Albert Neubert
MID-HUDSON VALLEY- The good times continued for skiers and snowboarders as the Northeast has seen snowfall after snowfall along with consistent cold temperatures. Last Friday night and Saturday morning, Winter Storm Ricardo paid a visit and dumped up to eight inches on more northerly ski area summits. Once again, southerly ski areas like Mount Peter in Warwick, Thunder Ridge in Patterson and the Victor Constant ski slopes at West Point, were on the warm side of the storm and just got rain. Then Winter Storm Sage evolved into a Bomb Cyclone on Monday evening into Wednesday with the heaviest snowfall of the season.
As with virtually every storm this season, latitude and altitude was the difference between very large snowfall totals versus minimal slushy accumulations or just plain rain. The Catskills and southern Berkshires were in the bullseye of Sage where totals reached upwards of 18 inches. The further north and west you went, the less the snowfall amount were as the storm veered mainly east and along the coast of New England. The more southerly Adirondack mountains of New York along with the southern third of Vermont got a big dump from Sage as did most of the New Hampshire and the mountains of Maine.
I keep track of the Mount Mansfield, Vermont, snow stake levels and the stake was at 62 inches a week ago and was only five inches below its long run average so the early season dearth of snow has been made up in the second half of the winter. Stowe is on a shoulder of Mount Mansfield and has seen over 200 inches of snow this season.
Meanwhile, the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California have been blasted by insane
amounts of snow. The weather pattern doesn’t look like it will change for at least another week or more meaning they could pick up five to ten, or more, feet of snow on top of the 600 inches
that they’ve already received. Getting to the ski resorts has been a challenge and then, once
there, getting out might be impossible. It’s been so bad that ski areas have had to close for days
because of blizzard conditions and having their lifts buried.
The U.S. Collegiate Ski & Snowboard Championships were scheduled for March 6-11 at
Mammoth Mountain but the extreme weather caused postponements and cancellations of many
of the races. I got a text message from Bob McIntee on Saturday that said the West Point ski
team was greeted by two feet of snow on their arrival at the venue on March 5. This caused races
to be pushed back a day so the courses could be prepped, but when they were ready, it started
snowing again. They had a good day of training last Tuesday but on Wednesday, blizzard
conditions cancelled races. Races were finally held on Thursday morning but they were cut to
one run for each event instead of the usual two runs.
The West Point men’s team finished tenth overall, while the women came in at 19th . That’s
a very respectable showing considering they have had virtually no on snow training this season
because of the lack of snow at the Victor Constant ski slopes at West Point. The Cadet’s top
male skier, James Lahrman, finished 15th overall while on the women’s side, Annesley Black,
placed 20th. Coach McIntee told me the bad news is that the team was stuck at Mammoth as of
the 11th with no end in sight to the massive storms that are pounding the region.
I decided to take advantage of the good conditions to go to my backyard ski area, Hunter,
on Friday. Hunter is only 25 minutes from my home in Woodstock so I can pop in for a couple
of hours and get in a good workout. The weather was ideal on Friday with temps in the upper
30s, no wind and bluebird skies. With the excellent conditions came a solid turnout, not
surprising given the way this season has gone.
When that happens, I get an allergic reaction to the lift lines on the Kaatskill Flyer six
pack to the summit and I head on over to the Northern Express on the north facing side of the
resort. When you get into March the sun is higher in the ski and really melts snow fast so going
to slopes that face away from the sun means firmer surfaces, which is exactly what I
encountered. There are always less people on that side of the trail network and I was able to do
laps on corduroy groomed trails for about two hours. There were no icy patches and the snow on the Overlook trail was deep enough to last well into April.
Hunter is Vail Resorts ski area and featured on the Epic and Epic Locals pass which just
went on sale for next season. Vail owns a dozen major ski areas in the Northeast so you can
choose a pass that provide limited or unlimited access to those resorts plus Vail’s Midwestern
and Western resorts. The Epic Local pass is priced at $676 for adults with the limitation being
no access during holiday periods, which might not be a bad thing.
The unlimited pass equivalent is $909 so can have the privilege of accessing Vail’s
resorts during the holidays, also the busiest times. The Epic Local pass is actually a relative
bargain given a day ticket at the typical Vail resort is well over $100 and that’s if you can even
get a day ticket with limited supplies to cut down on overcrowding. There are another “zillion”
or so Epic Pass versions available and I encourage you peruse the best option for you by going to
their website at www.epicpass.com
On Sunday, I drove the extra 15 minutes past Hunter to ski one of my favorite Catskill
resorts, Windham. I went for the last two hours of the session which is when most of the day
crowd has left or is winding down. I never waited for a chair and conditions were still stellar
with all the recent snowfalls. Each roundtrip ride, the slopes got less crowded until the last hour
when I pretty much had the slopes to myself. Temps were a very comfortable 40 with plenty of sun and with the changing of the clocks to move an hour ahead, it was almost like skiing mid-
day in the heart of winter. Windham’s coverage is outstanding on major trails and an April
closing is a good bet at the resort.
How about an endless winter, and happy skiing and riding!
You can contact me at asneubert@aol.com or you can visit my Instagram page at asneubert
Please see the photo gallery below of pictures of the conditions at Hunter this past Friday and Windham this past Sunday.
