Greek Peak Conditions

Chair 2 WAS purchased from Italy. It was a Carlevaro & Savio kit that had to be assembled onsite, tinker toy towers included. Legend has it that the instructions were in Italian and had to be translated on-site.  Now it is only 4300 feet long. It was modifed with Borvig chairs at some point.

Here is a cool postcard issued before the modifications, but this is how I remember it looking in the late 1970s, when we called it the "Yellow Chair", as opposed to the all the other Hall lifts, which had towers and chairs painted red.

https://www.cardcow.com/379347/happy-skiers-riding-mile-long-double-chair-lift-at-greek-peak-cortland-new-york/

See also:
http://chairlift.org/greekpeak.html
http://www.skilifts.org/old/install_na1963.htm 
https://www.skiresort.info/ski-resort/greek-peak/ski-lifts/l106023/

I fondly remember hanging my poles on the hooks. I also not so fondly remember them falling off a few times when the chair bounced under the tension wheels at the bottom of the steep pitch on Atlas.

I still call it the yellow chair

We used to jump off that chair at the low point just before where your poles fell off. You know the spot.

Rj1972 wrote

 

Camp, the chairs on lift two are not the original yellow ones, with the hooks that you could hang your ski poles from. They purchased some used galvanized chairs a number of years ago to replace the yellow ones.
 

*sigh*

That’s a cool postcard Dougski. Any idea what year it’s from?

Yes, I remember the point where YOU jumped off.

The place was so different in 1967 back when I first skied Greek. There was an unloading platform just below that point so beginners like me could avoid the steeper parts of Polex. My Dad and I used to get off there when I was a beginner. We could take the cross road trail to East Meadow, stop at the house next to the pond and get hot chocolate. Or go the other direction and go down Castor to Alpha and get back on "The Chair". There was a long area where you had to skate/pole to get to Caster.  You bought lunch in the A-frame cafeteria, which was always crowded. There was always a fire in the big fireplace. Chairs 1, 3 and 4 were "planned". We went to Greek because it was the only CNY area with a chairlift. He didn't have to ruin his back trying to ride a T-Bar with me. Lines were consistently long. 20 to 40 minutes weekend afternoons. It was a zoo. We would get up early on Saturdays and be in line when "The Chairlift" opened. We also went there at night.

We skied all over western and central NY: Bristol, Snow Ridge, Song, Tog, Lab, Ironwood Ridge, Mystic, Swain, Woods Valley, McCaully, Oak, Drumlins. But Greek was the best. My Dad knew everybody when we skied. I found out much later that he was the attorney who represented Hall Lift Company (HQ in Watertown NY) locally when most ski areas in NY were buying chairlifts. We skied A-LOT in those days.

YES!!! The house by the pond was way cool. Skiing across that pond was the shit back then too.

Within that time period I'm surprised you guys didn't hit Intermont Ski area. My Dad and his buds would go back and forth between Intermont and Greek.

Brownski wrote

That’s a cool postcard Dougski. Any idea what year it’s from?

My guess is the post card has to be between between 1963 and 1968, because the card says on the back:  "700 foot vertical, 2 T-Bars, Poma", with no mention of any other chairlifts, and there were no other chairlifts until 1969 when the Alpha Chair was installed. See http://www.skilifts.org/old/install_na1969.htm for the date the Alpha chair was installed.

Also funny: Vertical drop is only 700 feet.

Dougski

Do you remember these?

campgottagopee wrote

Within that time period I'm surprised you guys didn't hit Intermont Ski area. My Dad and his buds would go back and forth between Intermont and Greek.

We probably did hit Intermont too. It was 50-53 years ago, and my memory isn't THAT good.

There are things I especially remember about skiing very young that made an impression on me:
1. Going up Pico (with my Dad) on what seemed like the longest frigging T-Bar in the world.
2. Getting stuck in the parking lot at Snow Ridge after a day learning why Snow Ridge didn't bother with snow-making.
3. Winding our way down what is now Epicurious, Castor, Pollex to the house on Meadows at Greek. Riding that Yellow chair for the first time to the top.
4. Taking one look at the bare slopes at Ironwood Ridge and getting back in the car to go to Lab.
5. Hitting a deer with his beloved 1969 Mustang late at night coming home from Greek. Hearing the F-word for the first time too!
6. My Mom dancing on Sentimental Journey as Song Mountain blasted something by Chicago.
7. The night my Dad wiped out in a pile of snow and skied until closing. Next day he went to doctor and found he had two cracked ribs!
8. Lace up boots, cable release bindings and "safety" straps on wooden Northland skis with screwed in metal edges. I survived.
9. Skiing for the first time at Butternut Basin, where a very patient teenage girl instructor spent half the day talking me into trying it. Later she and I were the last ones to go up the rope tow when it closed.
10. Having to share with my sister those pizza sized chocolate chip cookies at Labrador.
11. Getting new skis at Christmas and taking them up the hill in our backyard. Dad placing several hay bales between that hill and the house. Learning that hay bales are basically boulder hard once it rains and they freeze.

Dougski wrote

The place was so different...

https://nyskiblog.com/directory/ski-memorabilia/greek-peak-hot-dog-skiers/

I remember that patch, but have no idea why!   Where'd it come from?

Great list Dougski

I'll add some of mine after I give it some thought

LOL
I felt the same way you did when I found it. I came across it after moving into my current house 5 years ago. It was in a box of stuff. I almost think it came from my dad, but it could be mine from when I was a kid.

My research has told me ( I asked Boo) that the patch represents a teaching method that Gordie developed and ran at GP. Other than that, that's all I know about it.

This is great!  What fun!

Harvey wrote

Dougski wrote

The place was so different...

https://nyskiblog.com/directory/ski-memorabilia/greek-peak-hot-dog-skiers/

That had to be an incredibly fun day in the Valley

I always loved the font in the old logo, very inspired:



Now, it's this generic bollox -- like an assisted-living facility:

Conditions were nice yesterday and grooming was the best that it's been all season! Upper Mars Hill was getting pretty thin on the flats thru the trees and I won't be surprised if its closed by Sunday making the shuttle bus the only option to ski chair 5. Seems like every time conditions get really good we get another gully washer and have to start the whole process all over again...I'm glad they hammered the snowmaking on the trails off the quad to be able to get through these tough weather cycles!