The Search for Lost Ski Areas of the Adirondacks

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Not a lost " ski area " per se, but a quiant story. Back in the day, a family in Glens Falls had a rope tow on their back yard knoll that anybody could slide from. It's said if it wasn't running, kids could just knock on the door and the family would plug in the lift. Ah, Norman Rockwell America.

I skied a few times back in high school, Seven Springs. The girl I dated was a skier. Her Dad had a rope tow in their backyard, an endless rope powered by some old car up on blocks with the tires off the rims. The rope was powered by the car's rims. We only were able to ski it twice.

Doc, her dad, sold me an old pair of skis. The bindings had to be refitted to my boots. No ski shop in town, and me being a kid, I just " eyeballed " the remount, moving back the rear binding. "That looks about right." Hehehe. It worked. Never had an issue other than I was usually in the back seat. We had alot of fun though and that's what matters.

That Paleface Map is cool. "The ADKS only complete ski resort " The A-frame buildings look very nice for a small area. The C trail, Walter Prager, led me to google and I found this...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Prager

Was this area on Esther mtn? I've read there were several areas on the ridge between Whiteface and Wilmington before Whiteface was built. They were closed because they couldn't maintain snow at the lower elevations. As most know, there's remnants of a T-bar lift on Esther.

Do a search for Darrow's ski hill in Greenfield.  A friend of mine bought the property where Darrows had been off of Locust Grove Road.  He had a trail party last fall and we cut out all the old trails, made some new ones and cut a lift line.  It looks like only about 3-400 vert, but pretty steep.  I can picture a nice bump line on the steeper run.  Old handle tow from Sugarloaf will go in next summer.  

That's impressive.

Paleface is about 5 minutes from my house. I always wanted to hike up it and look around, but its all private land. Adirondack Life Magazine is located there now.

Snowballs wrote

Was this area on Esther mtn? I've read there were several areas on the ridge between Whiteface and Wilmington before Whiteface was built. They were closed because they couldn't maintain snow at the lower elevations. As most know, there's remnants of a T-bar lift on Esther.

Marble Mountain

The story on Darrow's mentioned by Kirby is here, at The Saratogian.  Pretty cool story.  Jeremy talked about this a bit at the presentation at The Alpine Sport Shop 2 weeks ago.

Snowballs, Paleface is a small mountain completely separate from Whiteface, maybe 4 or 5 miles away, on the road between Jay and Wilmington.  As HPD pointed out, the old Marble Mtn ski area operated on Whiteface (well, technically it was on Marble Mountain), in a different location than today's ski center, and has its own story.

I had brought up Paleface when I spoke with Jeremy because 1) it always looked interesting to me driving by, and 2) there's no information about it on NELSAP's website, so I was curious what the story was.  A lot of the trails off the chairlift were relatively mild, but the T-Bar serviced some pretty steep terrain.

The White man's words fly true and straight like smoke rising from peacepipe to the Great Spirit. Many moons have past since the buffalo roamed these woods and Paleface's lifts turned. In my ancestor's Longhouse, there were many ski areas that have gone the way of the buffalo, the moose, the elk.
Give thanks we still have the beavers!  

The Great Spirit has not forgotten his chosen ones, the human beings. He has blessed us with wampum as plentiful as the stars for as long as the river runs and the grass grows and the whiteman continues to visit our casinos.

Take that Custer!

I'd like to know if people have a personal Top 3 of lost ADK ski areas -- either because they had an interesting personality, decent terrain, snow, etc.

I grew up skiing Alpine Meadows in Corinth.  They used to host our high school races and allow us to build monster jumps.  One parent would drop off a pile of kids in the morning and another pick them up at the end of the day.  3 t bars in succession going up the "mountain".  I can't remember the vertical, but as a kid it seemed big.  I think they finally closed in the 1980's over a land ownership issue, but I hadn't been there since the early 1970's.  Many memories from that place.  

Kirby, Alpine Meadows was about a thousand vert.  Not bad. There's quite a bit about Alpine Meadows on the NELSAP site.  

Anyone interested in this thread may also be interested in a Lookout Mountain / Marble Mountain History Tour with Bruce McCulley (WF GM) at Whiteface this Saturday, 1/29, 1:30pm.  Sign up with Guest Services at Whiteface.  

Awesome information on Paleface.  I had an opportunity to cross country ski across the road from the main lodge when it was open in the early 80's but never downhilled there.  I know of a guy that use to play in a band at the lodge on weekends and said he was paid in beer and the place use to really hop!  For many years I have been driving by there almost weekly during ski season on my way to Whiteface and always wondered what the trail system was like.  You can see two steeper trails from the road that appear to have been kept clear by the current owner.   I really enjoyed your post.  Skium  Plattsburgh, NY  Thanks!

Skium, I'm glad to see you've been bitten by the bug and find these lost ski areas like Paleface interesting.  If you haven't already checked out NELSAP's site (I linked to it in my post) you should certainly do so.  Have you skied any other Adirondack areas that are now closed?

K man wrote

Do a search for Darrow's ski hill in Greenfield.  A friend of mine bought the property where Darrows had been off of Locust Grove Road.  He had a trail party last fall and we cut out all the old trails, made some new ones and cut a lift line.  It looks like only about 3-400 vert, but pretty steep.  I can picture a nice bump line on the steeper run.  Old handle tow from Sugarloaf will go in next summer.

Condor and I had plans of doing this on his property, but we didn't quite have the means.

If your ever looking for any help shaping those bumps, I live about 3 miles away from Locust Grove (Rowlands Hollow). Condor doesn't live too far off on the other end, and Suds lives right around the corner from me, too.


I may have said this before, but Condor's dad used to be a ski patroller at Alpine meadows. Kirby, do you by chance know Steve Worth?

Does anyone know about the Ski hill that St. Lawrence U used to run? I heard it didn't close down too long ago. from what I heard, they used to have a HUGE party there once a year their last one was so ridiculous that it ended up getting an article in Playboy magazine? Maybe I'll have to go investigate that.

a couple of Observations :

1. the old SLU hill at the SNOW Bowl in South Colton closed in the late 80's /early 90's. my family and i skied there both DH and XC across the road from the DH area. The annual winter carnival held there featured ski teams from many of  the Ivy League as well as teams from the Poison Ivy schools. the XC area was quite good with a substantial DH component to it.
Many fun times there !!!

The Seven Springs DH and XC area  in Parishville formerly run By Clarkson University closed at roughly  the same time. We also skied there too . Both the SLU  Snow Bowl & 7 Springs were Great starter hills, good college vibe always rocking :>)

Btw i  believe that the Paleface area also skied by several of my cooleagues up here was once owned and operated by the Augsbury Corp that was located in Ogdensburg at the time .

The SLU Ski Bowl was not operational when I arrived on campus in '85, although it was a great place to go sledding!  There have been periodic efforts to get it going but nothing has come to pass.

I have not but I am told of an area that has been closed for a number of years on (or near) Lyon Mountain which is west of Plattsburgh about 15 minutes on Route 374.  I also want to hike up Marble Mountain near Whiteface.  As per a hiking guide I have of the Adirondacks, there is a trail that runs off the Whiteface sceneic highway that brings you up to Marble Mtn. where you can see some remains of the original ski area.  I hope to get up there this hkiing season.  

In case anyone with an interest in this topic missed it, here is an update on the forthcoming book on Lost Ski Areas of the Adirondacks.

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