a
fair amount of bark off it and ejected from both skis but dodged it to the
right, landing in some very soft powder. A large diameter tree would've
been quite different.
Late in the day the legs got tired, but when 3:30pm rolls around and
trails still look like this, you know its a great day:
After that run, Dan and I found an especially nice tree shot that would
give any Vermont resort a run for it's money. Here are my tracks; Dan's
tracks are to the lookers left of mine but I don't think you can see them:
Honestly, look at that photo again and factor in that this is between 3
and 4pm and completely untracked. Then, look at it and really think about
how wide open the trees are at Plattekill. It is ridiculous; that line
isn't on the map like all the lines at this little area that rocks. There
is only 14" of snow on the ground...probably 4" with an unbreakable crust
covering everything and then 10" on top, and it is still this wide open.
Really consider this place the next time it snows in the southern portions
of the northeast. It might be worth the stop on your way to Vermont or
areas further north.
All in all, I hope the pictures and videos show at least a fraction of how
great the day was...top 5 of the season for me easily; probably top 3.
Great company, great powder, untracked all day long, and fun exploration
all for $10. It was great to see Dan again (only met him once during a
skivt-l party two years ago) as well as meet Rich and John. Quite the
pleasure and makes an amazing day like even better to share it with other
like-minded souls. John kept up all day long even though he was on skinny
rental skis. He was a great skier and really nice guy; I'm sorry my
Bandit XX's didn't fit.
Anyone who could've come but didn't, missed out on a great day. Hopefully
Dan will be able to get some of his photos online in the next few days as
there are likely some very good and humorous shots of us.
Plattekill is the MRG of the south. Highly recommend it.
-Scott
