Skiing Belleayre

2011 December 27 and 28 at Belleayre: IT IS SNOWING! (finally)

2011-12-28T16:38:00.002-05:00

Have been lapping Onteora and Wanatuska a lot for the past few days. The skiing is good, for what little terrain there is to be had. On Tuesday, coverage on top of Onteora was getting thin, and I took some Ptex off my ski when that white granite looked a lot like snow in the flat light before the rain started.

I patched my base while it rained outside until about 9 PM on Tuesday night.

Today, Wednesday, it has been snowing since we woke up, and it is still snowing here in Margaretville. The mountain was getting some coverage over what it already had. They also started blowing snow about 11:30 today, finally. They opened Horseshoe Pass in the afternoon for race training.

Skied from 9 AM - 2PM.

Open today: Onondaga, Wanatuska, and Onteora from the top; about 200 yards of Mohawk in the middle. What had gotten icy-hard on Tuesday was softer and grippier today. By the end of the day, the blowing and the snowing put a few nice inches on top of everything. The rain did not mess things up, and the conditions improved as the day progressed. Not many people were there.

Warning: These photos make it look like there is a lot more snow than there actually is! there is little to none in the woods. The lower trails look covered in the second picture, but they are not. Light is like that: it amplifies the white stuff; especially in cell phone photos.

Ridge trail in the morning:

Onteora in the morning:

My daughter after race training under snow guns on Horseshoe Pass. You can see the guns blowing Roaring Brook in the background.

October Snowstorm

2011-10-31T07:00:00.001-04:00

This isn't me, but people were skiing at Belleayre yesterday, October 30, 2011! Coolest dog alive in the video. i bet they got some dings on the bottoms of those tele skis, though... Can't wait until opening day, November 12th!

Ten Dollars for You. No Ski Boots Here, Though!

2011-04-24T16:57:00.000-04:00

Here's $10 off at Shoebuy.com

Save on shoes, accessories, handbags and apparel at Shoebuy.com. We've got something for everyone and for a limited time, you can save $10 on that special something. Valid on purchase of $50 or more.

View >>

President's Day Weekend Begins

2011-02-17T23:02:00.000-05:00

I drove up to our Margaretville place tonight. What a nice drive on a Thursday night! Fewer people on the road allowed us to make it in about 2:40 including a fill-up stop.

The forecast for tomorrow is 50% chance of showers, and a high temperature of 51 degrees. Skiing spring conditions tomorrow, I guess. I won't mind a little rain if it is really that warm. We will sleep late and see how it goes.

Then, on Saturday the predicted high is only 28 degrees. Somebody say there might be ice on them thar slopes?... You betcha!

I Am The Mayor at Belleayre

2011-01-26T13:28:00.000-05:00

I have become slowly addicted to this stupid android app called foursquare. Users "check-in" and add tips or pictures at any location or venue they might be at. If a user has the most check-ins within some given time period, they become mayor of the venue. I have been bringing my phone to Belleayre lately, since the cell phone reception there seems to have improved. I started bringing it because I had to meet up with friends a few weekends ago and texting seemed the easiest way. So I started checking in at Belleayre, and last weekend I was awarded the position of Mayor of Belleayre!

Skiing Dot Nebel & Seneca at Belleayre on December 31, 2010

2011-01-01T00:59:00.000-05:00

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This was a beautiful day! Blue skies, a peak of about 50 degrees, and lots of snow. It felt like late March. But I hope we get snow tomorrow evening and not the predicted rain because there is a long season to go.

Skiing Dot Nebel at Belleayre on December 30, 2010

2010-12-30T23:07:00.000-05:00

Post "Blizzard" Skiing

2010-12-28T20:47:00.000-05:00

Belleayre didn't get quite the blizzard the NJ, NY, Boston metropolitan areas got. The storm hit harder to our south and east. But it did get a great hit to send this ski season into high natural snow numbers. The Belleayre web site claims the snow total this season to be at 43".

The "Powder Day" was Sunday. Unfortunately we did not get on snow until about 10 AM. That meant almost all the real powder fresh tracks were gone. It is tough to get an entire family excited about getting to the mountain early on a day where there is no race program with an early start time. This was a sleep late day, unfortunately coincidental with a day that we should have not caught an extra hour sleep time. So, what we were left with was a lot of heavy powder that was crudded up. It took a lot of work to ski at that point. It was really killing my quads and leaving me out of breath. It was fun and different, however, and not a liftline to be seen. So the day was great, and it got even better as the crud got packed down into little fun bumps that you could air-turn down the mountain. The place is almost 100% open now. My daughter even hiked out to do Cathedral Brook twice!

Today was a day where the groomed runs were hero snow. No bad turns to be had. We did some skiing in the woods, which was difficult because you could not see the stuff underneath and the skis would go down there and hit sticks and logs. I didn't like it. The snow needs to settle a little bit before the woods are good at Belleayre, since they don't clean them out at all. Today a log or something took my right ski off in the woods between Winnisook and Tongora. When I fell my right knee struck a log or something under the snow and it hurt pretty good. Still does a little.

And the lift lines are back. Hadn't seen any since last year. But snow in the lowlands brings out the less-frequent skiers. They were not that bad, I must admit. I only waited in a few for maybe a couple of minutes each time.

The weather remained windy, cold, overcast. It would be nice to see a bluebird day!

I had some negative things today. First, my son felt sick and only skied about half the morning. He spent the afternoon in the lodge with his eyes closed by the fireplace. Then, when we got back to the loft, his Xbox decided to do the Red Rings of Death thing. Finally, I found out why I was having difficulty seeing the bumps well today: I did permanent damage to the reflective stuff on my Scott goggles, because I was cleaning them with my glove instead of a soft cloth, I guess. I am going to try to send those back to Scott - you shouldn't be able to just rub off the reflective lens coating with your glove!

Catskills Powder Day

2010-12-27T17:56:00.000-05:00

Great day at Belleayre. About a foot of new snow there. Everything open. Missed first tracks, but it actually got better in the afternoon as the crudded-up fresh stuff got packed down. When the groomers hit it tonight there will be hero snow tomorrow. I predict lines at the lifts.

Speaking of lifts: Thank You to the lift operations crews who removed the rope barriers before the liftlines at Tomahawk and Supercheif! Previously this winter, they placed a single-entrance roped off barrier before the lifts as a system for checking tickets. That system was really stupid and dangerous.

I am getting old... This snow was giving me cardio challenges today. Health assessment: I jammed my thumb in a fall yesterday. It is swollen and the joints hurt when I bend them despite having iced it pretty much immediately. Today my right knee is feeling a little tweaked around the top of my kneecap from skiing a little too much in the backseat in the heavy new snow today. I hope it feels better tomorrow.

One to Two Feet of Snow!

2010-12-26T07:09:00.000-05:00

Revised Winter Storm Warning this morning!

Paste---->>>>

Issued by The National Weather Service
Albany, NY
5:36 am EST, Sun., Dec. 26, 2010
... WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 1 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 5 PM EST MONDAY...
A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 1 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 5 PM EST MONDAY.
* LOCATIONS: CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN CATSKILLS... MID HUDSON VALLEY... BERKSHIRES AND NORTHWEST CONNECTICUT.
* HAZARDS: HEAVY SNOW AND STRONG WINDS... BLOWING AND DRIFTING OF SNOW AND LOW VISIBILITY.
* ACCUMULATIONS: 1 TO 2 FEET OF SNOW.
* TIMING: SNOW WILL OVERSPREAD THE AREA DURING THE LATE MORNING AND EARLY AFTERNOON. THE SNOW WILL BECOME HEAVY BY EVENING. THE SNOW WILL TAPER OFF MONDAY MORNING.
* IMPACTS: EXTREMELY HAZARDOUS TRAVEL DUE TO SIGNIFICANT ACCUMULATIONS OF SNOW ON ROADS... AND STRONG WINDS CAUSING BLOWING AND DRIFTING OF SNOW. VISIBILITIES WILL BE NEAR ZERO AT TIMES... WITH WHITEOUT CONDITIONS POSSIBLE.
* WINDS: NORTHERLY WINDS OF 15 TO 25 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 40 MPH TONIGHT AND MONDAY... ESPECIALLY ACROSS THE HIGHER TERRAIN.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. STRONG WINDS ARE ALSO POSSIBLE. THIS WILL MAKE TRAVEL VERY HAZARDOUS OR IMPOSSIBLE.

Christmas 2010

2010-12-25T23:23:00.000-05:00

We are in our new place. ["We", by the way of this blog, refers to my family and I. My family being my wife, 17 year-old son, and 13 year-old daughter. But I digress...]

We drove up in the Pilot, which was crammed to its limit. We brought up about twice as much food as we did last year. And here we are in our new place, which is steps away from the food market in Margaretville. Our old place was 4 miles up the dairy farm route out of Fleishmanns.

This place is nice. It is a loft above the Galli-Curci Theater in Margaretville. I am looking out its big windows at the main street of Margaretville. It's almost 11 PM and it is light outfrom the store lights,and the Christmas lights. About three cars have gone by all day, since we got up here, so it is pretty deserted out there now. From the loft you can look in the cross-the-street neighbors' upstares apartments. This looks like a 1940's town from here. If there were a little more snow, you could swear you were on the set of It's a Wonderful Life. Wow, there goes a car; so now it is four.

So looking out the big windows, left to right, there is the Rock, Minerals & Jewelry place, a dive bar with a sign so faded I can't even tell what it says, some kind of maybe leather coat store (it's dark), Main Street Jewelers & Watch Clock Jewelry Repair, Coffee Bar/Sandwich Shop Cafe, and The Cheese Barrel.

When I came up here in late August to checkout out this place I ate lunch in the Sandwich Shop Cafe, and bought Wasabe nuts in the Cheese Barrel. It was Margaretville's street fair day. It was sunny and beautiful. I went for a trail run/hike. It was an impressive day on many counts: this place was impressive, the town was impressive, lunch was impressive, and the Giant Ledges run/hike was impressive. I guess that is what led me to go the full fare for renting this place straight through from today through the last weekend in February.

My daughter and I had one ski day so far, last Sunday at Belleayre. It was great because of the lack of crowds. I skied onto the lift every run and got my ski legs back by lunchtime. I was beat from the bumps. I was surprised that I was not in as good skiing shape as I had been last March. Actually, I was sort of worried, because in past years my running and cycling has brought me into ski season feeling much more fit for skiing than I felt last weekend.

There hasn't been any big hits of snow yet this winter up here. All the open terrain at Belleayre so far is from artificially blown snow. It usually isn't too crowded the day after Christmas Day up here. But I predict it will crowd up by Tuesday because there is a big dump coming starting tomorrow afternoon. Forecast is for 24 hours of snow totaling up to 18 inches in Central Jersey, ironically, but "7 inches or more" up here. I am hoping that means at least 10-12 inches on the mountain. Monday is going to be POWDER DAY!

I Freaking HATE NBC!

2010-02-21T20:16:00.000-05:00

NBC is the network that is preventing me from enjoying the alpine events in the Olympics

The coverage during prime time on NBC of all the Olympic alpine skiing events is an absolute disgrace to the entire genre of television sports coverage.

I am sitting here watching their coverage of Super Combined. Here is a list of the things that are absolutely ridiculous about the coverage - enough to make it laughable for anyone with half a brain.

First of all, the announcer off screen and on screen talk as if the event is actually happening now, when it was over some hours ago. Did they ever hear of the Internet?
They showed SEVEN men running the Downhill portion of the event. Last time I checked, there were about 40 guys in this event. This destroys the drama of waiting for a skier to come down and take an important finishing time.
The commentators are reading a SCRIPT! They are not responding to the event as it happens! They are armchair quarterbacking in hindsight. They sound so stupid! They even say, "We'll be back," going into commercials!
When Americans ski, they enhance the crowd cheering - they make it louder of add canned cheering to the soundtrack.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ... they just went to ice dancing! We see every second of these dancers in corny costumes dancing to corny country music!

...more later when skiing comes back on... I need a drink.

2010 Winter Olympics

2010-02-10T14:03:00.000-05:00

Belleayre on Saturday & Windham Slalom on Sunday (February 6 & 7, 2010)

2010-02-10T11:29:00.005-05:00

Belleayre Saturday

We started this weekend at Belleayre, the 13th day of my ski season. We drove two cars up to the ski house, because my wife and son did not want to go to Windham for the race on Sunday.

Belleayre on Saturday was a lot of fun. The snow was coverage was excellent, the bumps were soft and playful. Belleayre has been blowing snow like crazy. They blew a huge whale on upper Yahoo, to stockpile for March. They blew enough on lower Algonquin to make a mini-terrain park. They have even blown snow on Utsayantha, which is previously unheard of; Utsayantha has always been a natural-snow only kind of ski run. I heard they had to pull hoses through the woods to accomplish that. The snowmakers at Belleayre should be commended. The entire mountain should be commended for maintaining such great snow conditions despite the lack of one single snow dump all winter.

Even the woods have snow. Enough to poach new lines through unheard of glades. A lot of the snow is blow-over from snowmaking. My friends and I were exploring heretofore uncharted Belleayre woods. Of course there is the Yahoo glade, to the skiers right of Upper Yahoo. We had been skiing that one for a few weeks. We added runs through the woods below the Goat Trails between Upper Yahoo and Utsayantha, through the woods to skier's right off Peekamoose, and through the woods to skier's right off Dot Nebel, cutting off the Cayuga catwalk. That last one was dicey - skis took some dings over rocks that were covered by powdery snow.

We all had a fun day, and lines were minimal.

Windham Sunday

This was a long adventurous day. It was my 14th ski day this season. My daughter raced the J4 slalom race at Windham.

The adventure started on the drive on to Windham. I had never driven from our ski house in Halcott to Windham. So instead of taking the known way - out through Fleishmanns, taking Route 28 to 42 towards Hunter & Windham - I plugged in some Google Maps directions. It sent me an interesting way that had me thinking that I might learn some new area roads. The directions started:
1. Head south on Co Rd 3 toward Elk Creek Rd - 0.6 mi
2. Sharp left at Elk Creek Rd - 1.0 mi
3. Turn right at Townsand Hollow Rd - 1.8 mi
I was familiar with the turn onto Elk Creek Road. I had never taken it before, but I thought it would be cool to see where it went. It went to a dead end, right after the turn onto Townsand Hollow Road, thankfully. So there I was in the half light of 6:35 AM on Townsand Hollow Road, driving my front wheel drive Mazda3, going up hill on a dirt road. Well it wasn't all "dirt" - it was frozen dirt, and about 50% of its surface was ice over said dirt. Lucky thing the Mazda3 has all kinds of traction controls built in, and it was making it up the twisty parts as long as I applied increasing pressure on the accelerator pedal. I admit I was a little worried at this point, considering the timing to get to the race was tight, and it was just my daughter and I on this lonely road so early in the morning. Then I saw the sign. The sign said, "Seasonal Road, Minimal Winter Maintenance". Nice, thought I: On on. Then came the barricade and the deepest snow I had seen anywhere in the area, including on Belleayre Mountain, this weekend. There were tracks around and past the barricade, but without AWD I wasn't going to try it on this morning. So I turned around and headed back to the known route. I lost a total of about 10 minutes. Luckily the roads were dry and there was no traffic, so I was able to speed fairly safely. Too early for the cops, but watched out for the deer....

...Pulled into Windham at 7:20. That was amazing.

A weekend regular price ticket at Windham costs $65. Parent discount tickets were $45. Race registration fee was $35, coffee and muffin were $7, daughter's additional lunch chicken and fries were $8.50. Despite the "Windham is The New Aspen" logo on T-shirts there, this was a fairly normally priced ski day for el cheapo me.

The last time I skied Windham I hated it. It was this same race last year. The previous day at Belleayre had perfectly dry powder conditions. Last year, when we got to Windham it was mostly a few-inch thick covering of mostly ice with some pebbles embedded. It was windy and cold.

But Sunday was totally different. It was sunny and the snow conditions were good on the right side of the mountain. Not as good as Belleayre, a little harder and a little more icy, but the coverage was so much better than last year that I can't complain about that.

There are other things I can complain about, because they just don't suit my tastes. First of all there is the pretentious classical music piped into the entire lodge and outside on the patios and into the lower lift area. To me, that just does not smell like skiing. There is the fact that about 90% of the terrain was groomed to death. There was about a half of a quarter of a run with some bumps on the west side, and there was an entirely boilerplate set of bumps on "Wicked" on the left side, East Peak, which should be called Ice Peak.

And the lines at the main lift, The Whirlwind Express, do get long. The lessons line is always favored, and a lot of people ski in groups. We at Belleayre have been spoiled by the general lack of lines this winter; which is bad for business there, but great for us skiers.

Windham has some nice real estate off the side of the mountain, no doubt. The last thing that is only slightly annoying is the fact that they actually sell a t-shirt that says, "Windham - The New Aspen".

My daughter raced and had fun. She missed a gate on the first run after she had declared the course to be easy. So easy and icy that several skiers missed a gate. At lest her second run was a success and she finished with a big smile on her face. Slalom is a tough discipline, especially for the light kids. I often wonder about this ski racing thing. Ski racers spend thousands of dollars and spend hundreds of hours on training, yet there is only about a grand total of 10 to 15 minutes of time spent in a real race course all winter. And less is ironically best.

MLK Day Weekend

2010-01-19T22:32:00.001-05:00

Belleayre ski days #9 - #11 were the three days of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day weekend. This weekend brought the most skiers to Belleayre for a day this season, I am guessing. There were some lines to wait in on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. I was still able to get a lot of skiing in, and the conditions on Saturday and Sunday were stellar.

I had a goal on Saturday to ski and ride lifts for 35 miles, as measured by my Garmin 405. We had to be there for 8:30 AM GS training for my daughter, so I got an early start and I used my GS-like Atomic 9.22s 170's. By the time I stopped for lunch at 11:30, I had 20 miles done. Late morning I had to use the single line, and after lunch I soloed for a while to nail down the final 15 miles. The snow was light and there was no ice, so my legs were fairly good even at the end of the day. Here is the Garmin info. Thnis was both a distance and speed record for me, since wearing the Garmin while skiing. Max speed was 47.2. Click image below for the cool map of the entire day:

Sunday was the best day. Since I had a good long day on Saturday, I concentrated on skiing with my son and friends. I wore my 165 Dynastar 4800's with turned up tails. We played more in the bumps and the woods. I was credited with breaking the trail into the woods between Yahoo & Onteora. The Yahoo Glades? That isn't even on the map. The snow was great all day all over the mountain. In this Yahoo Glade the snow was deeper than it was in other glades, because a lot of snow was blown onto Yahoo this past week, and it looked like a lot of it went into those woods. This bumpy day beat my legs a little more, in combination with the distance I did on Saturday. I was lucky enough to spend an hour in Debbie's Jacuzzi on Sunday evening.

There were a few inches of sleet on Sunday night into early Monday morning. The sleet totally changed the snow conditions. It had been dry "hero snow". But on Monday the new snow was heavy and damp. Not quite spring conditions - more like crud after a couple of hours. It was knocking my light Atomic 9.22s's around. I was wishing for my heavy Atomic Metron mEX's. It was taking a lot of work to steer those through the glop and to stay stable. I was overdressed for that. When the sun came out for about an hour from 10:30-11:30. The sun was really feeling like spring skiing, and it was comfortable to have lunch outside on the deck, until the sun went behind a cloud around noon to remind us it was still January.

In the afternoon I was skiing some fast GS turns on Dot Nebel. With tired legs, the bumpy snow popped my left binding, and I found myself wiping out at high speed. The back of my head slammed into the snow (Thank you Giro helmet), and I "rag dolled" enough to have my right shin feel like it bruised on my boot. I felt fine, but was dismayed to taste blood in my throat when I got to the lift. I spit to see if it was red - it was. But I really felt fine, so the crash must have only shaken up my sinuses or something. More than a day later and I don't appear to have a concussion, but the left side of my neck has some stiff muscles. That was the second time those skis jettisoned my boot at an inopportune time. I tightened a half DIN already; maybe I should have them checked by a professional, since I remounted and have been adjusting those myself. I am not sure if I can continue to trust them. Or maybe I will just sell them where I got them: on eBay. They are Chris Seashore's skis, and I hope she wouldn't mind.

Photos and video soon.

Phenominal Weekends We Missed

2010-01-12T23:17:00.000-05:00

I have had good reliable reports from Andy that the last two weekends that my family and I missed at Belleayre were phenomenal snow conditions at Belleayre. Andy said, "Yahoo was better than ever. "That view was confirmed on Facebook by Frog's status update on Monday that said the conditions were "hero snow". I am so jonsing for it right now! I am hoping that the upcoming MLK day weekend of skiing remains with conditions like that, as well as with short or no lift lines. We have gotten very spoiled with the lack of visitors to Belleayre. I know that is not good for business, but it makes for an outstanding day of skiing for those of us that show up.

Forecasts look good, with a slight chance of rain on Friday. Hoping any rain is snow on the mountain, because it might spoil the dry hero snow.

And check this out - it might be time to go to Plattekill!
Thanks for the pics, DMC!

<-- That is DMC's pic - see them all here.

Go Julia!

2010-01-05T12:26:00.000-05:00

I hope I can get my J4 ski racing daughter to watch this video (From Skiing mag, Skinet.com)

Belleayre Day 8: December 31, 2009

2009-12-31T17:33:00.001-05:00

See my trip report:

http://forums.alpinezone.com/showthread.php?t=69530

Belleayre Day 7: December 30, 2009

2009-12-30T23:47:00.001-05:00

See my trip report here:

http://forums.alpinezone.com/showthread.php?p=495037#post495037

Belleayre Day 6: December 29, 2009

2009-12-29T16:38:00.001-05:00

So the question is, just how cold was it today? The other question is, should I keep posting these every day for the remainder of this holiday vacation = Through New Years Day? I am thinking yes, because people actually read them. I know it because I talked to one of them today at Belleayre.

So to return to the original question: If I can believe the Honda Pilot dashboard thermometer, and I think I can, when we got to the mountain today at 8:05 AM, it was 6 degrees. When we left the mountain at 3 PM, it was still 6 degrees. Did it ever go higher than 6? I doubt it. Add the wind. Add the turtle fur neckie over my face = frozen breath skiing, cocoon-like. It was the only way to get through the day, the only way to get through a few runs without running inside for a warm-up. I wore at least one extra fleece layer on top today, plus a Marker Thinsulate liner coat under my usual coat. I used hand warmers for the first time in a few years. So how cold was it? Your posted estimates are certainly welcome.

O and the snow was great. There were about 4 inches of new real powder on everything. The only ice I hit all day was on off Tomahawk on the top half of Seneca. There was hard snow on the top half of everything eventually, but it was skiable. There were fresh tracks for a couple hours in the morning, and all day long under the snow guns on Area 51. Deer Run was still under the gun and not open, Belleayre Run was getting heavily poached and it looked worthy to be opened, but still no snow gun action there.

Want to talk holiday crowds? Well, then you gotta talk to somebody who skied elsewhere. The only time I couldn't ski right onto the chair was if I wanted to wait for friends & family, or an occasional group of racers.

Thirteen to 26 degrees tomorrow. We're havin' a heat wave!

Belleayre Day 5: December 28, 2009

2009-12-28T17:20:00.001-05:00

Yet another totally different day at Belleayre! It snowed early morning hours and through most of today. It snowed enough to add about 4 inches to most of the mountain, giving us some fresh powder runs in the morning. Not deep Skiing Magazine eye candy powder, but something soft and more heavenly than the usual Catskills fare.

This was another day when lines were non-existent. I would say that I had to pause a few times for a half a minute to let some other people in front of me onto the chair. But there was nothing near the kind of lines resorts crave during the holiday vacation after Christmas; not by a long shot. Lunch was a little more crowded than it had been so far, but our big group still had no problem snagging a table and another adjacent half.

The snowmakers were concentrating on Deer Run today. It isn't open, but I guess they are trying to get more intermediate terrain from the top of the mountain. The guns aimed at Belleayre Run are still there and still aimed, but were not turned on today.

I skied my Dynastar 4800 skis - perfect for the kind of snow we had today. They float powder and can ride edge for carving and hold edge on ice.

I wore my Garmin 405 again today. I got a total of 29.69 miles today, including lift rides (after I remembered to turn it on when I boarded Superchief). My max speed was slower than a couple of days ago, at 36.4 MPH. Here is the Garmin data http://connect.garmin.com/activity/21184028

Overall a nice enjoyable day. It started at about 30 degrees and decreased as the day went on to about 25 plus a decent amount of wind chill. It promises to be very cold tomorrow, with high temp predicted @ 13 degrees F. There is a wind chill advisory posted:

... WIND CHILL ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 6 AM TUESDAY TO 10 AM EST WEDNESDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN ALBANY HAS ISSUED A WIND CHILL ADVISORY FOR THE CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST CATSKILLS IN NEW YORK AND BERKSHIRES IN MASSACHUSETTS... WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 6 AM TUESDAY TO 10 AM EST WEDNESDAY.

THE COMBINATION OF TEMPERATURES IN THE SINGLE DIGITS AND TEENS AND NORTHWEST WINDS OF 15 TO 30 MPH... WILL RESULT IN WIND CHILL READINGS OF 15 BELOW ZERO OR LOWER AT TIMES FROM TUESDAY INTO WEDNESDAY MORNING.

Belleayre Day 4: December 27, 2009

2009-12-27T22:19:00.001-05:00

Different day, different weather, different snow. Amazing. With never a line for a lift, I don't know how this place stays in business - is that happening all over the place this holiday week?

It rained last night. A lot. All night long, it seemed. I would say we lost two inches of snow around here.

No rain at 7 AM, thankfully. Got to the mountain and there was fog on top for one run and one run only. After 9:30 it cleared and the sun shone. It turned out to be a beautiful warm sunny day. It felt like spring snow, mostly either slightly slushy or hardened into white ice - non-boilerplate, skiable ice. I don't think they groomed anything except connecting trails (and I can't tell you anything about the greens or Roaring Brook).

In the morning, the best skiing was off of Lift 7 & Superchief. It was bumpy and still frozen on Seneca and Dot Nebel on the west side. And by "bumpy" I don't mean moguls - they are nowhere yet. That frozen situation improved in the afternoon with the above-freezing temps and the sun.. The best snow of the day award goes to "Area51", where the park eventually gets constructed.

There were snow guns poised for action if the temperature drops. They were aimed at lower Belleayre Run, which is currently closed.

Monday's forecast is 100% for snow! It doesn't say how much, though. From 7-4 according to Weather Underground, and a solid 9-11 at weather.com. Hoist some beers for the snow gods tonight everybody! May they smile upon us generously, thank you.

Belleayre Day 3: December 26, 2009

2009-12-26T18:31:00.002-05:00

No total soak-through for me, as I predicted yesterday! The skiing wasn't that bad, but the visibility was. We were in the fog to varying degrees all day. It was difficult to see because of the fog flattening everything out, and because of the freezing stuff on the sunglasses (had to ditch the goggles because they were too dark). There were a lot of fallen small sticks from the trees that actually made it easier to see the terrain much of the time. One good thing is it wasn't too cold, hence the damp conditions. The precip was really light most of the day, and was mostly frozen rain (not snow). It didn't get sloppy until it was time to leave anyway, at about 2:30 PM.

Lifts were all operational, and not a line to be had anywhere. We got a lot of skiing in in 4.5 hours. (See data link below.)

The mountain was groomed well, and there was no ice. No mogul runs either. The snow on Dot Nebel and Seneca was really great. In the morning it felt like we owned Tomahawk, and we were cutting fresh tracks over there through a few inches of heavy powder.

I always wondered about distance and speed while skiing, so I wore my Garmin 405 today. Including lift rides, I traveled 26.29 miles - a little more than a marathon - and my top speed was 41.1 miles per hour. I was wearing my Blizzard 155 CM SL race skis, which are not really as fast as some longer skis I have. Top speed was attained while in a tuck heading down to Tomahawk lift. Here is the map data http://connect.garmin.com/activity/21040925

Predicting Total Soak Through a Little After Noon...

2009-12-25T23:34:00.001-05:00

It has been icing, little ball bearings falling from the sky, for the past few hours here in the Catskills. Here is what is happening, from Local Weather Alert at Weather.com:

.. FREEZING RAIN ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 3 PM EST SATURDAY...

A FREEZING RAIN ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 3 PM EST SATURDAY FOR THE BERKSHIRES... EASTERN CATSKILLS... UPPER HUDSON VALLEY... SCHOHARIE VALLEY... GREATER CAPITAL REGION... HELDERBERGS... MOHAWK RIVER VALLEY... THE NORTHERN TACONICS... AND THE SOUTHERN REACHES OF THE LAKE GEORGE REGION.

PRECIPITATION WILL OVERSPREAD THE AREA FROM WEST TO EAST OVERNIGHT. THE PRECIPITATION WILL BEGIN AS SNOW AND SLEET... WITH 1 TO 4 INCHES POSSIBLE. THE HIGHEST SNOW AND SLEET AMOUNTS ARE EXPECTED OVER THE CATSKILLS... HELDERBERGS... AND BERKSHIRES.

SURFACE TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED TO REMAIN BELOW FREEZING WITH WARMER AIR WORKING IN ALOFT... THUS A TRANSITION TO FREEZING RAIN IS EXPECTED TOWARDS DAY BREAK. A CHANGEOVER TO PLAIN RAIN IS EXPECTED TO OCCUR IN THE LATE MORNING OR EARLY AFTERNOON ON SATURDAY.

Second Ski Day at Belleayre This Season

2009-12-20T22:59:00.001-05:00

Sunday December 20, 2009

Generally nice conditions today. Wanatuska, Onteora and Mohawk from the top, plus Roaring Brook for the blue people. Lift 7 was not operating until lunchtime for some reason. Took the shuttle to Tomahawk for some deserted Senica runs. They were blowing snow hard to get the two-way connection to Tomahawk lift ready to ski.

Even though it was Potter Bros. Flex day, there were virtually no lines. The southern storm may have kept people away, but my 2:30 drive from central NJ was only an extra 20 minutes this morning. People are probably still shopping today also.

One thing - it felt very cold today. Was maybe 18-25 degrees with wind and no sun. Flat light prevailed afternoon.

Upper parts of trails got icy later - was glad my skis were sharp.

First Day Skiing Belleayre This Season

2009-12-14T14:38:00.001-05:00

My daughter and I drove up for a day of skiing on Sunday 12/13/09. It was the second day of the race program. I was on the fence all day on Saturday about driving up, because the forecast was for snow. Or rain. Or a mix. It was very hard to pin it down, depending on which web site forecast one looked at. The thing that solidified my decision to go was the email from one of the program coaches that said, "Snow was great! Not crowded. Wanatuska, Mohawk, and Onteora open from the top. Super Cheese and triple running. Cold but light wind. Sunny. Hope to see you tomorrow."

Word on the street said we missed a great day. The snow was good, it was not crowded, and the sun was shining!

For Sunday the reality was two out of three ain't bad. Snow good - check! Not crowded - check! Sun shining - big fat zero. As it was everywhere in the Northeast.

There were three trails open from the top: Onteora and Wanatuska featured whales on their upper halves, and Mohawk featured bumps. Both the Superchief quad and #7 triple chairs were running flawlessly. Plenty of parking and Overlook lodge had tons of room. Couldn't tell you about what went on at the lower half of the mountain; didn't go there.

The wet snow hit hard about 11:30, when I ate lunch. Out from lunch, for about two runs I skied fresh tracks in something approaching a few inches of powder. But the snow quickly got heavier & wetter, until it was mostly rain at 2 PM. Soaked through to my butt on the lift, it was time to head home.

The 2:15 drive home took three hours. Never waited in a line at Bell, but waited in lots of lines of cars on Route 28 and NYS Thruway.

Here are some low resolution phone pics:

Yay! Onteora Open Top to Bottom!

2009-12-08T12:07:00.000-05:00

Looking forward to really heading up on Sunday now!

After the first snow, I opted for the road bike...

2009-12-07T00:09:00.000-05:00

We got a wet half inch or so on Saturday. On Sunday, by 10:30 AM the sun was shining, though it was cold. The roads seemed dry outside my house. So I bundled up for a road ride on my vintage 1986 Cannondale road bike. I purposely inflated the tires 5 PSI low for better traction and headed for the hills.

Watchung Reservation had a lot of snow in the woods and it was really pretty up there. The road surfaces were a wet in the hills for the first hour, so I was hesitant about descending fast, thinking that I might eat pavement by hitting some black ice or snow. There were ice chunks falling from the trees that kinda stung when then hit me.

The roads were mostly dry after that first hour, and I felt good, so I decided to go longer than I had planned. After a pit stop at a Lukeoil station for the bathroom and eating the Cliff Bar in my pocket, I felt even better. I saw only about 5 other guys out there for cycling workouts, even though it was a very enjoyable day.

There is still a lot of salt on my bike in the garage. Gotta get out there and wipe her down today. Here was my route:

<a href="http://www.mapmyrun.com/ride/united-states/nj/north-plainfield/321126013668928114">Hilly 50 miles - cold, wet, salty</a> <a href="http://www.mapmyrun.com/find-ride/united-states/nj/north-plainfield">Find more Bike Rides in North Plainfield, New Jersey</a>

Opening Day Conditions

2009-12-06T09:26:00.002-05:00

My local spy says: Onteora from mid-station + $25 tickets = Stay Away.

Needless to say, riding the MTB today is my choice... Hitting Belleayre next weekend!

Are We Ready To Ski Yet? - Some Recent Pics of the Day

2009-12-05T21:32:00.000-05:00

One of the things that bothers me about Belleayre.com's Pic Of The Day is that they don't archive them. There were some great ones lately that really had me jonsing for some skiing. Belleayre has postponed its opening three weekends now. And they booted it into Sunday this weekend.

So here are some recent Pics of the Day -

This one was on November 27, 2009

It is a really nice generic pic of the deck at Overlook Lodge. Looks really crunchy, huh?

This one is from December 1, 2009. It stayed up until today, I think.

That one had a lot of people thinking Belleayre had a real chance of opening today. Looks awesome! But it was probably taken right behind the snow gun!

Finally, today's pic:

That one is worthy of a Christmas card. With the bird feeder and the snowy flower pots it looks like a cheesy Catskills still-life painting.

So, are we ready to ski?

I have a report from Janis in Margaretville that there was 6" of snow on her deck as of 6 PM. I have a report from a BMRA ski coach that was at Bell for CPR training today and is staying locally. He said at 7:30 PM that the snow was heavy and wet, and the ground is not frozen. I believe that makes it hard to hold the snow and more difficult to groom. He said he saw Belleayre's Top Gun, Mr. T. around noon and that he said tomorrow's opening was still iffy.

The web site says they will be open. I would like to go up, but driving 2:15 for mid-station laps would suck. I think I need to dig out some rock skis and call at 6 AM to make a final decision. If it is only mid-station, I guess I will have to settle for a local MTB ride!

Enough Said!

2009-10-15T22:23:00.000-04:00

Screen cap from belleayre.com!

Bought My Season Ticket for '09-'10 Ski Season!

2009-05-23T17:16:00.002-04:00

Here it is - the "official" beginning of summer - Memorial Day Weekend - and I just purchased my "family pack" season ticket for skiing this coming December '09 - Spring '10. We will be hitting Belleayre almost exactly six months from today, on December 23rd. I might get up there on some weekend before that date, but the entire family usually doesn't start until school is out for the holiday vacation. I bought the season ticket today because season ticket holders from this past season get a 20% discount for purchasing before Memorial Day. This is new. That brings the price from $1610 to $1286. We were forced to pay $1610 last year because of the financial problems that delayed the 2008-2009 pre-season planning for Belleayre. For the previous season we got a 10% discount for ordering before Labor Day, which is available this year also. That option didn't happen last season because of all those financial woes. I am a little worried that Belleayre might have to pull back operations this coming winter because of the same financial problems. But last winter seemed not curtailed at all in our experience, so hopefully they will hold it all together.

So here I sit, thinking about the summer, thinking about the beach, thinking about winter and mountains and snow. I really can't complain.

Happy Memorial Day weekend! And to the military and former military people, thanks!

Believe In The Run

2009-04-18T14:59:00.000-04:00

Please help me win this contest. Click below and vote me up. Thanks!

BELIEVE IN THE RUN

Sponsored by Visit NIKE USA

Lance Armstrong and His Skiing Kids

2009-04-18T12:06:00.001-04:00

Training in Colorado has its fine points for family activities....

Looks like they are sponsored by Head already!

Lance, Man, You Don't Know How Good You Have It

2009-04-17T13:56:00.000-04:00

Lots of snow this spring in Colorado. Lance Armstrong training there - what a lucky man. For me, twenty seven ski days this winter was not enough. I want more. I still want more. I wanted 30. Sugarbush just announced they will be open into May. Could I do it? We are just too busy! Grrrr.....

Thank You Senator Bonacic

2009-02-12T07:28:00.000-05:00

This just came online today - but for some reason the information in the article feels old.

CUTTING BELLEAYRE MAKES NO SENSE
State Senator John J. Bonacic, visited Belleayre Mountain ski center on Wednesday and urged the DEC to ensure that the ski center would be able to continue to grow and be the "economic engine” which drives tourism along the Route 28 corridor. The Senator stated that he strongly opposed efforts by the state to diminish operations at Belleayre for the upcoming season.

The rest is here.

February Begins with a Bang

2009-02-03T10:23:00.000-05:00

Been sittin on this trip report - didn't even take the pics out of the camera yet. Don't know why. Busy, maybe.

Anyway -

February 1st - Superbowl Sunday - was the most crowded day so far this year that I have been at Bell. The lines topped 5 minutes at all lifts by mid-morning and mid-afternoon. We have been spoiled by the economy: few, if any, lift lines so far this winter at Bell. But what happened was Potter Brother's Flex Day. That is one of the days people could use the special cheap lift ticket vouchers for Belleayre that Potter Brothers Ski Shops sell. The result was a ton of people, and a bunch of 1980's straight skis and rear entry boots.

But the day was a heat wave compared to the day before. It was sunny, and the temps probably topped out at about 35 degrees. Lots of people out on the porch catching some rays, eating and drinking. Bell had a bunch of new Adirondack chairs out, as if it was springtime. I got a little sun color on my face.

And the skiing was awesome. The snow was all very skiable snow - zero ice. The bumps on Yahoo, Seneca, Onteora & Winnisook continue to be awesome. The park gained a wall. Mother nature is being very kind to Belleayre!

Great Skiing Today!

2009-01-31T21:53:00.000-05:00

Snow was great today. There was a little ice on the groomed steeper tops in the morning, but otherwise the bump runs were sweet and the middle groomers & Dot Nebel were fast GS and SL heaven. No lines over a minute on lift 7 and tomahawk. Yea, it was cold: 10 to 20 or so. But it is supposed to be in the low 30's tomorrow.

I hope you can see these photos - if not, try this link.

Bumps on Onteora

Retro Guy sportin' the purples

1980's skis and rear entry boots, unsafe at any speed

January 18, 2009 - Powder Day!

2009-01-18T18:59:00.002-05:00

This was a day that everyone should have been skiing. There was 6-10 inches of light dry new snow. everything was open. And it was all snow. Even skied Cathedral Brook and Tomahawk Liftline with not bottom-outs. There were no real lift lines, until 2 PM at lift 7 - at that time Tomahawk was still relative line-less. First time in a long time I saw cars parked a good ways down the road. Get out early and save the shuttle ride! One more day tomorrow before heading back to the daily grind.... I am genuinely exhausted from skiing this deeper snow today. I usually don't feel that way after a day at Belleayre.

January 17, 2009 - Cold but Great

2009-01-17T22:25:00.004-05:00

In this part of the Catskills when I started the car it was -20 degrees. Strange noises and autotrans didn't want to shift into gear, even after about a 10 min idle warm-up. That scared me, considering the history of this Chrysler transmission - it is its third - and the 140000+ miles on the vehicle. Driving to the mountain, the engine worked really hard for a few minutes before it settled down. Trans fluid must have been like Vaseline....

It was -16 at Belleayre when the day started, but I think it went up to a balmy 3 in the afternoon. Cold enough to suck all the juice out of my camera batteries, so no pics today. I wore two pairs of longjohns, a thinsulate liner jacket under my regular insulated ski jacket, glove liners, no exposed skin. Gotta love the $6.50 gloves from an impulse buy at Straus Auto, combined with golve liners to make for the warmest gove set-up I have had in years!

Luckly there was no wind and the sun was out, plus it was dry - so the skiing was actually great and it didn't feel so cold. In the afternoon I had to open my arm vents. Not a lift line to be seen. Overall great day. It is warmer now - like about 7.

Belleayre is nearly 100% open. Skied bumps and natural conditions on Winnisook, Tongora, Belleayre Run, Belleayre Glade, Seneca and Utsyantha. Skied groomers on Wanatuska, Onteora, Yahoo, Area 51, Seneca, Dot Nebel. No bad ice except in the troughs of the bumps on Yahoo. Snow was squeeky and dry, sun was out for a mostly bluebird day.

My daughter raced the "Mini World Cup" Slalom race #1 and took first place for girls born in '97. Yay! I think her time of 41.44 was one of the fastest times of the day, even with '96 borns and boys participating. Have not seen an officail print-out to find out, though. More on this later. It was nice to see all our friends' kids podium also.

To make a long story longer, when we got up here to the house we rent at 9:30 last night, the furnace wouldn't turn on. Had to call the owner and have a technician dispatched. It was 46 degrees inside. Tech came at midnight and took 1.5 hours to diagnose, then clean the oil filters. Only got the house up to 60 by wake-up time. Luckily there was propane heat upstairs in a bedroom and a woodstove. OK, waah waah - kinda like winter camping, I told the kids - and we survived to ski another day :)

Spotting Running T-Shirts

2009-01-06T15:11:00.003-05:00

You don't see many Escarpment Trail Run shirts randomly in your day-to-day travels, outside of a group of select runners. So I was surprised to spot one worn by a teenager in the Overlook Lodge at Belleayre Ski Center last Saturday. I proudly said, "Hi, I ran Escarpment four times." At first it seemed like he didn't get the connection, but then I think he remembered he was wearing that shirt. He said he was a volunteer at Blackhead. I told him sincerely thanks for being a volunteer - and we went on to discuss the lightning and the trail-turned-river, which seemed to be the most impressive part of the crazy weather that day last July. It seemed so out-of-context to be discussing it there, during the winter in a ski lodge after a day of great skiing. Nice kid. I told him I would see him in next July.

Another time last year a guy noticed I was wearing the mock-turtleneck from the Our House 5 Mile run in Summit, NJ. Those shirts are my favorite skiing shirts. So we talked about running for a little while.

Helping People On The Mountain

2009-01-05T20:24:00.003-05:00

A friend of mine is posting on Facebook from her ski trip at Mt. Tremblant today. She writes, in part:

I saw this boy, about 10 years old, sitting in the middle of the run just crying and crying. Everybody was zooming by him, and he just sat and cried. So I went to see if he was ok. Turns out, he was skiing with his brother, and his brother left him behind. This kid had no idea where his brother was and was on the middle of the slope with no way to contact his family. His brother had a cell, but he didn't know the cell number. His mother had a cell, but the boy didn't have one on him. My cell didn't seem to be working. So, I escorted him down the mountain and helped him find his family. It was a nice feeling knowing that I could help. Didn't expect to go skiing and help rescue a boy off the mountain! (Ok, it wasn't really a "rescue," but I DID help him out!)

Let's hope that's the only incident for the rest of the week. Kind of sad that I was the only person to stop and check on him. Once we caught up with his teenage brother, I did give them a tip (or rather, a polite lecture) about establishing a meeting point in case anybody gets separated in the future.

I think it was great that she stopped to help the kid. I often help people when they lose skis or poles uphill from where they fell. But from now on I am going to really think twice about helping people.

I stopped to help a little girl last week at Belleayre, that fell and seemed like she couldn't get up or get her ski on. Or so I thought. See, her mom had also fallen, and was down the hill on Dot Nebel another 40 yards or so. The mom was out of her skis, trying to tell the little girl to take her skis off and slide down to her. I tried to say she was safer and would have better control with the skis on, and was going to help her up - it wasn't even that steep on this section of the run, a little lower than Tomahawk midstation. But mom had her push her ski down to her - which she missed as it slid past her - and kept yelling at the girl to take the other one off... stupid stupid people. Moreover, the woman didn't even attempt to come up to help the kid - she could have easily walked up the hill herself. A ski patroller actually skied over and stopped to ask if everyone was all right. The mom said yes, and the patroller was immediately out of there.

By now I wasted minutes of skiing and my own daughter was getting impatient. I just skied away and said, "OK, have fun!

Yahoo's Ice Bumps

2009-01-04T12:09:00.000-05:00

I hate to say this sacrilege, but I think there should be a rule or something that says if a bump run stays hard as rock for a few days it should be groomed down so the bumps can re-form.

For example, at Belleayre this past week, upper Yahoo had wonderful bumps when it was warm and drizzly at the beginning of the week. We all skied them like WC pros :) Then on Monday they froze into metal turtle shells, and skiing them was like vibrating the crap out of your legs. Tuesday it was closed. Then for the rest of the week, despite some snowfall, it was more like survival skills getting down, rather than skiing. If they had broken the ice up with a groomer on Monday, the rest of the week would have been great.

By the way, for you bump maniacs, Bell seems to be maintaining a freestyle bump run on lower Onteora in sight of Overlook Lodge for great show-off stylin'....

Ghost Rider

2009-01-04T11:53:00.000-05:00

I was skiing down Belleayre Run yesterday, making turns over little bumps under Superchief lift, and the tail of my skis strikes a snowboard.

No rider, just a board.

The board continued down the hill, gaining speed past me, then hit some powdery stuff and slowed enough for my son to zip over and stop the board on a more level crossover area of the trail. I leaned it up against a lift tower so the joker without a leash could find it, and am thinking I am lucky it didn't hit me in the head or anywhere else when it fell from the lift.

Skiing in The AM, Woodstock in The PM

2009-01-02T21:47:00.007-05:00

Today the conditions were very good. At about 25 degrees F, it was a veritable heat wave compared to yesterday. The flat groomed upper trails lacked ice, so it was fun to lay down the carves. Upper Yahoo is holding the ice from days ago. We have been discussing on the chairlift that upper Yahoo could really use a grooming to break that stuff up, then let the moguls develop once again. Dot Nebel was wide open and great for fast GS turns - plus it was really empty over there. Seneca was open from Tomahawk mid-station on down. It had a good share of death cookies from the groomers, but still allowed some fast skiing as long as your skis were beef enough to handle the vibrations.

PowerRangers on the slopes!

Lift 7 shut down for a while because one of the wheels the cable runs on got loose, just above mid-station. That is when I shot over to Tomahawk to avoid the inevitable lines that would result at Superchief. They must have fixed it pretty quickly, because there remained ski-onto lift status at Tomahawk all day. Just before I stopped skiing, there were 2-minute lines developing at Lift 7. I realized how spoiled I have gotten this week, because these lines felt like the first ones I have seen in a long time.

Skied from 9 AM until 1:30 PM, with a lunch break in there. Then my family and our friends headed on down to Woodstock for a walk around and a little money spending in the fun stores. We had a dinner that couldn't be beat at The Bear Cafe. Awesome food and service there - perhaps better than the local swanky place, Picamoose.

Some pics from Woodstock below.

At Woodstock Candy Store: checkout the warning label above and The Last Supper lunchbox below - love it! ...just noticing the flash reflection is directly over Jesus's heart! Could it be a Sign?

It is great when a store takes shoplifting really seriously.... Hey, just for fun I should have stolen that sign ;)

Happy New Year - January 1, 2009 at Belleayre

2009-01-01T22:02:00.003-05:00

"Cold" would be an understatement for today. I think the high was 12 degrees F today. The snow was excellent, as expected after yesterday's new snow. Unfortunately the cold was very distracting. It was a three-run & go inside kind of day. And this was the warm part of the day - didn't start today until noon after sleeping-in after the New Year's Eve partying. I would say total ski time was about 2.5 hours this afternoon.

I can't believe I got yelled at by a Belleayre employee today because I entered the terrain park from the side, about 20 yards down from its main entrance, after they had just closed it. There was no way I could have known the closed sign was up. I wasn't ducking a rope or passing anuthing that said no entrance there. And I was going in to find some nice snow, not even for the features. I had just told my daughter to follow me, when I heard a guy yell, "Hey, the park is closed, GET OUT!" I looked up at the guy and said, "Sorry, I didn't know it was closed. Mind if I just ski down there and duck out?" There was another Bell guy there, and he said something like, no prob. I think he knew that the first guy was playing Mr. Macho and was overstating his position. I also think he thought I was some young kid trying to sneak in, since my face was 100% covered today. When I pulled my neckie thingie down to speak, I think the other guy may have realized the first guy's overzealousness. These guys were not Ski Patrol, they were just assigned to close the park and pick up the bamboo lollypops.

Hoping for relatively warmer weather tomorrow. The forecast says 17-25 degrees with some snow showers.... With a warm-up that minuscule, it might be an afternoon for a trip to Woodstock.

December 31, 2008 - Beautiful Snow on this Last Day To Ski This Year

2009-01-01T09:06:00.005-05:00

What a day! At least 8" of fresh snow from the start of the day, and a couple more fell as the day progressed. Fresh tracks could be found the entire day! No lift lines. Life is sweet.

Over the past 5 days we have experienced quite a range of conditions: rain, soft spring conditions, ice, powder.

New Year's Day snow should be the best conditions of the week, lots of sun on excellent groomers, and the usual bumps on Yahoo and Bellayre Run under Superchief.

December 30, 2008 - Improved Conditions & SNOW On The way!

2008-12-30T20:17:00.005-05:00

The groomers today were better than yesterday. The bumped trails were either closed or brutally hard ice. That would be a closed upper Yahoo, and a brutal upper Belleayre Run.

It was cold today, and windy in the morning, but the sun was out & in & out. You can see the pics for that.

Lots of snow blowing on the mountain. Looks like they are trying to open more green terrain below Overlook Lodge, and Seneca on the West side.

"Area 57" terrain park opened this afternoon. Somebody was removed from there for a trip to the hospital within an hour.

No lift lines again, except between 2:15 and 3:30 at lift 7, during Superchief's weekly breakdown.

Another great day with lots of runs. Good for the socializing, running some of the stubby slalom courses set up on Yahoo, fast skiing on groomed trails. But I am missing bumps and some natural terrain. That can change tonight because there is a WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY! 4-8 inches starting at about 1 AM overnight and continuing through the day tomorrow!

If Your Edges Were Sharp, It Rocked

2008-12-29T21:16:00.004-05:00

I may be guilty of being a person who is ridiculously optimistic. But here goes:

In the morning, the skiing surface sometimes called "snow" was hard with a sugary granular coat on top. There was a bit of hockey rink quality ice on connecting trails. It was only about 20 degrees for most of the day. But the snow was fast and the runs were fun, and they runs were plentiful too, since there was never anyone clogging up a lift line. One run on upper Yahoo was so frozen and rough it vibrated my legs enough to give them a massage. One run on upper Belleayre Run was like skiing over bumps of steel. All the other runs above Overlook Lodge were mostly just on the save side of being out of control as long as your edges were sharp and you were rocking a carve.

In the afternoon it warmed up a little. Upper Yahoo and upper Belleayre Run were shaved off and a bit less vibrational. It wasn't appreciably more icy anywhere, however. They hadn't blown snow all morning, but they started blowing after lunch to cover toe top of the mountain where some of the melting did its worst yesterday. There seems to be a lot of stockpiled snow on lower Utsayntha, and they were building the terrain park there all day. It isn't open yet, but a couple of people poached some rides there.

I think I don't mind relatively crappy conditions when there are no lift lines, I am with a bunch of friends and family, and my edge tuner is in my pocket.

Warm Day, Hero Snow, Meltage :(

2008-12-28T22:34:00.006-05:00

Temperatures averaged mid forties today. The snow was spring conditions, the kind that makes everyone ski the soft bumps as if they are heroes. There wasn't a line for a lift to be found, except maybe a short wait for anyone skiing Superchief mid-day through early afternoon.

Lots of really fun fast skiing on the ball-bearings this kind of defrosting produces. I certainly hope the groomers and snowmakers can patch the holes that developed. There was visibly less snow at the end of the day than at the beginning, as the pictures show - especially at the top of Yahoo. Below are early-day and late-day pics of the developing holes, and the rest of the photos in the photo stack widget on top of the post.

Rain and Fog at The Mountain Today

2008-12-27T19:30:00.007-05:00

You could come down really negative on a day like today. It is the Holiday Season for the mountain, and here it is hit with a shot of warm weather and rain. But it is hard for me to be negative right now. We had a great time on the mountain today.

The mountain was fairly empty. Skied down and right onto the lift every run. The rain was happening early, then went away after lunch. But I can't even complain about the morning rain. It was a misty drizzle, and didn't soak through. The result was spring conditions on the snow and most of the runs that had been open remained open today. I can't even complain too much about the fog. Lucily there were not too many bodies on the snow to avoid, and it forced me to have more of an inner focus to my runs. What I mean is, I paid more attention to what my body was doing because there wasn't anything to look at except the fog.

Missed IT! Can't WAIT!

2008-12-22T23:45:00.006-05:00

Belleayre got lots of snow! Must have been a great weekend. We hit the vacation ski week starting on Friday afternoon after Christmas. A whole week of turns!

All we got here was a couple inches, then rain. Now it is white ice. Could have set up a bobsled run at school today. The creative kids were sliding it in their sneakers. The administrators were stopping them. Such is life when liability worries take over the fun....

Self-Swipeable Season Ticket Cards - Why Not?

2008-12-11T12:41:00.000-05:00

I read online today, that at Belleayre, Shandaken residents will be able to get swipeable lift ticket cards, loaded with 13 Sunday tix at $20 each, and they do not have to wait on line for lift tickets, and they could buy additional tickets for friends at $25 each. So I reasoned, season tickets have mag strips and are swipeable too. Why not let season ticket holders swipe their cards? After spending a lot more $ than Shandaken residents, we wouldn't have to wait in line either. That would be cool. It would shorten lines for people waiting to pay also.

So I called the Belleayre admin office and asked if season ticket holders would be able to swipe too. Nooooo... Why not? I asked. Answer: "I'm not in charge of that." Me: OK, well put it on the suggestion list, then.

Is it because they don't want us to sell them to others in the parking lot? Well print our name on them, then, like they did in '05-'06.... or somethin'. And, come to think of it, those Shandaken residents will be able to scalp them to their "friends", right?

Opening Day 2008

2008-11-28T21:05:00.005-05:00

I thought I was going to miss this opening day. But the planets aligned and I was able to get up there for the best opening day at Belleayre I ever had. Wanatuska and Onteora were open from the top, and there was about 10 inches of natural light powder on the ground.

I had a great day! The snow was super if you stayed off Wanatuska. Despite my legs still feeling a little sore from running last Sunday's Philly Marathon, I did 20 runs in 4 1/2 hours. All but about two of them were practically ski-onto-the-lift. I only did 4 of those 20 runs on Wanatuska, and I can confirm that it was like the Garden State Parkway during rush hour with lots of fender benders. The problem was that Roaring Brook was closed. There were no blue square rated trails from the top. Lots of people that loaded Superchief seemed to not know that. Many "beginner-level" skiers had no choice but to try to navigate Wanatuska, which was icy by 10:30 AM. It looked like ski patrol downloaded many people that wanted to play it safe on lift 7.

I skied lift 7 all day. Onteora was deep with soft blown snow on top, and had great soft snow from the middle on down. The top half had irregular moguls on a big whaled up center, which yielded about three different fall lines. You could start down the middle and take it, or hang diagonally left. At one point I could swear i was skiing turned more than 90 degrees from "straight down" the slope.

The closed trails - Yahoo, Utsayantha, Algonquin - were practically open by about 1 PM. There were a few earlier poachers, but when people realized there were no ski patrol people in the lift 7 vicinity - probably because they were hung up dealing with injuries and crazyness on Wanatuska - so many people skied them that they were virtually open. Dry powder indeed, but bottoming out did happen, especially on the runs above lift 7's midstation. I like my bottoms, so I avoided them and concentrated on burning the bumps on Onteora. Super workout today!

What I noticed that was different perhaps due to the budget constraints - and maybe this was just because it is the day after Thanksgiving, opening day, and they couldn't get enough people to work - but not enough people were at work at the mountain. To save money? In the morning, there was only one lift ticket window open outside at Overlook Lodge. The line snaked around all the way back to the flagpole. Inside, the guest services line snaked around and back to the first aid area doorway. It took 25 minutes of line waiting for me to get my season tix there this morning before skiing. At the end of the day, it took 15 minutes of line waiting to buy one of those limited 4-packs they were selling today. I didn't even eat lunch because when I went in at 12:30 the lunch line was backed up into the table area and there was only one person ringing register. Trash cans were overflowing. So I bagged it and ate on the lift - I had a couple of Cliff bars and my Camelbak. A ski patrol woman told me there wasn't many of them on duty today. Definitely short staffed today.

Finally, this was interesting: On the Belleayre access road there was a straight ahead arrow kind of sign that said "Highmount Ski Center", with a picture of people riding a lift. I am wondering if the Belleayre Resort people are resurrecting Highmount for operations this winter.

All the photos here.

Bumps on Onteora

Lift Ticket Line at 9:30 AM

I can't believe I am not gonna be there!

2008-11-26T16:07:00.004-05:00

Another Pic of Day screen capture below from awesome Belleayre. Coverage looks like mid-winter!

This is a screen cap from an NJ.com article , "Belleayre cures NY state budget blues this Friday"

Snowing at Belleayre Again!

2008-11-25T19:39:00.003-05:00

We never really see this part of the mountain. This is the front side of Discovery Lodge, looking up from the never on skis kids beginner area - or as you approach from the lower parking lot. Screen cap from Belleayre.com Pic of the Day below. I can't wait until I can use my own pics! Opening day on Friday. Looks like I have to give it a miss until Sunday. :(

Major Belleayre Opening Day Psych!!!!

2008-11-24T14:22:00.002-05:00

Bellayre's web site is pumping out the stoke for opening day this coming Friday! I will be there, unless I have to wait for Saturday due to other family happenings. Opening day would be so awesome though! Screen cap below...

It is SNOWING in PISCATAWAY, NJ

2008-10-28T10:50:00.002-04:00

I am down here in the NJ Flatlands and it is SNOWING on OCTOBER 28! OK, it is "wintery mix kinda crap, but it is white and it is falling! Stoke level just went off the charts! Belleayre is reporting 6" so far! Pic of day screen cap below. Snow Tires Here We Come!

SNOW at BELL!

2008-10-22T14:15:00.004-04:00

From Belleayre.com Pic of the Day!!!!!!

My stoke level just went from 1 to 10!

Competition

2008-10-08T10:50:00.002-04:00

This mountain is directly competing with Belleayre:

It's All Good - Well, Almost....

2008-10-01T23:00:00.000-04:00

Belleayre will operate fairly close to full operation, depending on how you spin it. They have to make it with about $1.5 million less.

See
http://belleayre.com/company/press.htm

and posts starting here
http://forums.alpinezone.com/35451-belleayre-nys-budget-cuts-37.html

and this news serach

Belleayre and the NY State Budget Cuts

2008-09-25T15:29:00.002-04:00

On September 8th I started a thread at AlpineZone.com with this opening paragraph:

Usually by this date we have purchased season passes and put kids into the racing program at Belleayre. I have been checking the Belleayre web site, where for the past month or so it has said they are working on pricing and programs for the coming season, please check back. There has been some controversy surrounding the proposed Belleayre Resort, and more from the unfair competition alleged against Belleayre by Hunter and Wyndham.

It is a great thread - 22 pages so far. A "Must Read" for Belleayre fans. I have not been blogging it here, because it takes some time to keep up with it there.

Belleayre Is Part of The NY State Constitution

2008-09-09T23:42:00.000-04:00

Originally posted by me at Alpinezone.com, in response to another post:

I am not sure that everyone is aware that the Catskill Park AND Belleayre Mountain was created by an amendment to the NY State constitution. Belleayre is limited by the amendment, but it is also conversely mandated. Legislators, representing the taxpayers, created Catskill Park AND Belleayre; as such, there should be a stewardship to continue to support the area in the spirit of the NY state constitution.

The taxpayers of NY are not subsidizing your ski habit, they are attracting you to the area so you spend your money there. They are subsidizing their own economic viability. If Belleayre and its programs go, an untold amount of the skiers who spend their money in that area are not switching to other Catskills hills. Instead, they will suck up the extra drive time and head up to VT, Gore or Whiteface.

So far, some folks who have contributed to this thread have called Belleayre "retarded" and "a little ridiculous". Heaping negativity during a difficult economy is what seems to me to be retarded and ridiculous. The closing of any ski hill, regardless of the reasons, is bad for the sport, the industry, the local economy and the people who depend on it to feed their families. Even if you don't care about others, you can realize selfishly that closing one place reduces your choices of where to ski, and reduces competition so prices elsewhere may rise.

The loss of Belleayre, or even any fraction of its operating potential, is a losing proposition for all skiers and boarders from NY, NJ, and PA.

Why I Am Against The Resort

2008-09-09T23:38:00.000-04:00

Originally posted by me at Alpinezone.com, in response to another post:

I am against the resort. Save the mountain. It isn't just about winter - given the choice between a trip hiking and camping in wilderness vs. a trip to a resort, I am going to choose the hiking and camping any day. The strength of the Catskills is wilderness, not resorts. And it will totally change the Belleayre local old-school family hill vibe, which I love. Most of the the resort jobs would be low-wage jobs, while all the management will be hired from out of town and friends of Crossroad Ventures. Plus, if they follow the ski industry standard, many of the service workers will be hired from eastern Europe.

Conspiracy Theory...

2008-09-09T23:32:00.001-04:00

Originally posted by me at Alpinezone.com:

My conspiracy theory thinking is leading me to believe that the Belleayre budget cuts are all related to the Belleayre Resort: If they can squelch Belleayre for one season and really squeeze the economic balls of the area, then the big politically-connected deal with Glitter and company can be touted as the savior of Belleayre and the entire region...

Coalition to Save Belleayre Press Release Concerning Budget Cuts

2008-09-09T23:26:00.003-04:00

Originally posted by me at Alpinezone.com:

Daily Freeman article right here -
and via email from Belleayre Mtn. Racing Association, this:

Coalition to Save Belleayre

Press Release 9/8/2008

For Immediate
Release
Contact:
Joe Kelly

Coalition to Save Belleayre

Belleayre Supporters Decry
Cancellation of October Festival

Highmount, NY -- September 8, 2008 -- Supporters of Belleayre
Mountain Ski Center reacted with outrage this week when they learned the extent
of cutbacks to the ski center's operating budget for the coming season. Saying
that these cuts "will destroy what's left of the Central Catskills' economy,"
Joe Kelly, chairman of the Coalition to Save Belleayre, called for a summit
meeting of elected and appointed officials who represent the area and business
leaders whose constituents will suffer if the budget cuts are allowed to stand
as planned. Kelly said, "the Coalition has argued for more than 25 years that
New York State has a special economic obligation to this area because of the
extensive holding of forest preserve and watershed lands by the State and City
of New York. We are here to see that this obligation is met."

According
to Kelly, the ski center's October Festival, which has been a money-maker for
the facility for most of its 20 plus years of operation, is the first casualty
of potentially draconian cuts that would cripple the ski center. "This event
brings as many as 16,000 people to our community in one single weekend," said
Kelly. "It has made Columbus Day the biggest weekend of the year and filled
hotel rooms from Kingston to Oneonta. Cutting this out will make our hotels and
restaurants bleed profusely, to say nothing of the stores, gas stations and
others who benefit."

Kelly went on to add that he - and all Belleayre
Mt. supporters - understand the need for cuts and the fact that everyone in the
state has to share in the pain of the current economy. "But this is going to be
way more than our fair share," said an angry Kelly. "The state is already nearly
halfway through its fiscal year so agencies that already spent money, like New
York State camp grounds preparing to close for the year, get no budget cut
impact. In the meantime, we're facing a huge budget cut, the extent of which is
only now becoming apparent," Kelly added. "In fact, these are 'in-and-out'
revenues that don't actually save anything, and actually cost the state lost
ticket and sales tax revenue."

"Sources tell us that in addition to the
cutting of the festival, that the ski season could be a month or more shorter
than it was last year, that the ski center could operate at less than its full
capacity even during the height of the season and that staff people will lose
their jobs," said Kelly. "We will never be able to recoup this loss - even if
they bring us back to full operation next year. We've worked too hard for the
last three decades to sit back silently and watch this happen."

Kelly
went on to point out that not only do all of the local businesses who depend on
Belleayre Mt. suffer - many of them may be forced out of business permanently -
but so too do the counties who depend on the sales tax and bed tax generated by
these visitors. "The economic blow to Ulster and Delaware counties cannot be
over estimated," said Kelly. "These counties are already suffering from severe
economic setbacks and these cutbacks at Belleayre will just push us over the
edge." Kelly cited a survey done of businesses in the region in 2000 and noted
that since that time nearly 20% of the respondent businesses were closed because
of a lingering depression in the area. "Adding this to that is just a blow we
can not and will not accept."

Noting that the cancellation of the annual
October Festival came in the same week that Governor Patterson vetoed a blue
ribbon commission to study the fairness of Belleayre's operation, Kelly said
that some people in his organization believe the budget cuts are related to the
lobbying Greene County has done to curtail Belleayre's operation. "We certainly
hope that this is not the case. But it makes no sense to cancel one of your
biggest money-making events in a single year," said Kelly. "And once you are
open and operating, it makes absolutely no sense to only operate part of your
capital investment," he added. "I don't know if people in state government are
caving to pressure from Greene County to hold Belleayre Mt. back, but we
certainly intend to look at that possibility."

Kelly said his group, the
Coalition to Save Belleayre, has called an emergency meeting to review the
budget issues and develop a strategy for addressing them. "We had busses in
Albany in March and we might need to get them up there again in October," said
Kelly. At this point, we need to talk with others in the region and figure out a
plan of attack. "But this I can say for sure. We've been fighting for this ski
center for more than a quarter of a century and except in 1984 when Mario Cuomo
tried to close it, this is as bad as it gets. We will not sit back quietly and
let the State and the DEC make up their budget crisis on our backs."

New York State Budget Cuts

2008-09-08T23:22:00.001-04:00

Originally posted by me at Alpinezone.com:

Usually by this date we have purchased season passes and put kids into the racing program at Belleayre. I have been checking the Belleayre web site, where for the past month or so it has said they are working on pricing and programs for the coming season, please check back. There has been some controversy surrounding the proposed Belleayre Resort, and more from the unfair competition alleged against Belleayre by Hunter and Wyndham.

I received this email from the Belleayre Mountain Racing Association, the youth program my kids participate in. It says to pass it on, so:

PLEASE DO NOT DELETE THIS EMAIL
BELOW ARE 2 LETTERS FROM COACH RALPH AND
ROSINA, A SKI PATROLLER @BELLEAYRE
PLEASE READ AND PASS ON

Hi All

Please take this seriously. Belleayre and our region need your support.
NYS budget cuts are proposing a major funding shortfall for Belleayre Mt for the
08/09 season. The 08 Fall Festival for Columbus weekend has already been
cancelled. The proposal for the winter is somewhere between operating one or two
lifts with NO RACING, NO SKIWEE, NO ALPINE programs TO A COMPLETE SHUT DOWN OF
BELLEAYRE FOR THE WINTER. Everyone associated with this community needs to
support the continued operation of Belleayre. Please step forward and make your
voice heard in favor of Belleayre Mt.

What can you do? Email or write
DEC - www.dec.ny.gov/about/407.html
Email or write the Governor-
www.ny.gov/governor/index.html

Thank You,

Ralph Combe Jr.
...address edit..

Dear Belleayre Ski Patrollers:
DEC has dealt
Belleayre Ski Center a devastating budget. To this end the following has been
decided:
The Octoberfest has been cancelled
Nursery will be not open
No skiwee, alpine development, or racing programs
Full time Patrol
positions cut.
Limited snow making
Possible operation of only the
Superchief.

What can you do?
Email or write DEC -
www.dec.ny.gov/about/407.html
Email or write the Governor-
www.ny.gov/governor/index.html

They need to hear from all of us. Do you
know what this will do to Delaware and Ulster County economically? The Governor
vetoed the proposed legislation to establish a Blue Ribbon Commission to look
into public recreation (proposed by the lobbying of Green County - Hunter and
Windham ). However, the same was accomplished by the budget cuts. They have
killed Belleayre Ski Center , putting us back into the 70's and 80's. You may
think I am being dramatic, but folks, if we don't do something about this, it is
over. Send this to your friends and make this effort to contact the DEC and
Governor mushroom. They need to hear from us so that they can understand the
devastation this will cause.
Rosina

March 9, 2008 - Fog and Eventually Rain

2008-03-09T21:42:00.001-04:00

Send Lawyers, Guns and Money,,,,,

2008-02-28T21:41:00.004-05:00

The proposed Belleayre Resort final scoping document is out. It is 157 pages long. Part of this process is to make things so long and detailed and boring, that people opposed will not have the endurance to sift through all the details!

Zevon: "...I'm a desperate man. Send lawyers, guns and money. The $h1+ has hit the fan."

But I guess this is good, because it makes the Glitter crew have to justify and minutely explain everything in the entire process. That can lead to many missteps and more control by stakeholders.

Belleayre Needs to Get Their Lift Act Together (Caution ~ Rant)

2008-02-24T22:45:00.000-05:00

The snow today was great. The groomers took the new stuff that fell Friday night, that got crudded up on Saturday, and made nice. They left the bumps on Yahoo, Onteora, Seneca, Tongora as usual. It warmed up after 11 AM and skied sooooo nicely.

But the lift situation is horrible. It started first thing, with signs at the lift ticket booths about Superchief being closed today. Broken again. Unbelievable. The Mini-World-Cup race for the kids was canceled. Canceled because they knew that a lot of Superchief beginners would be needing to use lower Yahoo. The knew the lines would be crazy, especially this being a Potter Brothers "flex-day", and the end of a holiday period. All the factors came together to make 15-minute lift lines at lift 7 and Tomahawk.

While waiting in one of those lift lines at Tomahawk, one of the lifties got on top of the lift base engine contraption thingie and yelled to everyone, "Lift 6 is open! Superchief is open!" Great. But we still have this line to wait in. But at least they got it running again. I think that was about 11:30 AM.

Lines after lunch were a little better. 5-10 minutes at lift 7 and Tomahawak. No doubt this was Belleayre's biggest day of this winter so far.

It still baffles me how the Tomahawk lifties can continue to do such a bad job at loading the lift. Here is how it goes. There are two sides to approach Tomahawk quad. On each side there is a singles line, doubles, triples, quad, and lessons/patrol line. It should go like this: two doubles (one set from each side), then a triple + single from side A, triple + single side B, quad side A, quad side B, then start the cycle over again. What they do is totally random. No joke, totally random. doubles, triples, doubles, doubles, triples X3, quad, 4 singles, doubles triples X 3, quad.... You could enter the shortest line and wait the longest. You could enter the longest line and they might have a mind to just let it roll. O, here is the best part - if a liftie has to rotate to a new position to swing chairs or whatever, maybe a chair of two will go up empty. This is because NOBODY KNOWS WHAT TO EXPECT. This creates even more errors on loading. If the people at the head of the queue knew the cycle, there wouldn't be errors and constant loading screw-ups. And one more detail, if you always take the shortest line, no matter how many people you have, you might get a couple words about being in the wrong line, but you never get sent back! So always take the shortest line no matter how many you have because there are no real consequences! (Unless you get ignored by the totally random line selection, of course, which tends to happen most in the quad line simply because it it behind the liftie's back...)

Hey, I know it isn't an easy job, especially on a busy day, but it sure as hell isn't a hard one either.... Count to 4, and load each line fairly.... my 10 year old can do that for the rides at camp carnival in the summer! It seems like they have no level of training or performance criteria, nor do they have any kind of management in charge there.

PS: Two concrete suggestions: 1) Eliminate the doubles line on busy days. Instead make two quad lines and have doubles quad themselves up. Duh. Do that all the time, as a matter of fact. 2) Hire people who actually ski to be lift attendants.

I started this as a Trip Report thread at Alpinezone.com, and there were a bunch of responses. Go read them.

Finally - A Snow Day!

2008-02-22T22:32:00.003-05:00

School was canceled all around for the first time this season. The plan had been to go to the Belleayre on Saturday morning, arriving about noon, for a half day of skiing. But since everyone was home and there was new snow on the ground, it didn't take long to realize we had to leave tonight for some real powder in the morning.

A post at Alpinezone.com by "catskills" got me excited:

I just went out to shovel some of this stuff. Not sure I mentioned it but this white stuff is about as dry as it gets. This should be one of the best ski weekends of the year in the Catskills. Did I mention how dry this powder is. Yes its still coming down with no end in sight.

We are here now. The drive up to the Catskills from central NJ (287 & Thruway) was surprisingly easy. We left at 6 PM, and with one stop on the Thruway, arrived at 9 PM. Drove through rain until about Bear Mt, then ice, then snow. Not many people on the road, thankfully, and passed some slowpokes on 28. The snow stopped about 8:50 PM here.

The driveway was not plowed, but the snow is really light!!!! I quickly cleared some. There is 8-10" of light feathery powder outside! 12" at Belleayre, I hope - alarm is set 30 minutes earlier (6:30) for the possibility of rare first tracks. If I can get my family out... my daughter has a cold so it might be slow going BUT - Tomorrow has the potential to be one of the top 10 ski days at Belleayre EvEr!

They Need to Get Their Lifts Act Together

2008-02-18T23:50:00.003-05:00

Since it rained all night, almost all the natural snow melted outside the rental house in Halcott, and was hovering about 50 degrees, we took our time getting to Belleayre today. It was a muddy time packing the car up.

Arrived at 10 AM or so, a good 1.5 hours later than my family's usual arrival time. The upper lot was only about 1/3 full at that time. Yesterday it was full before 9 AM. The lodge was relatively empty, like an early November or April day there. It was actually not that bad a change from the crowded indoor conditions of yesterday.

It was about 48 degrees, and we dressed light. The snow outside Overlook lodge was like snowcone filler. Took a Wanatuska run off Superchief. It was crunchy but skiable. Not quite corn snow, and not exactly ice. The snow skied quite fast. Those little round ice crystals make for some ball-bearinglike nano-surfaces.

There were no lift lines, so clicked off some runs off lift 7. The WC bump set-up on Belleayre Run was better today. Everything was open, surprisingly. There were some ice skating spots on connector trails, from all the rain, no doubt.

We decided to hit Superchief again at about 11:15. So we head down there and it broke again. Third day in a row. How annoying to have to hike uphill to get out of that hole. Then to take lift 1&2 to another uphill walk. Note to self - always avoid Superchief. Yesterday a friend of mine christened the lead-in trail to Superchief, "Chaos". Forced to take lift 1&2, we noted the pond at its entrance. The lift line had to skirt the pond.

By the time we got up to Overlook lodge we were hungry enough for lunch. Ate. Lodge felt even emptier than at 10 AM. Went out to a very slight drizzle. Did one run off lift 7. Second ride for the afternoon, we are on lift 7 and it breaks down. Unreal. Two lifts in one day. Luckily, by then Superchief was carrying passengers again. After that 15 minute ride to be forced off at mid-station, my wife and kids were understandably done. I wasn't. Headed to Tomahawk for a couple. Great fast runs on Seneca and Dot. Then we headed out. If this was a dry, cold, sunny day after a dry night, Belleayre would have been hurting to get people up the mountain. I hope they get those lifts repaired properly. You would think at least Superchief is still under warranty.

O, and PS: The conditions message this morning on the phone deserves an award for "most creative positive spins" and a special mention for "leaving out truth that should be reported".

All the pics here.

New ice skating rink at the top of Yahoo

View of some green trail from forced ride on lift 1&2

All the pics here.

Holiday Crowds Arrived

2008-02-17T23:29:00.002-05:00

The holiday weekend crowds hit today. The lodge was more crowded than usual in the morning before skiing, and at lunch. The parking lot was packed earlier than usual. The lift lines were not that bad at lift 7 and Tomahawk, until Superchief broke down again, second day in a row. That happened after lunch today. After that it was singles line city for us. And some of the the lifties at Tomahawk lift continue to be clueless about how to move the lift lines.

The conditions were very good again. A little warmer than yesterday, but no sun, and light freezing rain / "wintery-mix" starting about 1 PM.

None of the runs were especially soft, but there wasn't a lot of ice either, until after 2 PM or so. Pepacton was closed for racing, but Dot was open. Not realizing they were there, I was screaming down Peekamoose and almost ran into them, but cut a hard right in time.....

They built a WC style bump run about half way down Belleayre run, and they scammed a bunch of Alpine Development kids into packing it down. The problem with the run was the slope wasn't steep enough to warrant the size of the bumps. I couldn't really get enough momentum to ski them right as a result. Maybe it is just me, maybe not - anybody else ski them? My 14 year old son is a good bump skier (yea, he has crossed over into the better-than-me category) and he said it stunk. Yahoo and Onteora were better bump runs today. The natural snow on Utsayantha is almost a pleasure, if you can stay off the dirt and rocks - I got a big scratch on the bottom of my Atomic m:EX's today there.

All the pics are here.

Stamping the bump run

Threatening skies in the morning

Classics never die....?

All the pics are here.

Nice Belleayre Day

2008-02-16T23:24:00.001-05:00

Weather: Clear, mostly sunny, 17-25 degrees or so.

Conditions: Very good. Upper expert trails were all open, even Utsayantha. Nice soft bumps on Tongora (where they were blowing snow all day) and Winnisook. Great snow and soft bumps on upper Onteora - must have been blowing that all night. Yahoo was fine, though harder under a dusting of real snow from last night, and Seneca was similar. Coverage is good: Saw a kid poach the Tomahawk liftline above midstation, with his friend filming it. Utsayantha had thin cover, but the natural snow was nice. Lots of racing today. Lower Yahoo was closed for racing, as usual; Dot Nebel was closed for a big GS.

Lifts: Not much of a line at 7 or Tomahawk, considering that it is a holiday weekend. Superchief broke for an hour or so, and that caused things to bunch up late morning at 7 - but it was up again by lunchtime. There were a bunch of liftie dweebs on duty at Tomahawk today. Bad job loading and running the lines there. What's up with that?

Thoughts: Early in the week I was worried about the conditions, after the storm overnight into last Wednesday. But the place was really fine today. Much better than expected for a holiday weekend Saturday. Belleayre continues to deliver a great experience weekend after weekend. Certainly getting our money's worth again this year.

Hammered?

2008-02-14T14:35:00.005-05:00

Doesn't look good - conditions report today at Belleayre.com (screen cap above) is showing all the upper double diamonds closed! Everything else looks groomed to death. I am not happy about that. Site also says that they are blowing snow and the groomers are working 24/7. Big weekend for the business and I personally wanted a great three days. I hope the conditions come around.

Silly Me: I Want to Call This a Powder Day

2008-02-10T23:17:00.000-05:00

The Review: The snow from yesterday plus the snow from this morning made the skiing today excellent. Really. I am not kidding. It was great at Belleayre today. One of the top 5 ski days of 15 I have skied there this season. The new snow was not heavy. It was deep and fluffy almost everywhere. It covered the ice well for most of the day. It stayed good on the sides of the trails, and stayed light when crudded up. I couldn't believe it. Couple that with barely any lines at any time on lift 7 and Tomahawk, periods of sunshine, good friends and family - can't beat that.

The Weather: Temps in the mid 20's. The day opened with really heavy snow. The middle of the day got some sun and some clouds. The day closed with a blizzard-like blast of more snow as we left.

The Bumps: The bumps on Winnisook were big. The bumps on Onteora were irregularly spaced. The bumps on Yahoo were mostly hard but skiable and evenly distributed.

Mud Slide Slim

2008-02-09T22:43:00.000-05:00

It wasn't bad and it wasn't great today. There was enough snow on almost every trail. The upper bumps were soft, and so was the lower run-out from Onteora. Yahoo looked icy but skied well. Dot Nebel, Seneca, Peekamoose were all sweet. Wanatuska, Mohawk, Belleayre run were their usual groomed selves. Some connector trails and late-day lower Onteora had some real boilerplate gray frozen-pond ice.

Lower Yahoo closed almost all day for racing. Snow from about 11-4 added about 4 inches. When Yahoo opened, there was some great powder freshies (yeah, 4 whole inches) that felt great in contrast from the rest of day on the hard stuff.

Weather service canceled the snow advisory. Here in Halcott near Belleayre It isn't snowing outside anymore, and at 34 degrees it is warmer than it was at 5 PM.

I slid on my chest through some mud when I didn't see a bare spot on Belleayre Run (photo above)! My son loved that - yea, it was marked uphill from where I approached it - I was coming across the fall line pretty fast, focused on taking a crossover to Wanatuska and it jumped outa nowhere!

Bode on Skiing Fast & Coaching

2008-01-29T13:59:00.000-05:00

This is for my daughter's coaches, from Bode Miller's autobiography, Go Fast, Be Good, have Fun.

...I'm a fast skier, not a fancy skier. I see it this way: speed is an essential component of the physical universe; technique is not. Speed is what makes it a race; technique gives other people something to talk about while it's happening. Despite these basic truths, in my experience most coaches see speed as the result of proper technique. This is bird-brained, and it puts us at natural odds. They're confusing truth with beauty. Perfect form may be beautiful, but in ski racing, winning times translate as the truth.

...Until recently coaching was stodgy and orthodox. I recently met a guy whose daughter is a young ski racer; her coach says that falling in half your races is okay. Dumping and hiking in one out of two is now acceptable? That's fresh thinking..,

...For coaching, this is all a painful departure from spreadsheets and technique drills. Now looking for winners is nuanced, a real challenge.... Now they have to ask themselves, How smart is this monster? What's he capable of? What will he do in ten years?

Bode Wins Again and Takes World Cup Lead!

2008-01-27T21:45:00.000-05:00

That is three weekends in a row! Awesome awesome awesome! NYT & AP:

Miller won the downhill portion of the event and, combined with his slalom run, he finished with a total time of 2 minutes 34.58 seconds. He replaced Benjamin Raich of Austria at the top of the World Cup overall standings.

“I was wondering this morning if I could ski,” Miller said. “I fell Saturday during the slalom practice. I have a bruised left hip.”

Press Release from SaveTheMountain.net

2008-01-27T15:25:00.000-05:00

Community Representatives Protest Spitzer’s Belleayre Resort AIP “Agreement In Principle” and Judith Enck’s accepting “Spirit of the Catskills” award for Governor Spitzer, during SEQRA Review

Enck accepted petition to Spitzer; Enck to meet with community members

(Highmount, NY – January 27, 2008) Some 70 Catskill Park community representatives from villages and hamlets all over the region braved 15 degree weather to protest the Belleayre Resort proposed by Crossroads Ventures and the fatally-flawed “Agreement in Principle” signed by DEP and brokered behind closed-doors by Governor Spitzer and Deputy Secretary for the Environment Judith Enck.

Protestors were in high spirits despite the cold, noise and constant blowing snow from the Ski Center’s roaring diesel-powered artificial snow guns. They were also expressing outrage that Judith Enck came to the public Belleayre Mountain Ski Center to accept the “Spirit of the Catskills” award for Governor Spitzer from boosters and investors of the proposed private for-profit real estate development.

Belleayre Resort at Catskill Park’s two developments, Wildacres Spa and Highmount Spa, the largest ever proposed for the Catskill Park region, are currently under SEQRA Review, with the NY Department of Environmental Conservation, host to the occasion, the Snowball fundraiser, as lead agency.

“It’s just inappropriate for them to accept this award,” said Julie McQuain of Save the Mountain. “Whether it’s the governor himself or Ms. Enck, who personally facilitated this proposed “deal,” it’s a slap at the public during SEQRA review.” When presenting the petition to Enck, McQuain asked “What’s the point of public participation in a review if the important decisions are already made?”

In consideration for their neighbors attending the annual Snowball, a fundraiser for the Belleayre Music Festival, protestors were friendly and let the ubiquitous red Save the Mountain and numerous creative handmade signs do the shouting:

Don’t SPIT Sir on Our Mountain; Closed Doors + Gag Order = Bad Deal; No Developer Welfare; $pirit of the Cat$kill$; Land Left INTACT--No Carbon IMPACT!; Forever Wild—NOT Defiled.

“Thank you for voicing your opinions,” Enck replied, as she stopped to read signs and accept the petition. “If you want a meeting with me we can make arrangements.”

“We are very concerned about the negative social and economic impacts that a corporate-owned resort of this magnitude would bring about,” said Judith Wyman of Friends of Catskill Park. “In addition to the negative impacts on the environment, there would be costs to local economies and taxpayers.”

“Destination resorts are geared to contain their clientele and compete head-on with local businesses,” Wyman said. “And historically taxes go up, not down, to pay for increased services needed. So the communities pay twice, first in loss of quality of life and second in higher taxes"

“Why should the taxpayer-funded Belleayre Ski Center expansion and snowmaking favor one private developer’s timeshare sales?” asked John Carney, of HART: the Hardenburgh Assn of Residents and Taxpayers.

“Investing more in snowmaking for Ski resorts is a dubious use of taxpayer assets,” said Scott Gould, also of HART. “The Union of Concerned Scientists’ Northeast Climate Change Report warns of warmer winters and less snow,” he added.

Other issues raised by participants included: more flooding, excessive traffic on winding country roads, light pollution of the famously dark, starry night sky, clear cutting trees for a golf course, and high elevation commercial construction spoiling famous Catskill mountain views.

Ulster County Legislator Don Gregorious of Woodstock stood with his constituents throughout the cold but animated gathering. Rep. Maurice Hinchey stopped to express his support for their message, chatting with protestors and reading signs on his way in to the party.

Underscoring the broad-based concern about the massive development proposed for the Catskill Park and the character of their rural mountain communities, protestors came from nearby villages and hamlets of Highmount, Fleischmanns, Pine Hill, Halcott Center, Hardenburgh, Arkville, Margaretville, Mt. Tremper, Phoenicia, Woodstock, Andes, Saugerties; and several from even further away Delhi, Otego, NYC and even Long Island.

Background on the proposed Belleayre Resort development, the petition to Governor Eliot Spitzer, full text and exhibits of the “Agreement in Principle,” news articles, photos and illustrations are available at www.SavetheMountain.net

Silent Protest Tonight at Belleayre

2008-01-26T09:55:00.000-05:00

From SaveTheMountain.net:

Governor Spitzer should not accept the "Spirit of the Catskills" award for pushing this huge, controversial Belleayre Resort development, while his DEC is responsible for reviewing it!

Meet at 6:15 PM Saturday, Belleayre Mountain Ski Center, Longhouse Lodge--Upper Level, (we have permission, and access to the Lodge) We hope to deliver our PETITION to the Governor or Judith Enck.

I wish I could be there - but this is not a ski weekend for us. Sometimes you have to do home stuff!

How to Recover from Impending Disaster in 2/100's of a Second

2008-01-25T23:05:00.000-05:00

Here is what Bode has to say about that amazing save when he went skiing on the wall, from his WSCN.com blog:

It wasn't easy to stay on my feet when I hit the wall in Kitzbuhel. I was off the last roller a little bit awkward but didn't think I had any real problem until I was really going into and against the fence. I thought I was going to be able to pull it off. But I hit two bumps pretty late and then once one ski got up on the fence, it's really super slow because it catches your ski and starts turning you into the fence. I had no time at all really, maybe a couple hundredths of a second -- I was going to get pulled into the fence with my head and going to roll -- but was able to get my other foot up there just so I didn't rotate.

He makes it sound so matter-of-fact, when it is really super-human!

2008-01-24T17:33:00.000-05:00

Bode! Hitting the Wall at Kitzbuhl and WINNING! Awesome!

Keen Millions

2008-01-21T21:53:00.000-05:00

Similar to the Trenton Times piece, The Albany Times Union has picked up the ball. Hunter and Windham are getting some mileage out of this. From the Times Union:

The locals around Belleayre are keen on seeing the state spend millions in upgrading and adding it to the adjoining defunct Highmount ski resort.

But that is not quite accurate. It should say SOME locals are keen on seeing those millions spent....

January 20, 2008 Weather Report - Almost LIVE!

2008-01-20T23:41:00.000-05:00

Heavy Snow Warnings

2008-01-18T15:15:00.000-05:00

There is an interesting thread at Alpinezone.com about how weather forecasts in NJ are so over-hyped. For example, this image was posted there - a heavy snow warning was issued for an expected 1-2 inches. Since when is 2 inches heavy snow?

I too expected some real snow on Monday morning, but all there was was a little rain.

Trenton Times meets Belleayre

2008-01-17T19:52:00.000-05:00

Who would have thunk that the Catskills plays in Trenton? An article showed up in The Trenton Times today. Amazing how far-reaching the resort controversy thing is getting. From the article:

The paper also points out that while Belleayre's visitor numbers have increased by more than 100,000 in the past 10 years, Hunter and Windham's combined numbers had gone down by the same amount: "Belleayre has not succeeded in 'growing the pie' in the Catskill's ski industry, it has merely 'reallocated the pie' which has re sulted in a redistribution of revenues away from the Greene County ski areas [home to Windham and Hunter] and their communities to Belleayre and Ulster County."

The report also spells out how Belleayre markets its mountain by handing out a large number of complimentary and promotional lift tickets. It also charges much less for tickets and lessons.

Hunter and Windham management point out that Belleayre has had operating losses of more than $1 million in each of the last two years, all covered with taxpayer money.

If all that is true, I suppose I have to thank NY taxpayers! But , as I have pointed out before, I spend lots of NJ money up there at places other than Belleayre. I have not been to Hunter in probably 15 years, but I have no interest in going there. I hear from people who ski there that the lines and attitude of people have not improved; not even on weekdays. Windham is just not attractive as a place to go for me. It lacks challenging terrain. If it wasn't for Belleayre, I would simply head up to Elk in PA, or to VT.

Get my email address off that mailing list!

2008-01-17T00:13:00.000-05:00

Received this today from Belleayre Region Newsletter, which seems to originate from The Weyside Inn - I never even stayed there.

I am sure that many of you getting this email are familiar with the proposed Belleayre Resort which is planned adjacent to Belleayre Mountain. This plan will also add the old Highmount ski center to Belleayre. This plan was presented by Governor Spitzer in September at a press conference in Kingston. This plan is still under fire from some of the locals and the state is now being sued in order to stop the project.

This project will greatly enhance Belleayre and be an upscale lodging making the Belleayre region more of a world class year round resort area. This will be a serious economic boom to this area. WE NEED YOUR HELP. Please keep reading. It is not that long.

The agencies and organizations who have approved the project were some of the ones who were originally against it. They are:
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC)
City of New York Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)
National Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG)
Catskill Center of Conservation and Development
Riverkeeper, Inc.
Theodore Gordon Flyfishers, Inc.
Trout Unlimited
Zen Environmental Studies Institute
Coalition for Belleayre
M-ARK Project, Inc.
Delaware County Local Development Corporation

There are a couple things now in place to help correct the misconceptions and defend the lies coming form the "anti" crowd. The first is www.supportthecompromise.com. This group is organized to counter the misconceptions and lies about the project, some of which are quite bizzar. Another thing is an online petition that you can sign to send a message to our lawmakers that a lot of people are in favor of this resort actually happening. Go to www.petitiononline.com/SayYes08/petition.html to see and sign the petition. To see details of the Belleayre Resort project go to www.belleayreresort.com. I hope you would be willing to sign this petition and help Belelayre Mountain and this reagion to take a giant step forward.

Thanks for your time. We hope to see you in our mountains again soon.

The domain Supportthecompromise.com is registered by Domains by Proxy. So who the heck are they? Hiding behind anonymity doesn't give me much confidence in their message. This is on the site, "Support the Compromise • PO Box 1199 • Margaretville, NY 12455 • 845.676.4844". Googling that phone number yields this:
Karen Kolar (845) 676-4844 3135 Canada Hollow Rd, Andes, NY 13731
Lewis Kolar (845) 676-4844 3135 Canada Hollow Rd, Andes, NY 13731

I guess the Kolars and the Weyside Inn are the, "coalition of individuals and organizations" mentioned on the web site. Three identifiable parties. Wow. Lots.

From the petition web site: "The Belleayre Projects Petition to Governor Eliot Spitzer was created by Partners for Progress and written by Joan Lawrence-Bauer (bdgroup@catskill.net)"

Interesting that the Kolars have not signed the online petition.

Quite the Damning Article

2008-01-16T13:02:00.000-05:00

Today in The Daily Freeman:

KINGSTON - Despite having authored many of the key provisions in a Belleayre development compromise negotiated by Gov. Eliot Spitzer, U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey on Tuesday disparaged that agreement for its lack of meaningful job creation and the "intense" level of development on Ulster County's side of the mountain....

...Hinchey also dismissed the project in terms of economic development. "I see the billboards where they're talking about 525 jobs," he said. "Those are not real jobs. They're not full-time jobs."

Hinchey said the "only people" who will benefit from the Belleayre development will be "the investors and a few others."

When an original backer jumps off the boat, I am just wondering who will follow? let's look for the other elected officials who were supporters that don't want to lose their position in the next local election.

What an issue. It grows curiouser every day.

MLK Weekend Anticipation

2008-01-16T09:34:00.000-05:00

I am happy to report that ERJ-145CA reports about Tuesday January 15th at Alpinezone.com:
I was at Belleayre today and the conditions were very good,
they seem to have recovered nicely from the thaw. It was snowing all day and it
seems like they got about an inch while I was there, plus they were blowing snow
all day on a lot of the closed trails. The groomed trails were in good shape,
just a few icy spots on some of them but for the most part soft snow. The
ungroomed trails that were open had a few inches of powder on top of the crust
and some bumps building up. Winter is finally back.

And adamti91 reports about Monday January 14th:

Conditions: Whoaaa, 3 inches made a hell of a difference. Fresh tracks
almost everywhere and only a few trails (Wannatuska, Onteora, all those from
mid-down) got tracked out early. Empty except for people I knew, so it was a fun
day, lots of Onondaga and in the rail park. No woods though, not enough cover
after the thaw.Weather: Nice Lifts: Damn Superchief broke twice, I was stuck on
it for 15 minutes and then it was offline later that day. Notes: Half pipe opened
my last run didn't hit it though. Thing was getting torn up as I saw from the
lift, still looks pretty soft. Rating: 7/10

So this weekend should be good. Snowmakers and groomers are my heroes! Not to mention the scientists and engineers and maintenance people that put all the technology in place. The ability of the mountains to bounce back in a few days is amazing, as long as the temperatures are right.

Thanks, Mr. Shapiro

2008-01-15T11:09:00.000-05:00

From The Mid-Hudson News Network:

"Shapiro [The Ulster County Environmental Committee Chairman] pointed to findings in the report which said the draft environmental impact statement contains “incomplete and contradictory information.” It said the proposal “fails to address a number of local economic development concerns.” And the report said that is important “since the proposed resort would be located in the middle of the constitutionally protected Catskill Forest Preserve.”

Incomplete and contradictory information is never good!

Glitter and the Easter Europeans

2008-01-14T22:40:00.000-05:00

Just found this video of Glitter making remarks after Spitzer announced the Resort deal. Glitter is just too s-faced happy. At least he knows there will be more fighting over this, by his remarks that it is the end of the beginning.

Comment on the YouTube page says something strange.... :

how many easter europeans with fake social security cards will run around the catskills gitter ?
you are no local gitter how ever you are a criminal the emerson dump paint in the creek when they done renovations i was there

OK, "easter europeans" ... hmmm... must mean Eastern Europeans. I wonder if that refers to Glitter or all the Eastern Europeans we hear speaking on the lifts at Belleayre, for example. And the emerson dump paint in the creek? I gotta do some research on those things.

Bode Ties Mahre!!!

2008-01-13T13:32:00.000-05:00

BODE DA MAN!

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200....ap/index.html

Winter Sports Roundup
Miller ties American record with 27th World Cup title
Posted: Sunday January 13, 2008 11:04AM; Updated: Sunday January 13, 2008 11:04AM

WENGEN, Switzerland (AP) -- Bode Miller won a downhill race Sunday on the Lauberhorn to match the American record of 27 World Cup wins.

Miller, who won the same event last year, finished in 2 minutes, 30.40 seconds.

"It was extremely fun. It didn't feel that good in terms of the quality of the skiing but I was very aggressive," Miller said. "I kept really pushing forward the whole time. There was no braking."

also
http://www.cnn.com/2008/SPORT/01/13/...ref=rss_latest
http://www.skiracing.com/index.php?o...=6022&Itemid=2

Bode is freakin' awesome! It is gonna be a crazy day when he takes the WC DH Overall!

Here is vid of his 2007 win at Wengen

Belleayre Resort Made AP and the Baltimore Sun Times

2008-01-13T10:55:00.000-05:00

Article today by AP at Baltimore Sun Times web site.

Lawn signs saying "More Jobs - Less Taxes" mark the homes of proponents.

But local opposition remains vigorous, too.

"Save the Mountain" signs are common in dissenters' front yards, and a recent public comment session at Belleayre about potential environmental issues drew more than 100 people who signed up to speak.

I commented under the screen name "Belleayre", which was a typo, I was trying to type "Belleayre Blogger" after being kicked back for trying to submit with the name skiingbellearye.blogspot.com, but I accidentally hit the Enter key.

I spend many days skiing at Belleayre and staying in the surrounding area. I have not seen one lawn sign that says "More Jobs - Less Taxes", as stated in the article. Lawn signs stating "Save the Mountain" are everywhere. The resort will serve a few people that have money already and bring in low wage jobs, very possibly to people recruited from outside the area and outside the USA, which is the current ski industry practice. The years of construction will be an eyesore. The resulting resort will spoil the Catskills environment. This "deal" should not have been finalized behind closed doors when it affects so many people and has the potential to permanently change the environment.

This is crazy: It is easier to post a comment to the Baltimore Sun Times web site than to the Daily Freeman.

Wow - Ski Racers Crashing

2008-01-12T14:15:00.000-05:00

I think I am doing the Coalition Cup race at Belleayre next Saturday. Hole I don't do this!

Belleayre hits The New York Times again...

2008-01-11T21:29:00.000-05:00

I wish these guys would stop crowding up the mountain! Article published today in The New York Times:

Belleayre has five of the latest grooming machines that can freshen 120 miles of terrain in a single night.

Wow, I didn't know that - as if they need to freshen 120 miles of terrain....

I also didn't know that New York is the state with the mose ski resorts - 44 according to the article, though it only focuses on nine.

Heaps of Legal Opposition for The Resort

2008-01-09T18:39:00.000-05:00

Last week, Green County Legislature passed a resolution "calling for additional review of the proposed expansion of the state-owned Belleayre Mountain Ski Center in neighboring Ulster County." (From Daily Freeman article)

The article, in its entirety, is important. It points out that the resolution cites unfair competition enjoyed by Belleayre, as well as the environmental impact of the proposed expansion. Also, these are interesting notes about Belleayre's position in the Catskill ski center market:

According to the resolution, the proposed expansion would increase Belleayre's size by 62 percent and cost taxpayers between $45 million and $75 million. The resolution states that Belleayre, located off state Route 28 in the Shandaken hamlet of Highmount, is a direct competitor with the ski center in Hunter and Windham and has a significant competitive advantage. Belleayre is exempted from paying a variety of taxes, insurance costs and other administrative and operating expenses that cost Hunter Mountain and Windham Mountain each between an average of $2 million and $3 million annually, the resolution said.

Additionally, while the ski centers have been able to coexist and grow in the past, that has changed over the last decade, the resolution said. Belleayre's "aggressive marketing practices, its use of taxpayer funding to operate and make major capital improvements to its ski mountain, and its exemptions from various tax, administrative and operating expenses" are hurting the privately owned facilities, the resolution said.

Today reports in both The Daily Freeman and Newsday tell of a lawsuit filed over the resort project. From The Daily Freeman:

TWO LOCAL citizens groups, along with a neighbor of the proposed Belleayre Resort at Catskill Park, have filed a lawsuit in state Supreme Court, claiming a deal with state officials last September to move the project forward is illegal and should be annulled.

The action filed names everyone who signed onto the agreement, including Governor Spitzer, state and local agencies, and Glitter & Crossroad Ventures, of course.

I guess if they keep throwing up opposition, momentum will be lost when an eight year completion date starts looking more like 16 years. Glitter is fairly old - will he be around long enough to sustain his Crossroad Ventures?

Indian Summer

2008-01-08T13:43:00.000-05:00

It is very warm out here in central NJ. It hit 68 in my town, according to the car external thermometer. Justified a car wash to get all the Catskills road sand and salt off. Look at the Belleayre.com pic of the day - Those woods were skiable on Sunday!

January Thaw?

2008-01-06T21:12:00.000-05:00

The snow was like April. Damp and heavy, but as usual, I liked it. It iced and drizzled on Saturday night. Friends skied on Saturday and said the conditions were a "Ten". Sorry I missed that. The biggest factor coloring the day today, however, was the fog. It was soupy all day above Lift 7 mid-station. Sometimes quite dense. One of my friends found it disorienting. Lower trails were clear, however. It was about 40 degrees today - luck for me because I accidentally left my coat in the car because I was in a hurry to get my kid into the race program and was running a little late. I managed to get by in just a base layer, a long sleeve 50/50 shirt, and a fleece vest (fairly thick ski pants, helmet, neck warmer & gloves). No pics or vids today because my cam was in the pocket of my jacket!

Lobbying

2008-01-04T14:55:00.000-05:00

Found this comment, which was posted on December 27, 2007 in response to an article in the Daily Freeman:

D E P was paid off by Dean Gitter D E P was lobbied by Dean Gitter (Crossroad Ventures) from 2004 to 2007 for the total among of $42.500.00. So how can the D E P can say they are impartial to the anything fact is they have been bought by dean gitter if you want proof look at this http://www.nyc.gov/lobbyistsearch/search?lobbyist=Fred+Winters

Interesting, so I did the search:

Again, this is so full of twists and turns that it is more and more shady the closer one looks.