Quote Originally Posted by Matt167
Hunter Mountian ( Hunter Ny, ), where I work in the rentals shop, by this time last year, we would have all trails open and have atleast 2k people rent on Xmas day, this year we had 997 rentals on Xmas day and 21 trails were open, our high was 1200 rentals. only reason Hunter is open is because of snowmaking. normally we can do 100% snowmaking but this year we blew about 10k 1 night because none of the snow they blew on 1 trail was sticking, they were running snow max ( raises freezing point to 37* ) in the guns, but the ground was wet/ and warm.
Now that it's rained for 2 days, the temps were 38 @0600 this morning, the 1/2" of snow(WOW ) we got on Sat. is gone, the rest of the week will be in the mid to upper 40's and no snow is in sight. My skis are still gathering rust, and as far as I'm concerned, will this year since I retired and can no longer afford to go to CO or UT on just my pitiful GE pension and SS. My wife's salary could help, but she is saving to retire in 12 to 18 months and we will eventually need that saved $$$.

I really feel for those who depend on snow for their income. I'm sure that Hunter Mountain and all the other ski areas(my favorite, Gore Mt has only 19 of 87 trails open) and winter sports areas. Local shops, restaurants, bars, hotels will feel the pinch and suddenly people will be out of work and marginal businesses will fail. I'm know not going to spend my yearly several hundreds of dollars on my normal winter outdoor activities since at least the first week of January is, in effect, 'in the books'.

Sooooo I'm working on my car and hope to finish by June, but too late for NSRA York .