The club trip to Windham Mountain is in the books. Not many club folks have been to Windham in a while, if ever, so it was an exploration as much as a ski trip. Windham is supposedly semi-private but it's not clear how any of that affects the public because they were welcoming in every way and accepted the IKON pass with only a day by day reservation.
The mountain is laid out in three peaks with short blues and greens on the north side lift. A six person lift services the west or center mountain with a green but mostly blue and black runs from the peak with significant length. On this trip all the runs were groomed but there is a terrain area that could have features in the future. The southern peak is serviced by a short lift to green and blue runs at the bottom and a longer lift mid mountain to the peak for mostly black, with one blue run available. All the green runs are enjoyable, the blue runs are comparable with blues in PA but tended to be blue in spots and blue/green the rest of the way. This was a similar treatment for the blacks on the west or center peak with black terrain in spots and black/blue the rest of the way. The southern peak wasn’t explored much as most runs were closed for snow but the blue was enjoyable, but needed a little snow.
For the week the cold and wind were a factor, as it was for much of the northeast. But it did allow for testing of cold weather clothing which meant an additional face layer and a second layer for legs. The snow was in excellent condition and snow guns were running all week, fixing some spots and preparing new terrain. By day 3 the few sketchy spots had disappeared and day 5 brought more even terrain which made for excellent skiing.
Any new mountain review needs a look at the lodge. There was plenty of seating, great food and bar options in the lodge at the base of the mountain. The burger and fries were sampled with a great review. The fries were so nice and crispy they were part of day 3 dining as well.
Given the 20 minute drive to Hunter Mountain the week was based on alternating with Windham getting 3 days and Hunter Tuesday and Thursday. While Hunter offers more runs, in the end the hodge podge nature of Hunter was overshadowed by the no nonsense ride up and ski down at Windham. It was easier to get in long, continuous runs at Windham, with a few areas you could cross between runs. My days at Windham ended up have twice as much elevation and length as the Hunter days. Given that the weather during the week was about the same, I credit the layout of Windham as the reason for this. Or the general enjoyment of the Windham skiing.
For the runs that were open at Windham, the snow was pretty good, although improving during the week. They were hurting for natural snow with only a couple inches noticeable off the runs. They were spending time on making snow but only had have the runs open during this January trip (26/54). I think it would be better to have 40 runs open for a full week of skiing at Windham but 50% was good for a 2-3 day trip and I’d definitely do it again.