Snow Business: Catamount Always Leaves a Good Feeling

HILLSDALE, NY — Catamount last week was the perfect recipe to nourish a pair of 8-year-olds who were hungry for some vertical but wanted an easy drive.

So off we were on I-84 to Route 44 then Route 7 and then Route 23 on the Massachusetts-New York Border. We parked close, went into the lodge, and booted up. The snow was good because a smart plan to maintain the snow during the monsoon of the previous week paid off.

Yes, Catamount was good ... as usual.

You'll never get any gimmicks at Catamount, but you will get good skiing and snowboarding. It's a throwback to the old days when skiing and riding mattered, not showing off. Celebrities that want to lay low with their families have been known to sneak over for a day trip.

There are no high-speed lifts, but they certainly get the job done. Besides, there are days when you just don't feel like driving that far north and at 55 miles from Hartford, 50 from Waterbury, 62 from Danbury and 89 from Stamford, it's an easy jaunt from just about anywhere in Connecticut.

Catamount also has a $20 mid-week lift ticket available.

With the kids last week, it was time to explore the green trails on the Massachusetts side of the mountain, so it was the ridge quad to the summit and a 1.75-mile trek around the horn on Ridge Run and Promenade. We then worked off the meadows triple and the greens and blues accessed by it.

We even took a few runs on the skier cross course.

It was a family day, but sans kids, there would have been plenty of time on Catamount's stellar black diamonds like Catapult, which steeper than some runs at bigger mountains and a whole lot of fun. Lynx is another great black run.

Cruisers like Sidewinder on the New York side of the mountain never get old.

Catamount has teamed up with Stride Sports to offer a complete adaptive program and has a women's Wednesday program.

Its ski school is as good as any in the Berkshires.

Catamount features 1,000 vertical feet over 36 trails accessed by seven lifts.

Each season, it's never just one trip to Catamount. We'll be back. We'll be back to experience skiing for the sake of skiing. It's a nice feeling, but that's what Catamount leaves you with.

Click here for the Catamount website.

Chris Dehnel is a Patch editor. He has been writing about snow sports since 1999. His Snow Business column runs regularly during the season.

Photo Credit: Chris Dehnel