Hunter Mountain

 

First visit to Hunter this season.  Hunter is my home mountain and always the resort I visit most due to its proximity to metro NY area (about 2.5hrs).   I always have a good time at Hunter, and find their trails to be nice with a decent amount of variety and great grooming.  They have plenty of trails for all abilities and I think it skis bigger than it really is.    

 

You can buy tickets at a considerable discount if you plan ahead and purchase them on-line via their website.  Hunter has gone through many improvements in the last 10 years and if you have not been there in awhile, by all means go check it out, I doubt you will be disappointed.

 

New for this season, they have added many recycled ski and board Adirondack chairs and benches outside the resort, nice touch, they are quite comfortable.   They are promoting free ski valet and also have this new key lock system that I think you buy the key or lock and it can be used on similar racks at other resorts.  There must be a ski theft issue there that I haven't been aware of 

 

Out front is also a large wooden structure looking like what they use for firefighter and military training, or an adult sized jungle gym, I assume it has to do with the new Zipline; reported to be the tallest and longest in North America.

 

The new lift opened this season, seats six, replaces the former quad.  The entrance to the lift now has automated gates like I have seen used in some European resorts, it is considerably more organized.   The pickup point leaves a little to be desired but I can see where it can also be helpful.   Directly in front of  where you stop to wait for the chair to slide under you is a step down, so if you happen to not stop exactly where you are supposed to or over shoot when approaching the plastic STOP strip  you will fall about a foot and a half down.   This is bad because well...you can fall and possibly get pretty hurt, but good because if you slip off the chair while mounting the lift there is less of a chance that you get knocked in the head by the chair now passing over you.   They claim that this chair is faster, I don't know if it moves any faster, didn't feel like it maybe they are simply referring to the speed as a function of the capacity.  I will say this much the cable slack and the bumpy ride as well as sudden drop after each of the first few towers is a bit unnerving, and every time had everyone on the chair yell out a "whoa"!   Up top the lift drops you off sideways as opposed to straight out like the old lift.   

 

There was 100% snow coverage in all the trails I went down, snow was firm or soft and very little to no ice.  For black and double black diamond skiers the West side was in great condition with little or no ice.   As usual minimal people back there, and you basically went down and came right back up with no wait....this is the secret to skiing Hunter all day with no wasted time.   However the front side lifts were packed, and even with the huge new 6 person chair, it seems that there were way too many people for the capacity of the infrastructure....though the hills themselves were not overly crowded, so its clear that more lift capacity is needed   Maybe if they add another of those sixers to replace the other front side lift things would be more alleviated.

 

Did not see a half pipe there this season, but the terrain park seems to have doubled in size.

 

The lodge seems to have gotten even better with regards to food offerings, no complaints there....well the sushi wait was a little ridiculous other than that all was good.   But Hunter as well as many other resorts is plagued with people who see it fit to leave all their junk at or under the dining room seats, thus not letting people who actually want to go eat have anywhere to sit.   They really should forbid this and to me it was the single most frustrating thing about the whole day   They need to post signs disallowing this highly inconsiderate practice and have employees go around and collect peoples junk and dump it all into a large community bin....leave your stuff at a table go dig for it in the hamper.  It took me 30min to find a place to sit....I was fuming.

 

No more gear bins for rent, now its just bag checks.  Also new is no more locker tokens, now you pay for a key at the bag check window to use the lockers, don't know if you can open and close the lockers through out the day.  They still have not done anything about improving the floor surfaces of the lower level or of the steps, they remain hazardously slippery and the steps are still super slick steel diamond plate...be careful, chipped my elbow on those steps a few seasons ago.

 

I think they also really need to invest some money on revamping the whole locker room/changing room situation.  It is crowded, small, has few places to sit to boot up and is rather run-down.  It might be the main reason why so many elect to crowd the lunch room with their gear rather than put it in the proper area.

 

It was supposed to be 22*-27* and 80% chance of wintry mix.   Driving up there it started to snow hard, huge flakes that in minutes blanketed everything with about an inch of snow...just as quickly it warmed up.  What we got then was 40*+ all day and lots and lots of rain. Never skied in such wet conditions before, made things pretty miserable, my leather gloves were soaked.   Made visibility very difficult and the heavy wet snow was the cause of me catching an edge towards the end of the day resulting in a rather nasty fall, body and neck is all aching and thumb is a bit beat up.  This is no fault of the resort obviously, but being at such relative low elevation and southerly, Hunter does fall victim to warming trends and its weather closely mimics that of NYC.   Fortunately they have such great snow making capacity there that they fix things up very quickly.

 

I did a day trip so cant comment on current night life, but traditionally Tannersville, the town right before reaching the mountain has a great night life; I've had some good times in the past.  Plenty of ski shops and lodging choices en-route to the mountain and the pro shop at the mountain is well equipped as well.   Rental gear there is all relatively new, so no worries about getting old junk.  The rental area is one of the best at any resort and operates out of its own new state of the art building where one can also arrange for lessons and training.  It conveniently is located on a gentle slope so that beginners can exit the building and try out the great sport of skiing with no need to scare themselves on a chair lift or too steep a hill.

All in all it was still a great day, its always a great day when you get to ski.  

 Hunter is better than most peoples perception.  I always here how crowed it is and how rude the people are.  I came back to hunter after a 10 year hiatus, and I can tell you that the lift line situation is just not that bad any more.  I used to ski here in the 1980's and did experience all the horrors, but I think that now-a-days, the other areas in the area have off-set some of the volume that used to exclusively head to Hunter.

The Good:

Hunter has nice terrain, with varied interesting terrain the entire way down the mountain.  On the front face for example, you have several choices at the top (Hell-gate, The Cliff, Minya Konka, Crossover), then you hit a wide open area that give several other nice choices (Racers Edge, Eisenhower Drive).  There are other areas with nice blacks also (Hunter West).  Most intermediate skiers can find plenty of suitable terrain.  I typically ride the lifts up with my wife and meet her at the bottom.

I'm teaching my 10 year old how to ski.  I was able to spend the whole day with her on really great beginner/advanced beginner trails.  I think they are the perfect length and pitch for a new skier.  You don't want a kid on trails that are too long or too short.  The lifts in the beginner area are just fine.

In the past two years (17 visits and counting) I have not had or witnessed any particularly bad experiences with guests or staff.  

The town of Hunter and neighboring Tanersville are quite nice and have plenty of options.

The Bad:
The Hunter lifts, while well placed, are aging and less reliable that most resorts.  The big detachable quad closes down in moderate winds.  It breaks down often.  Last year, we had to be bused to the back side of the mountain because none of the lifts in the front were working.  In my opinion the lifts are definitely the biggest issue with Hunter.

Summary:
Hunter is a great mountain, not nearly as crowed or crazy as its reputation.  They need to upgrade the lifts.  I think it is the best place to ski within 3 hours of NY.