Hunter skiing Jan 10

Hi All,

What a dark dreary day. Flat light dominated the skiing but fortunately the grooming was great and everything was consistently flat. Surface conditions also were very consistent - powder mixed with granular on top of a hard frozen granular. Racer's was opened (ungroomed) with a few huge powdery mounds on the first lip and very thin coverage near the bottom. No snow was made last night. The temps ranged from upper 20's to 36 now but as mentioned above, very cloudy. There was a wind at the top out of the west with a few passing flurries. The weather looks ugly for the end of the week: http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?CityName=Hunter&state=NY&site=ALY&lat=42.2112&lon=-74.2157

Ski ya,

Jon

Hunter skiing Jan 9

Hello Hunter fans,

The season is becoming one of thaw & freeze cycles. Sat was the thaw and Sun the freeze again. The temps dropped down to 15 last night and the snow guns were blazing in recovery mode resulting in some pretty sweet skiing today. The sun came out around 9:30 and stayed out all day as temps climbed from 25 at opening to a high of 38 with no wind. There were mounds of dry powder on most main trails and those that were not groomed were better than those that were. Racer's still does not have enough coverage at the base to open - Bruce, what's up with that? The main line was creamy powder as was Ike. Cliff was hard and fast as was the top of Belt & Wayout. Claire's looked like a flat sheet of frozen granular. Eside was very funky with mounds of wet frozen snow (wet guns) mixed with mounds of powder - not fun! Minya and Lowercross were very nice as was Gunhill. Localmotion race # 1 is today with the post race party at Slopes (now Creekside). There were no crowds at all - ski right onto the chair. As usual for weekdays, no F or D lift. The trend for the week is warmer with rain on Thurs (another thaw) and very cold (the freeze) for the MLK weekend.

Ski ya, http://hunterskiscene.blogspot.com/

Jon

Detailed Local Forecast

• Today: Sunny. Temps nearly steady in the low to mid 30s. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
• Tonight: Cloudy skies this evening. A few snow showers developing late. Low 23F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 30%.
• Tomorrow: Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 37F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph.
• Tomorrow night: Clear skies. Low 21F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
• Wednesday: Partly cloudy. Highs in the upper 30s and lows in the upper 20s.
• Thursday: Rain. Highs in the upper 30s and lows in the mid 20s.
• Friday: Plenty of sun. Highs in the upper 20s and lows in the low teens.

Hunter skiing Jan 5

Hi All -

Miss the reports? It hasn't been worth skiing for me until now due to large crowds and poor survival type conditions. Enjoyable winter skiing started today! The mtn made oodles of nice snow and the grooming was extensive. Kudos to Skip and Bruce - well done guys! Skiing today was very consistent and powdery with few marbles or ice. It is college week so lots of kids but no line was longer than a minute. The Flyer and Zephyr were running fine (4 minutes to the top on the west side now - sweet!) D and F were closed. Claire's opened with huge powder covered mounds of snow and was more like an obstacle course. Wayout was perfect but could only be reached via the Belt (no White Cloud yet). Cliff /Ike was ungroomed and full of moguls but had decent snow. The HBK main line was great easy ego type skiing. Eside & Minya both groomed and flat but a bit harder surface. Milkey was open but ungroomed and looked ugly. Lower Cross was fine (no snow yet on Upper Cross or Lower K). Upper K was closed too. Gunhill was not groomed. Huega / Dropoff was very nice but dark. Racer's had some snow making but not enough to open it. They were making snow on the cut thru behind the top of B lift so that option should be open tomorrow. The weather started out dark, low 20's with light lake effect flurries but the sun was out by 9:30. It has clouded up again now with temps currently at 31. Snow making should resume later this pm and Friday is shaping up to be another very nice day tho a bit warmer. The weekend looks to be too warm to make alot of snow.

Madison was closed for NASTAR racing and the first Localmotion race is on Monday.

Movies link: http://www.catskillmtn.org/retail/movie-theater/index.html

Ski ya soon,

Jon http://hunterskiscene.blogspot.com/

Detailed Local Forecast

• Today: Sun and clouds mixed. High 29F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph.
• Tonight: Clear to partly cloudy. Low 18F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.
• Tomorrow: Partly cloudy skies. High 39F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph.
• Tomorrow night: Partly cloudy in the evening with more clouds for later at night. Low 26F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.
• Saturday: Times of sun and clouds. Highs in the low 40s and lows in the mid 20s.
• Sunday: Times of sun and clouds. Highs in the low 30s and lows in the low 20s.
• Monday: Clouds giving way to sun . Highs in the mid 30s and lows in the low 20s.

Hunter skiing 12/22

Well folks, the first full day of winter is anything but.

Yesterday's and last night's rain and warm temps, 50 overnight, took its toll on the mtn. If you like damp cold & dark (no sun) spring skiing then today is for you - not for me - currently 45 with some passing showers. Surface conditions I am told are very soft and forgiving but the terrain is much narrower. See attached photo. On the bright side we are expecting 2 - 5 " of snow tonight per below snow chart from WNYT, Albany. Colder weather is forecast for the weekend.

On a sad note, the old Mountain Brook Restaurant finally succumbed to the ravages of Irene in spite of attempts to save it and was being demolished yesterday and today - see photos.

Movies: http://www.catskillmtn.org/retail/farm-market-cafe/index.html

Pray for snow,

Jon

Detailed Local Forecast

• Today: Sun and clouds mixed. High near 45F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.
• Tonight: Rain showers this evening changing to mixed rain and snow overnight. Low 29F. Winds light and variable. Chance of precip 90%. Snow accumulating 1 to 3 inches.
• Tomorrow: Snow during the morning will give way to mostly cloudy conditions during the afternoon. High 36F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 70%. Snowfall around one inch.
• Tomorrow night: Partly cloudy skies. Low near 20F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph.
• Saturday: Partly cloudy. Highs in the low 30s and lows in the upper teens.
• Sunday: Mix of sun and clouds. Highs in the mid 30s and lows in the mid 20s.
• Monday: Mix of sun and clouds. Highs in the low 30s and lows in the upper teens.

Hunter Skiing 12/ 20

Hi All and Happy Hanukah for those who celebrate it.

The morning was not nearly as good as I had predicted yesterday. The high temps of 45 yesterday pm softened the snow and then it dropped to 29 overnight freezing everything. There was no snow making and it was a damp cold this am with limited sun but no wind. There wasn't much the groomers could do with it except make frozen corduroy or marbles, both of which dominated and limited morning skiing. The temp now is only 35 but the sun is coming out so with enough traffic on the slopes the pm should be okay. There was no grooming on Cliff (closed), Ike (closed) or Minya (open but frozen whale humps). Eside was groomed but frozen flat into LowerCross which was all marbles followed by Madison (only way down) which was also all marbles. Cruising past B lift was narrow, frozen and flat. The terrain park was closed.The west had not opened by the time I quit. I did not ski the Belt. The Flyer was running great with no lines. The base for the most part is thin and there are brown patches exposed in many areas subject to windy conditions. The weather is not looking good for tomorrow or near future snow making. Winter officially begins on the 22nd but no one told the snow gods - oh well - it's 5:00 somewhere!

Hoping for better conditions,

Jon

• Today: Sunshine and clouds mixed. Temps nearly steady in the low to mid 30s. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
• Tonight: Mostly cloudy skies this evening. A few snow showers developing late. Low 23F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 30%.
• Tomorrow: Cloudy with rain and snow showers in the morning changing to all rain in the afternoon. High 42F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
• Tomorrow night: A steady rain early...then remaining cloudy with a few showers. Thunder possible. Low 36F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.
• Thursday: More clouds than sun. Highs in the low 40s and lows in the upper 20s.
• Friday: Morning clouds followed by afternoon sun. Highs in the mid 30s and lows in the mid 20s.
• Saturday: More clouds than sun. Highs in the mid 30s and lows in the low 20s.

Hunter skiing Dec 19

Hi All,

Finally a day worth going out for the first time.

The good news: snow was made on HBK, Cliff, Wayout, Minya, LowerCross, Ike & Belt - the bad news: only HBK and Belt were open for the morning. Why? I'll tell ya - the temps went crazy last night from 11 to 28 and now 46 and most of the newly coated trails were frozen solid - not groomed - with visible humps, ruts and porcelain. Wayout was groomed (it looked very frozen) but due to very high winds the west side lift could not be opened this am. HBK was however very nice and the few slick spots were easily visible with the brilliant sun. The Belt was very windy and dark for at least the first 1/3 but the surface conditions were quite nice. The Flyer ran well but one was greeted with a wicked wind out of the west at the top. There were no crowds at all and one could ski right onto the lift. No snow can be made with these temps so with good grooming tonight and a softening of the surface, tomorrow could be the best day of the week based on weather forecasts of rain for Late Tues into Wed.

Be skiing ya,

Jon

• Today: Partly cloudy. Temps nearly steady in the mid 30s. Winds SSW at 15 to 25 mph.
• Tonight: A few snow showers around this evening, otherwise mostly cloudy. Low 24F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 30%.
• Tomorrow: Partly cloudy skies. High near 30F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph.
• Tomorrow night: Cloudy skies with a few snow showers later at night. Low 24F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 30%.
• Wednesday: Rain mixed with snow. Highs in the low 40s and lows in the mid 30s.
• Thursday: Considerable cloudiness. Highs in the low 40s and lows in the upper 20s.
• Friday: Mix of rain and snow showers. Highs in the mid 30s and lows in the mid 20s.

Hunter - Sat opening

Following just posted by Hunter:

We will be opening on Saturday!

At this point it is looking like we will use the Kaatskill Flyer to up/download for F-Lift, so we will at the very least be open mid- to summit. If we get some really good temps and make a lot of snow, we will obviously open top to bottom. We will do whatever Mother Nature allows, so things may change between now and Saturday in terms of open terrain. We are *hoping* to have Hellgate-Broadway-Kennedy (otherwise known as HBK or Mainline) top-to-bottom open for Sunday, and the nighttime temps look good.