This storm should possibly open up a few local venues. Bellearye summit ridge had about a six inch base well away from the ski area on Friday. Should we add a foot or more, that should open up ........... and ............ and don't forget ........... or even .............
Let the fun begin.

Keep us posted! the second the cats. are BCable I'll leave the city and .................
were getting dumped on right now, which makes for some good local XC skiing. However I cant wait to................

Unfortunately, current weather prognositcations call for above normal temps and rain come the weekend, followed by hard freeze. Great for those doing the vertical ice dance. Get it while we can.

After nearly three hours of snow clearing at home, I finally hit the road. To late for anything too far north, so I headed up to Aumick Rd/Awosting Reserve. Unfortunately, the PA is not plowed as of 11am this morning. Probably good I did not head up.
Ended up at the Trapps. Breaking trail around the Trapps though with a team of others, was arduous. Never remembered it being this tough. Probably would have died doing it by myself.

Went to Windham on Monday (1 day after the storm), it was windy, but good dry deep powder (it was only my second time there, so I didn't venture into any trees - didn't see any open woods that could be skied). On Wednesday (3 days after the storm), went to Hunter - conditions still good though snow got heavier. Tree skiing is excellent, you still occasionally scratch the bottom, but it's nice and fluffy in the trees. Belleayre woods are probably going to be excellent this weekend. I'm, however, staying away from downhill this weekend - school is out and it's a bit of a mob scene out there...

were is there tree skiing at hunter mtn.?

Franky, Hunter has lots of trees, tens of thousands of them.LOL
On the other hand the commercial ski area only allows tree skiing on a very small portion of the mountain. "The MIlky Glade" off of "Milky Way" may be the only formal glade skiing at Hunter.

A hardcore Hunter devotee would propose that there is certainly some fine tree skiing side country at Hunter. But, be cautious, Hunter has a strong rep for cutting tickets of those caught poaching the king's lumber.

Now for the real Hunter experience, use nearly any other state foot trail to the summit or adjacent ridges and you'll have lots of glades, single track foot trails, an old jeep road, steeps, gullys etc.

I've no idea how good conditions are at the moment, probably hard and crusty off the groom.

Trees at Bellearye were just coming in to shape though only two of their formal glades were "open" last Friday before the big rains. Snow totals throughout the Catskills were spotty at best.

Skied at Bellearye today. They did get the advertised snow fall's 7 inches or so. Very little wind, so it just filled in all day. However, if the woods along the groom are any indication, the Catskill BC is not yet ready. I bottomed out a number of times riding the berm and some side country. Staying on the groom was a dream even with only the aforementioned 7 inches daily total on top of the snow from the last few days.

Went to Lost City today (Snow Day!!!!) after sleeping in.
About 7 inches of new fluff with little base left over. Big boards keep you floating unless you make a hard turn. Needs another storm to really come in.
Lost City Glades (Video)

Chris, 2011! Thanks for sharing.

I made a few to many of those "hard" turns yesterday. I'd be two or three turns into the trees and realize the absence of any base, then remember to ski flat. P-Tex required.

Thanks, cfrac, et al. Nothing says wildly happy like when your dog(s) is/are running through the snow.

Catskill BC update. FM and I skied Tremper today from the Phonecia side. The PA is plowed. Coverage is not as good as expected. Though the Catskill ski resorts are boasting 8 inches or more per day of natural over the past few days, plus the "18" from the Wednesday storm, very little of that made it to Tremper's north side. Eight inches total if lucky with a few deeper drifts. Wind scouring has taken place from both the southerly and northerly winds since the storm. This trail needs every inch of snow to fill in the trail which is rather like a narrow talus slope at times from all the rocks. We dodged said rocks and such all the way down. There is currently a snow shoe/ski track to the top offering three miles of travel up with 2000 ft of elevation loss on the return. Another foot of snow would go along way towards opening up this otherwise great ski run. Odds are strong that trails further north offer better coverage from the lake effect squalls that have been hitting over the past few days. Enjoy, RC

rickster, thanks for info, like to ride tremper soon..

its not the gunks, but locally this winter has been so decent haven't had to travel to hike and ride.. here's a quick clip from late friday night's "strapless" powder surf session, other places around here have held more snow, but this place has a nice pitch...
http://vimeo.com/18879790

From Tuesday 2/1 with Rickster...

Near Trapps Slabs & Shongum Path Video

That video is a treat! Lovely conditions and it great to see elegant tele turns like y'all made.

that looks sweeeeeeeeeeeet!!!!!
were exactly is the trapps slab? and shongum path?

On the back side of the Near Trapps, just South of the Steel Bridge there are some low angled slabs. Shongum path is a bit East of the West Trapps Parking Lot. Right now you can ski just about anywhere the coverage is so good.

Good stuff, Chris and Rick! I think there are some slabs on the back side of the Trapps too, bonus you can skin in on a packed Overcliff trail, not suitable for traveling with a dog though...

Are you guys hitting any rocks/branches at all or it's all covered?

Also, I've seen old posters of a ski area in Minnewaska. Anyone know where it was? Was it lift-served or just x-country? From posters looked like it was lift-served.

Hey Welle!
Coverage is outstanding right now, you don't have to worry about hitting anything. However the snow in our yard now has a crust on it. I'm not sure if the North Facing slopes stayed soft.

If anyone ventures out a report would be appreciated!

Welle, The defunct downhill area, Ski Minne is the Peterskill climbing venue. The current visitor center and parking lot was the site of the "lodge"( now gone). The old lift served trails are a little grown over but exit the parking area to the west and head down right to creekside.

The longer and steeper slabs off the north end of Overcliff Rd would be very good with the base we have now. There is some blowdown out there but you've a longer approach along the groomed carriage road. You've the old Minnewaska Trail Carriage Rd a hundred yards downhill. This is a nice return run to Coxing or up to the groomed Laurel Ledge CR.

Current off trail conditions are suffering under this sleet layer has set up into a variable crust, and more sleet and mixed precipt is expected tomorrow.

With two months of winter left, we're sure to get more pow conditions, and then they'll be all that base turning to spring corn.

Thanks for replies, Cfrac and Rickster.

Now that I think of it, there are some great steep slabs to the west of the parking area in Peterskill down to the falls, I bet it would be a great ski run.

I'm hitting Belle tomorrow, hoping the woods are in good shape.

Nice touch with the couple of bloopers at the end.

Welle, Belle was near stellar today. The very few freshies they got since the sleet covered a nicely groomed surface. The corduroy was really nice. The trees and bumps on the other hand, difficult. There appeared to be lots of traffic in those areas, but what laid beneath that skim of powder were frozen ruts, tracks, craters, sitz marks, etc. So, after a few token shots at the glade trails, we bagged that and played the groomers.

I'm afraid unless you ski some very wide fatties, or weigh less than a haul bag, the crust now covering the off trail snowpack is just so wrong for any safe BC skiing. Tomorrow's weather may help alot in covering his crust, or.... either way, enjoy.

Regarding the bloopers, just honest journalism. They were far funnier when they happened.

Belle was fun yesterday - the abovetold crust nicely softened by mid-morning and all trees and bumps were soft and fun all day. The cliffed trail under the Tomahawk chair had a really good coverage. Got soaking wet in the afternoon and the visibility got close to nill, but the snow was great and Belle's moguls are the most uniform and consistent bumps I've seen in Catskills. The only drawback to the day was that my friend lost his car key somewhere in the snow, so we had to take a bus back to NYC.

Welle, that sucks about the lost key!
We had possibly the worst conditions I have ever skied yesterday. We thought that the afternoon sun would warm up the slopes at Beacon...but it didn't. We skinned up to the fire tower, which was really nice, but the ride down was terrible, mostly breakable crust and fast. Jen eventually put on her skins. I just kept crashing. It's a great trail though with plenty of open woods, hope we can make it back once things soften up for real.

From the firetower...

Went to Mt Graylock two weekends ago before the rain - super classic bc skiing. I did the Thunderbolt trail, 2 mile skin up on packed powder with about 3 inches of powder on top. Highly recommended. There is a website with history and directions.

I skinned up onto the roof yesterday, cut the cornice, tossed an M80, got out my old Chouinard Northwall Hammers and cleared the load before it avamalanched onto the dogs, the wife or me. The crust here at my house is now strong enough, the deer herd is now walking effortlessly on top.

When I took my avy course, I forget the exact statistics, but I was told that the disproportional majority of all avalanches are actually roof slides.

Cfrac, thanks for the tip on Beacon - will check it out later. Good news is my friend found a spare key and got his car and my board back from Belleayre!

Off to Slide Mtn today. I haven't been on Slide in a long number of years. The Red Trail (off of the main Yellow Trail) has grown in considerably up high, gotten narrow as a result. The glades on skier's left below the hairpin turn offer about a mile of fine glade shots alway down that aspect to the Yellow Trail. Take a right turn and follow to the car or drop off the trail on skier's left, and bearing right and down you'll come back to the PA making more than two thirds of the return a series of glades. With more flurries tomorrow, they'll be good freshies over solid base. Get it while you can before the big thaw.

so how is the thaw affecting the cats? is it as bad as down here in the city? is there any thing to talk about for BC skiing this weekend? how about the resorts?

i skied up hunter mtn. via the spruceton trail monday morning. with the 5+ inches of freshies it was an awesome ski up and down.best part of the day is that i was solo! the parking lot was not plowed yet, just wondering what to expect in general in terms of trail head pa's being plowed after new snow?

Franky, you can expect trail head parking areas to be plowed as readily as the roads leading to them. However, we've occasionally arrived to find a lot unplowed or choked at the street entry. So, I carry two shovels in the car for just such an occasion.

This coming rain event doesn't bode well for skiing anywhere in the region this weekend. We'll have to wait and see how it turns out.

That five inches did a good enough job of reopening the BC after last week's rain. But, we're going to need much more than that to save the season. RC

after two ideal days at tuxedo ridge, monday and tuesday, wenesday decided to hike somewhere and link a few turns..found a 'gas line' swath thru the woods that was amazing..rode a powdersurfboard the whole time and experiment with riding in and out of the fall line (no bindings, or boots, hike and surf when the line presents itself)...not sure how legal it is to hike the buried gasline but it was incredible conditions...i even spy'd a very steep and long section from a chairlift...40 yards wide no trees, and straight down..anyone else skiied this area? I did see one set of xc tracks..kev (struggling to post a pic)

two photos and
short video clip here


decembersnowskates

Nice! Not sure what you are getting up there but we just had a serious front move through with lots of precip but 55 degrees. It might be done, eh?

...thanks... Fingers are crossed for a couple more storms

Just read these old threads. 2010-11 was the year of the crust! Hoping for better local skiing next winter. But I hope everyone has their loppers ready for the summer!

is this snow in the cats any thing worth playing with? or is it just slush, im edging to get on my skis!!!?

The snow was actually powder at Belleayre, but the grass was so long we were getting really bogged down. They had about 1.5 feet. It was worth it, especially for the pup!

A bit of video:
Belleayre video on youtube