Catskills hills?

A family member recently bought a little cabin in the Catskills, near
the Ashokan reservoir. So naturally, I'm going to have to impose on
them this winter. Can anybody familiar with the area clue me in on
the closest hills (with a preference for advanced terrain)?

bdubya wrote:
A family member recently bought a little cabin in the Catskills, near
the Ashokan reservoir. So naturally, I'm going to have to impose on
them this winter. Can anybody familiar with the area clue me in on
the closest hills (with a preference for advanced terrain)?


Hunter and Windham.

Hunter has more advanced terrain than Windham, but also tends to be more
of a zoo (not to imply that Windham isn't), especially on
weekends/holidays. Both can be really nice midweek.

Janet

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

bdubya wrote in
:

A family member recently bought a little cabin in the Catskills, near
the Ashokan reservoir. So naturally, I'm going to have to impose on
them this winter. Can anybody familiar with the area clue me in on
the closest hills (with a preference for advanced terrain)?


I find goski.com to be a good reference for what's where. In the
Catskills you've got...

Belleayre Mountain
Bobcat
Catamount
Holiday Mountain
Hunter Mountain
Mt. Peter
Scotch Valley
Ski Plattekill
Ski Windham
Sterling Forest


Never been to any of them but if you believe the reviews
Plattekill seems to have decent vertical and expert terrain.

Does anyone know if Scotch Valley will open this year?

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.5 (MingW32) - GPGshell v3.23

iD8DBQFBkioN/vx0fg0vXwERAvu1AKDHSg7jNfVojlLvsfdeYCL2EDRCHACeMj1 Y
c4gzzKHC8Ppm7K0OW0mH+M8=
=URaj
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Bobcat's been closed for a few years. Same for Scotch Valley. I don't
think Sterling Forest is open either. Catamount and Mt Peter aren't in
the Catskills (Catamount is actually in Mass.) and Holiday Valley
really isn't either though they claim to be.

Belleayre, Hunter, Windham and Plattekill are the only real options in
the Catskills. Hunter and Plattekill have the most challenging terrain.

Platekill is by far the best in good snow years. They don't have a lot
of snowmaking, so if there isn't a good base you should go elsewhere,but
if there is snow Plattekill can't be beat. It's sort of the Mad River
Glen of the Catskills. Uncrowded and rustic with all kinds of trails not
on the map, that only the locals know. You can find them by following
ski tracks into the woods. The lodge is bare bones and the food stinks
(bring your own), but as far as skiing, its great. They only groom some
of the mountain, so the day after a dump of snow, you can be skiing
untracked powder into the early afternoon. Platekill is only open
Fri-Sun and on "Powder Daize" (any time it snows more than 12").

Hunter has some good steeps and bumps, but it can be a madhouse with the
Long Island masses swarming the slopes every weekend. They have a great
snowmaking system, but its all scraped off by 11 am and you're skiing
blue ice from then on. If you're a bump skier you have to contend with a
clueless Long Islanders laying in the rut between nearly every bump. Its
absolutely insane there on weekends. Not so bad during the week.

Belleayre is another relatively uncrowded area. Its an unpretentious
place where the focus is on skiing. Not much in the way of bumps...maybe
a few short sections of a few trails and thats it. It has some nice
cruising runs, but they are kind of short and mostly the same. When the
snow is deep they do have free snowcat skiing that brings you to some
pretty good terrain. If you hate crowds and there isn't enough snow for
Plattekill, then Belleayre is a good choice.

Windham is sort of a cross between Belleayre and Hunter, taking the
worst of each. It has Hunter's crowds and Belleayre's relatively tame
terrain.



Chuck wrote:
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

bdubya wrote in
:


A family member recently bought a little cabin in the Catskills, near
the Ashokan reservoir. So naturally, I'm going to have to impose on
them this winter. Can anybody familiar with the area clue me in on
the closest hills (with a preference for advanced terrain)?



I find goski.com to be a good reference for what's where. In the
Catskills you've got...

Belleayre Mountain
Bobcat
Catamount
Holiday Mountain
Hunter Mountain
Mt. Peter
Scotch Valley
Ski Plattekill
Ski Windham
Sterling Forest


Never been to any of them but if you believe the reviews
Plattekill seems to have decent vertical and expert terrain.

Does anyone know if Scotch Valley will open this year?

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.5 (MingW32) - GPGshell v3.23

iD8DBQFBkioN/vx0fg0vXwERAvu1AKDHSg7jNfVojlLvsfdeYCL2EDRCHACeMj1 Y
c4gzzKHC8Ppm7K0OW0mH+M8=
=URaj
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----