Conditions Report
Hunter Mountain condition report from Friday, December 4, 2025
It seemed quite fitting that for the first day of my ski season, I would return where I left the last one off–Hunter Mountain. I was here in April for what many would describe as questionable spring conditions (battling rain, wind, and mud), but I had a blast and learned to respect the resort I’d heard so much about after moving to the tri-state area just over two years ago. After hearing and seeing the favorable conditions the Northeast has experienced to start the ski season, I couldn’t help but make a trip up the week after Thanksgiving, and as I predicted, the conditions did not disappoint.
Quick Facts & History
- Date Opened: 1960
- Multi-Destination Pass: Epic Pass
- Number of Trails: 67
- Skiable Acres: 320
- Vertical Drop: 1,600′
- Base Elevation: 1,600′
- Summit Elevation: 3,200′
- Terrain Breakdown:
- Beginner: 25%
- Intermediate: 30%
- Advanced: 45%
- Number of Lifts: 13
- Night Skiing: no
- Ownership: Vail Resorts
- Other Activities:
- tubing
I was out the door of my apartment in Hoboken, NJ, at 6:30 a.m., and I pulled into the Hunter Mountain parking lot at 8:50 a.m. Perfect timing for first tracks. I rapidly got ready in the car as the dashboard read a balmy 4ºF for the first day of the season and raced towards the lift as I saw the first group of skiers ride up. Working for SnowBrains, I spend a lot of time thinking about skiing, and as soon as I was actually there again, standing at the foot of a snow-covered mountain, I got flustered with excitement.
As I took my first turns down an empty Hellgate, I felt the rush of skiing that I almost thought I had forgotten. Big GS style turns ripping down this fall line trail made everything come right back to me in just one run. So I did it again, and again. And again. And then a couple more times. And even though Hunter only had two trails open from the top, I didn’t once get bored with skiing just one of them.
Now, per the title, you need to give Hunter Mountain (and Vail Resorts) credit where credit is due. We so often view the biggest players in skiing as companies trying to slash skiing to the bone in the eyes of shareholders. But like the last time I visited Hunter, that story simply doesn’t add up here. Sure, I’m one skier with a small perspective on the ski industry at large, but while many East Coast resorts continue to run on a weekend-only schedule (until the main holiday season is upon us), Hunter, like its neighboring Vail Resorts properties throughout the Northeast (Stowe, Okemo, Mt. Snow, etc.), have opened operations 7 days a week since opening day.
While weekends may get hectic at one of New York City’s closest major ski resorts, weekdays, like when I visited, were empty. And it was a Friday, never mind a Tuesday or Wednesday. When I was glued to the webcams throughout the week leading up to my day of skiing, I saw firsthand that any form of lift lines were nonexistent at this time of year.
All of this is to say that, in the eyes of the shareholders, maybe this isn’t the best, most profitable move, but in the eyes of skiers and Epic Pass holders like myself, you can’t help but applaud and respect it. And this goes against a very normal and understandable ski industry move to shut down for at least some days midweek.
In terms of the conditions, they were remarkable for this time of the year. Unlike our friends out West, the East Coast has a fantastic start to its ski season, seeing plenty of early snowfall and sustained cold temperatures that have allowed resorts such as Hunter to open up earlier than usual, with more terrain than usual.
With 6″ of snow earlier this week and snow guns at full blast, Hunter has almost doubled the number of ski runs opened earlier that week since I visited.
Overall, for a first day back on snow, this is exactly what I was looking for. The only thing we can wish for now is for Mother Nature to continue to keep us in her good graces for the rest of the season.
Ski Stats
Conditions
Weather
Photos
For more information on Hunter Mountain, visit their website here.
I’m not a fan of Vail Resorts practice of telephone calls to Hunter Mountain, for Guest Services, being routed to a Third World Call Center, perhaps, in the Philippines. The experience is horrifying, and unnerving.
Great article about a New York state icon of a ski area. Also, a very accurate description, I believe of reality.
I remember, probably 45 years ago, when groups, arriving by bus, would be sent to Hunter One (now Hunter East) for a ski test, to determine if the group skier was going to receive an “All Mountain” lift ticket, or a lift ticket, or, be limited to Hunter One, and a lesson (maybe, to be granted an “All Mountain” lift ticket, after the lesson. It was a brilliant, risk management strategy, in its day (in keeping with the manner by which the Brother Slutsky’s ran their ski area).
It’s too bad to hear that the Hunter Base Lodge has not been capitalized, but, the true “skiing product,” the mountain, has. I suspect that if you asked skiers which was more important to them, the mountain, snowmaking and grooming, and lifts, or the Base Lodge, they’d say the former. Hopefully, Vail Resorts circles back to Hunter, next year, and capitalizes their base lodge, to the likes of what Killington did to their K1 Base Lodge. The Hunter Base Lodge sounds like a throne from the 1970’s or 1980’s, like Stratton’s Base Lodge.