Hunter Mountain

En route to my annual Montreal run I've driven by this mountain one too many times and vowed to one day visit and ski this bad boy. Tthanks to an awesome Living Social deal I got to come up one chilly Sunday in December and had a blast. Their food court area is also nice complete with bar and tv's for your sports fix.

We usually try to get up to Hunter mountain skiing from Long Island 2x a season.
The price is on the mid scale of most of the ski mountains. They have a lot of trails for Blue square and diamond. I am a green - blue skiier and my fiance who has been skiing since he was 13 is a diamond skiier. Loves a challenge. The lodge at this place is stuck in the 70's as is the locker room. They have a pretty good ski/fish/snowboard store here. Lodging and rentals around the mountain. Just put in a new high powered lift in 2011 I think it was. But you really are going to ski on the mountain rather then enjoy the locker room or lodge at this place. The weekends are usually crazy at all of these mountains. We go during the week and it is heaven on the trails. No crazy people colliding in to you. I would like to see some updates with this place but all and all we always come back for more.

Best mountain within a few hours of NYC.  They make the most snow and the conditions are always better than anywhere else around.  

If you want to take a lesson, this is the place to do it....they have "Progression Sessions" which are inexpensive lessons that are customized to fit your skill level.  I've taken 3 Progression Sessions here and they took me from being a beginner to advanced intermediate.  The instructors are awesome.

Again, they do a great job with snowmaking, grooming, and keeping the conditions in-tact.  One time we even went skiing the day after a thunderstorm.  We almost didn't go but figured we'd try it since we had already purchased our lift tickets and rentals ahead of time.  We were happy we went....the conditions were surprisingly good and we had a great time skiing all day.  Obviously it was a little slick but there were none of the solid ice patches that you would surely encounter at other mountains.

There is a whole beginner area (Hunter One) and there are a lot of advanced trails but not a lot in between.  But the few intermediate trails they have are fun and challenging.

The rental process here is so much smoother than most other places.  If you purchase your lift ticket and rentals ahead of time online, you save money and also you don't have to go through any lengthy check-in process....you just walk up, get your rentals and lift tickets, and hit the mountain.  Seamless.  I've never had to wait in a line.  And the quality of the rentals are good too, not those cheap boots that you get at other places...you get the better stuff here for no additional charge (though it is somewhat expensive in general...but it's worth it!)

Also I should also note, the area around Hunter is great, which adds to the experience if you are staying overnight.  There are a lot of B&B's around the area and there are some fun restaurants and bars around too.  We make it a point to get here every year.