Start spreading the news, because it is shaping up to be a season full of new capital improvements at New York ski resorts.

In Ski NY’s 2023-24 capital project announcement, they detailed the major projects that are happening across the Empire State. This includes new chairlifts, snowmaking upgrades, and major renovations.

Here are the biggest improvements coming to New York ski resorts this winter. But first, here are some honorable mentions:

• Bristol Mountain opened up a year-round freestyle training facility. Called the Greater Rochester Amateur Athletic Federation (GRAFF) Summer Aerial Freestyle Training Site, it includes one of the few water ramps in the country. Other improvements include a redesigned skier bridge on the Milky Way trail, along with widening and making snowmaking upgrades to the Upper North Star trail.
• The Hickory Ski Center is getting ready to reopen this season for the first time in years thanks to an investment from the Indy Pass and us here at Unofficial Networks.
• Maple Ridge began a three-year, $3 million snowmaking project. The first phase, which happened this summer, resulted in the installation of a new snowmaking pipe system, which will increase their snowmaking capacity by up to 39%.
• Plattekill widened and added snowmaking to the I Think I Can trail. Other improvements include a new maintenance building, new decking for the base lodge, and new demo gear.
• The Windham Mountain Club went through a luxury-focused rebrand. New restaurants are opening across the ski resort, which includes an Italian Alps-themed dining facility around the mid-mountain area.

5. Gore Mountain: Gore’s major project this offseason was the replacement of their beginner chairlift. In its place is the Bear Cub Quad, which is double the length compared to the old chairlift. The conveyer-load quad chairlift gives beginners more terrain to check out and allows for easier access to the Sunway Chair. The new chairlift is making its debut tomorrow, December 16th. In addition, two magic carpet lifts have been added to the learning area, allowing for a simpler learning progression process.

To prepare for their major improvements to the North Creek Ski Bowl next year, they made significant snowmaking upgrades in this terrain pod.

4. Belleayre: The old Lift 7, which was a fixed-grip triple chairlift, was replaced with a new fixed-grip quad chairlift. The Overlook Quad, which opened earlier this season, has increased rider capacity and reliability. In conjunction with the new chairlift, they added a skier bridge, making access to Lift 7 much easier.

Major snowmaking improvements were also made. These included replacing 27,000 feet of snowmaking pipe, along with adding 250 HKD Impulse R5 tower guns and 5 SMI Super PoleCats.

3. Holiday Mountain: For years, the Catskills ski area appeared to be on the brink of closing. Most of the terrain and lifts across its three peaks were closed, but the ski area has been given new life thanks to new ownership. This offseason, they’ve spent millions of dollars to update the mountain. This includes restoring major snowmaking improvements, creating a new snow tubing slope, restoring neglected ski trails, updating their chairlifts, and renovating their base lodges.

Next winter, they will be installing a new chairlift, which they acquired from a ski resort in Virginia. Click here to learn more about all the projects they’ve worked on this offseason.

2. Holiday Valley: They’re celebrating like they’re in New Orleans this winter at Holiday Valley, as they have opened a new chairlift. The Mardi Gras Express was replaced this offseason with a high-speed six-pack chairlift, providing Holiday Valley with more capacity and further modernizes its lift fleet.

Other improvements included a new PistenBully 600 groomer, upgraded snowmaking equipment, a renovation of John Harvard’s restaurant, and room renovations at the Inn at Holiday Valley.

1. Whiteface: Probably the biggest chairlift project in New York this past offseason was The Notch. This high-speed detachable quad chairlift starts at the Bear Den base area, has a mid-station on the Borren trail, and the top terminal drops riders off next to the Legacy Lodge. The lift allows beginners to make their next steps toward big-mountain skiing. It also gives more tenured skiers and riders a reason to park at the Bear Den base area, as they can now reach the upper mountain much easier from that side. This chairlift made its debut last weekend.

The Bear Den Learning Center also saw some updates. The Cub Carpet lift was reoriented to make it easier for beginners to reach. In addition, the Falcon Flyer triple chairlift received some updates.

Other additions include a haul rope replacement and new grip hardware for the Cloudsplitter Gondola, 150 new high-efficiency snow guns with water/air lines, and two new PistenBully 600W snow cats.

Image/Video Credits: Whiteface Mountain (Featured Image), Holiday Valley (Header Image), Gore Mountain, Belleayre, Holiday Mountain

The Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA), which runs Belleayre, Gore, and Whiteface, has chosen its new leader.

On Monday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that Ashley Walden has been appointed as the new President & CEO of ORDA. Walden was a member of USA Luge’s Olympic and World Cup Teams. After retiring from luge, she went on to work in numerous sports leadership roles, which included the Executive Director of the Adirondack Sports Council.

While working for the Adirondack Sports Council, she organized the 2023 Winter World University Games. The multi-sport event, which was hosted at ORDA facilities, saw athletes from “over 50 countries and approximately 600 universities.”

Ashley is succeeding Mike Pratt, who has spent the last 38 years with the organization. Starting in 2017, he was the President & CEO of ORDA. During his time as the leader, the state spent over $600 million to revitalize its facilities, which included new lifts, lodges, and snowmaking improvements at Belleayre, Gore, and Whiteface.

Governor Hochul said the following in the press release about Ashley and the future of ORDA:

“Congratulations to Ashley Walden, who brings dedication, leadership and deep sports knowledge to the Olympic Regional Development Authority. I want to thank Mike Pratt for his 38 years of dedication and leadership of the Olympic Authority, which have been among the best in the Olympic Authority’s history. Building on the State’s recent generational investments in our Olympic facilities and the successful FISU 2023 World University Games, the future of winter sports in New York State is bright.”

For the next couple of seasons, many improvements will be happening at the ski resorts that are a part of ORDA. Next winter will see a new detachable quad at Whiteface, a new beginner Quad at Gore, and a new Lift 7 at Belleayre. The 2024-25 season will see a new high-speed quad and lodge at Gore’s North Creek Ski Bowl.

Click here to read ORDA’s latest annual report.

Image Credits: Olympic Regional Development Authority

This summer, Belleayre in New York will replace Lift 7 with a new Doppelmayr fixed-grip quad chairlift. The Riblet chairlift, which first opened back in 1986, ended its 37-year run in April. The new chairlift will service primarily advanced and expert terrain. Now, the retired chairs will become part of their guests’ homes.

This week, Belleayre will be selling Lift 7 chairs. The chairs, which are only available to purchase online, cost $300 each. This is a pretty solid deal, as when old lift chairs are typically being sold, it’s part of an auction. If you can purchase one, you’ll have to pick it up at Belleayre on June 30, July 1, 2, 7, 8, or 9th between 11 am-2 pm.

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The chairs will go on say on May 17th (this Wednesday) at noon. You can purchase a chair here.

Image Credits: Belleayre

The uphill skinning community has another mountain to shred at. A couple of weeks ago, Belleayre Mountain in New York announced that they’re opening an uphill skinning route.

The uphill program, which started on February 27th, costs $25 for the day. You can also skin up if you bought a lift ticket for that day, or if you have a season pass. This is only available from Mondays thru Fridays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., meaning that you can’t skin during weekends and holiday periods.

Skinners can only go on the following routes:

• From the Discovery Lodge:  Discovery Way, to Ashokan, To Roaring Brook, and across Route 9.
• From the Overlook Lodge:  Lower Roaring Brook, to Roaring Brook, and across Route 9.

Belleayre is a little late to the uphill skinning party, but it’s still cool to see more ski resorts integrate it into their activities. Click here to learn more about their uphill program.

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Image Credits: Belleayre Mountain

Actor Kelsey Grammer, best known for playing Frasier Crane in the hit sitcom ‘Cheers’, and the spin-off ‘Frasier’, made an appearance at Belleayre Mountain over the weekend as a bartender.

Grammer was pouring beers on Saturday to promote his beer brand Faith American Brewing Company.

Faith American is based just 20 minutes down the road from Belleayre in Margaretville, NY.

^Belleayre Mountain Discovery Lodge

The ski resort only shared the one photo above, unfortunately, but it’s fun to imagine what it would have been like to have the Frasier pour beers after a long day of skiing and riding.

The possibility of having a television/movie start serve me beers at a ski resort is intriguing… Who would I want to serve me…?

I’m going pick literally any character from ‘It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia’. That would be a trip.

Imagine coming off the slopes at a resort in the Poconos like Camelback or Jack Frost and Charlie fricken’ Day is pouring beers.

A boy can dream.

After a warm start to their season, the Northeast is currently in the midst of a massive powder day. This means that many rope droppings are likely to come in the next couple of days. For many ski resorts in New England, snow is expected to continue well into Saturday.

Here are the latest snow totals for ski resorts that have received six inches or more of fresh powder. If the totals are not updated during the next couple of days, my apologies, as I’ll probably be busy skiing the pow.

New York:

Whiteface: 26″

Gore: 20″

Titus: 20″

Belleayre: 19″

Hunter: 18“

Windham Mountain: 18″

Plattekill: 14-18″

Massachusetts:

Jiminy Peak: 7”

Wachusett: 6″

Vermont:

Bromley: 22-28″

Okemo: 27″

Killington & Pico: 25″

Magic Mountain: 25″

Stratton: 24″

Mad River Glen: 23″

Sugarbush: 22″

Mt. Snow: 20″

Saskandena 6: 16″

Jay Peak: 10-15″

Bolton Valley: 12″

Burke: 12″

Smuggs: 12″

Stowe: 12″

Middlebury: 6″

New Hampshire:

Wildcat: 24″+

Waterville: 21-24″+

Loon: 15-21″

Attitash: 18″

Ragged: 18″

Mount Sunapee: 18″

Gunstock: 14-17″

Cranmore: 16″

Bretton Woods: 15″

King Pine: 14″

Cannon: 8-11″

Pats Peak: 10″

Crotched: 9″

Maine: 

Sugarloaf: 32″

Saddleback: 27″

Sunday River: 24″

Image Credits: Bromley Mountain Resort, Ragged Mountain Resort, Sugarloaf Mountain

Let me paint a picture for you all of fine folks that were so kind to click on this article.

I spend the majority of my weekdays perusing the internet for content related to skiing and snowboarding. It’s literally my job to stay in touch with the latest and greatest happening around the industry.

I feel so incredibly fortunate that I make a living by writing my stupid thoughts on skiing, but it can sometimes be downright torturous.

Bare with me….

I moved back home to Eastern Pennsylvania seven months ago as my life was turned upside down by a series of unfortunate events. I’ll just leave it at that.

The “torture” I experience on a daily basis is watching dozens (if not hundreds) of people ski nearly everyday while I’m stuck at home in a state with very few ‘mountains’ and even less snow.

It can drive my already-intense desire to ski to an unbearable level.

So, when I heard that Belleayre Mountain in New York’s Catskill Mountains was opening for the season this past weekend, I started to get my plan together.

^Belleayre Trail Map

Belleayre is a little bit further away than I would prefer for a day trip, but I had an itch that needed to be scratched. Four hours each way for a day of skiing on seven probably- firm trails of mostly manmade snow?

As a ski-obsessed blogger, I could justify it.

Belleayre had seven trails open and two lifts, including the Catskill Thunder Gondola. I spent most of my time lapping the black-diamond trails that were open (Seneca, Peekamoose, and Algonquin) off Lift 8.

The snow was very firm, as one could expect, but my new Stöckli Storm Rider 95s were up to the task.

^My SR95s were perfect for the day’s firm conditions. My brother’s ON3P Kartels… not so much.

I focused on laying into my edges on the steeper upper-sections of the trails, and letting my speed run back to the chairlift.

It was repetitive, but a lot of fun.

The only ‘downside’ to the day was that it was unbelievably cold. The air temp was hovering around 20-degrees Fahrenheit, but the unrelenting blustery winds sent chills down my bones.

It was a harsh return to winter, but I stuck it out for the sake of sliding on snow, and I’m grateful that I did.

^Looking up trail on Algonquin

Skiing in the east can be unforgiving, but these are the days that make us the skiers that we are. Would we all prefer to be skiing powder in the warm sun on a western mountain? For sure, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t going to make the most of what we have.

I got back to my house in PA around 8PM with a feeling of accomplishment. I gutted out the drive and rough conditions to enjoy the sport that I love more than anything in this world. That’s all that matters.

It was a reminder that skiing is about more than epic powder days and challenging terrain.

Skiing is about having fun while sliding on a frozen surface. When you break it down that simply, it makes everything about the experience that much more enjoyable.

^Looking down the entrance to Peekamoose, a classic narrow east coast trail

I will look back on my first day of this season with gratitude and happiness.

I hope all of you have a fantastic season.

Thank you for reading! Stay tuned here with us at Unofficial Networks for al of your skiing and snowboarding news. We’ve got you covered.

All Photos Please Credit: Matt Lorelli/Unofficial Networks

Get ready for a whole lot of new changes to the state-run ski areas of New York in the future. The Adirondack Daily Enterprise reports that the Olympic Regional Development Authority Board of Directors (ORDA) approved more than $91.7 million in capital expenditures for Whiteface, Gore Mountain, and Belleayre. $11 million will be dedicated toward snowmaking and trail improvements. I imagine the taxpayers of New York aren’t too excited about footing the bill for these improvements, but at least it’s not as bad as the $850 million dollars taxpayers will likely shell out for the Buffalo Bill’s new stadium. Here are the new lifts and lodge improvements for the three ski resorts run by ORDA: Belleayre, Gore Mountain, and Whiteface Mountain.

Belleayre: More than $9 million dollars of projects at Belleayre will be centered around their lifts for the 2023-24 season. Lift 7 will be replaced by a brand new $6.5 million fixed-grip quad. The Belleayre Express will get a $1.7 million dollar refurbishment, which will add new operator houses and electrical systems. Lift 8 will get a $400,000 renovation that will also add a conveyor to help improve the loading experience.

Gore: Gores investments have already been announced, but here’s a brief summary. Nearly $20 million will go towards a new 18,000-square-foot base lodge in the North Creek Ski Bowl. The Hudson Triple, which services the North Creek Ski Bowl, will be replaced with a high-speed quad. ORDA also wants to replace the Bear Cub Poma with a fixed-grip chairlift. They will also add a treetop trolley/rail zipline ride that will travel up to 30 mph and features switchbacks and spirals along the way. Whiteface: Over at Whiteface, a $16.5 million two-stage detachable quad with an angle station will go from the Bear Den base area to the new mid-mountain Legacy Lodge. The new quad will help improve crowd flow and give another lift option for beginners who want to reach the next level of their progression. Image Credits: Whiteface Mountain, Gore Mountain, Belleayre

“Carnegie Deli is iconic. We love that guests of these resorts can pair their on-mountain memories with the power of food memories. Not only do you crave a big meal after a hard day skiing, but you crave an experience you can share with family and friends.”– Marisa Flynn, Carnegie Deli Brand Director.

Carnegie Deli is regarded as one of the most quintessential food experiences in all of New York City thanks to its well-known pastrami and corned beef sandwiches. The deli has recently been expanding its reach, which includes being available at various ski resorts across the Northeast. Last year, Carnegie Deli brought its Pastrami and Corned Beef sandwiches, cheesecake, and cookies to Windham Mountain. According to Perishable News, their reach is now expanding to more New York ski resorts, along with Jiminy Peak in Massachusetts. Their food is available at the following locations:

• Windham: Seasons Restaurant(Pastrami, Corned Beef, and Potato Knishes) and Mountain Express Cafe(Just the Pastrami).
• “Whiteface Mountain: The 2nd floor Main Base Lodge Solarium within the Taste NY Café.
• Gore Mountain: Inside the Tannery Restaurant, the most convenient dining option on the mountain, featuring two spacious dining rooms and a large outdoor deck with a slopeside view of the Base Area.
• Belleayre Mountain: At Draper’s, which is located in the Overlook Lodge on the main level.
• Holiday Valley: At McCarty’s Café and the John Harvard’s Brew House dessert menu.
• Jiminy Peak: Inside the Crane Lodge.”

Image Credits: Jiminy Peak, Whiteface, Carnegie Deli

As skiers, it’s hard to reconcile the environments we love so much and the energy it requires to run lifts, power busses, and produce the skis upon which our industry runs.

Related: New York Governor Proposes 750 Mile, Multi-Use Trail Connecting NYC To Canada

However when it comes to the environment and the ski industry, New York State is avoiding the zero-sum rhetoric espoused by fossil fuel companies. Instead, Governor Andrew Cuomo is joining forces with The Climate Reality Project to power 3 NY-owned ski areas via renewable sources by 2030. The plan includes Whiteface, Gore, and Belleayre ski areas.

“Recognizing the devastating impact the climate crisis will have on snow, the turn these ski areas are making towards solutions brings us all hope.” – Ken Berlin, The Climate Reality Project

All in all, the plan calls for approximately $28 million in funds and will be included in the governor’s FY 2018 Executive Budget. In a prepared statement, Governor Cuomo praised the forward thinking initiative saying, “This commitment to New York’s future, along with landmark new state investments in these facilities, will help ensure these resorts’ continued vitality for generations to come.” 

Ken Berlin, CEO of The Climate Reality Project, indicated the move is a practical victory for those looking to mitigate the effects of climate change on the ski industry.

Find the entire NY State press release here: Governor Cuomo Announces New York-Owned Ski Resorts to be Powered by 100 Percent Renewable Energy by 2030