Western New York Skiing

Who else lives in this area? Looking for tips. Have ISKINY Sany Gold Pass. Will ski ADK's every other weekend. But will stay local the other weekend. Holiday Valley seems to be the king around here. Any other good places? How about Bristol?

Thanks!

  Sorry, you may possibly be  the only Western NY representative on this forum. Most seem to live/ski in Eastern NY. There are a few of us in Central NY, and the Southern Tier. Greek Peak is our home hill. My only experience skiing in Western NY was a trip to Holiday Valley. It was fun, but I can be at Whiteface, or Southern VT, for the same drive time. Enjoy your ISKINY pass, and welcome to the forum.

Cornhead wrote

Sorry, you may possibly be  the only Western NY representative on this forum. Most seem to live/ski in Eastern NY. There are a few of us in Central NY, and the Southern Tier. Greek Peak is our home hill. My only experience skiing in Western NY was a trip to Holiday Valley. It was fun, but I can be at Whiteface, or Southern VT, for the same drive time. Enjoy your ISKINY pass, and welcome to the forum.

Is it worth it to make the 3 + drive to Greek Peak from here or should I just drive the extra 2 hrs to get to Gore? My go-to place for big mountain skiing will be Gore/Lake PLacid, but I like to mix it up and was wondering if I should plan for a weekend in Greek Peak to check another ski are off the list. Thoughts?

Cornhead wrote

...only Western NY representative on this forum...

There are a few that post.  To bring out the lurkers, someone's got to represent!

That's what happened with CNY and Greek. Camp et al!  

Would definitely like to see some WNY stoke.

(via mobile)

  Will your Adirondack trips be overnighters? Maybe you can hit some of the smaller places in the Daks for a little variety. Hickory, Big Tupper, Titus, West. How about a weekend in the Catskills? Hunter, Windham, Belleayre, and Plattekill. You could hit Greek on your way home from the Daks. I don't know if I'd travel three hours to ski there exclusively. How about Snow Ridge? It's a fun little mountain. They too, like Holiday Valley, get copious amounts of lake snow. Your pass is good at any NY ski area, correct?

  If you do stay overnight to ski Greek, you may want to stay in Cortland. I stayed at the Three Bear Inn in Marathon when the roads were bad. I went to take a crap, the water in the toilet bowl was frozen over! I slept in full ski gear. They did give me a voucher for another night, yay!

  Post some TR's of your Western NY outings. We used to get vouchers for Holiday Valley, Bristol, and Swain from the Warren Miller movies, but I never redeemed them. I'm curious to see what they're like.

Cornhead wrote

Will your Adirondack trips be overnighters? Maybe you can hit some of the smaller places in the Daks for a little variety. Hickory, Big Tupper, Titus, West.

All of my ADK trips will be overnighters. I'm actually staying in Lake Placid for a month from mid Dec thru mid Jan. Already skied West. Would love to ski the smaller hills...

Cornhead wrote

How about a weekend in the Catskills? Hunter, Windham, Belleayre, and Plattekill. You could hit Greek on your way home from the Daks. I don't know if I'd travel three hours to ski there exclusively.

Skied the Catsksills regularly when I lived in NYC area. Rented a cabin in Belleayre area one winter. They're fine, but I'm looking to explore hills I haven't been to, so I plan to pass this season.

Hitting Greek on my way home from the ADK's sounds like a plan to me...

Cornhead wrote

How about Snow Ridge? It's a fun little mountain. They too, like Holiday Valley, get copious amounts of lake snow. Your pass is good at any NY ski area, correct?

Is Snow Ridge the area that sometimes gets the most snow in the NE? If so, I would love to hit it when they get one of the ridiculous lake effect snows they get.

And yes, my pass is good in every NY ski area. Great deal if you ask me.

Cornhead wrote

  If you do stay overnight to ski Greek, you may want to stay in Cortland. I stayed at the Three Bear Inn in Marathon when the roads were bad. I went to take a crap, the water in the toilet bowl was frozen over! I slept in full ski gear. They did give me a voucher for another night, yay!

Sounds.....interesting. Will look at Cortland. Was eyeing the slopeside lodging. Sounds expensive, but haven't stayed at a resort with the indoor water park..may be fun..ish

Cornhead wrote

  Post some TR's of your Western NY outings. We used to get vouchers for Holiday Valley, Bristol, and Swain from the Warren Miller movies, but I never redeemed them. I'm curious to see what they're like.

Will definitely post trip reports and pics. Hope I enjoy it. As I mentioned, I really dig Elicottville as a ski town. Planning on hitting Holiday Valley this weekend. They open Friday...So first WNY ski report will be posted soon.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. Much appreciated!

I don't think you'd be impressed with Greek's water park, imagine a McDonald's play pen with water.  Jay Peak's on the other hand, looks like fun. Snow Ridge is in Turin, on the Tug Hill Plateau, it's directly East of Lake Ontario, which is why they get pounded. It's only 500ft of vertical, but it has no run out, and there are some nice trees there. Search for TR's on it here. I really like the place, great vibe, anti resort, much like Plattekill, I've had a few really fun powder days there.

I skied out there in college ----- Denton Hill, Swain, Bristol, Holiday Valley ------ most of those brain cells are gone but from what I remember is I liked Bristol the best. They always seemed to have the best snow.

Stop by GP someday and give us a shout

Cornhead wrote

I don't think you'd be impressed with Greek's water park

hot tub beers outside in a snow storm - what's not to like  I think they have some water slides and shit too!

 

gorgonzola wrote

Cornhead wrote

I don't think you'd be impressed with Greek's water park

hot tub beers outside in a snow storm - what's not to like  I think they have some water slides and shit too!

MMMMMMMMMMMMM beer

I wouldn't rule it out. I'll admitt that I'm one of the first peeps to totally friggin HATE that lodge/h20 park, but if it wasn't for that place sinking the old GP we wouldn't have the new GP.  I've also had many a conversation with peeps at the bar that really dig it.


I say go for it and let us know what you think.

gorgonzola wrote

Cornhead wrote

I don't think you'd be impressed with Greek's water park

hot tub beers outside in a snow storm - what's not to like  I think they have some water slides and shit too!

Sorry, I guess I'm more of a Spiedies at Chair 5, ice in my toilet at the Three Bear kinda guy. The water park does look like fun for the little ones, they love those McDonald's playlands too. I usually just go home after I ski Greek. I don't drink any more, and I don't have a hot tub, but I suppose I could pop the top off a Beck's NA, and fart in the tub.

Holiday Valley in the wheelhouse. Who will represent?

Harvey wrote

Holiday Valley in the wheelhouse. Who will represent?

There must be a correlation between my taking up residence in Buffalo and the fast start to ski season here. Currently snowing pretty hard by me and will be all snow for 12 more hours.

Holiday Valley may get close to a foot. They open Friday with 5 lifts and over 20 trails. That's really phenomenal. Will hit it either Saturday, Sunday or both days. Will post trip report with pics.

Happy Thanksgiving to all here on NY Ski Blog Forums!

Have fun! I wish Holiday Valley weren't so friggin far from home. I guess I'll just hit Greek on Friday, at least I'll get to see, if not ride, the new lift. Looking forward to your TR. I remember HV being pretty scenic for what it is, some nice pines up on top. Happy Thanksgiving! TGIW

Man I've been looking through the snow forecasts for the WNY resorts, and it's looking snowy.

In other news I'm working on weather pages for Binghamton and Buffalo.  (They are not done.)

Help from the experts appreciated.

http://nyskiblog.com/weather/bgm/

http://nyskiblog.com/weather/buf/

Both of these pages are now linked in the main nav:

Cornhead wrote

Have fun! I wish Holiday Valley weren't so friggin far from home. I guess I'll just hit Greek on Friday, at least I'll get to see, if not ride, the new lift. Looking forward to your TR. I remember HV being pretty scenic for what it is, some nice pines up on top. Happy Thanksgiving! TGIW

Happy TGiving to you too! I'll make sure to look you up when I hit GP this season.

Harvey wrote

Man I've been looking through the snow forecasts for the WNY resorts, and it's looking snowy.

In other news I'm working on weather pages for Binghamton and Buffalo.  (They are not done.)

Help from the experts appreciated.

http://nyskiblog.com/weather/bgm/

http://nyskiblog.com/weather/buf/

Both of these pages are now linked in the main nav:

It's been quite snowy here. Snowed with the storm about 4 or 5 inches, then 2 inches Wednesday night from lake effect and 2 more last night from lake effect. Really loving this lake effect thing. Holiday valley gets close to double those amounts. Hitting it tomorrow.

Regarding the weather links, they look great to me! One other thing...isn't Snow Ridge also covered by KBUF weather service? I know it's the ADK's, but I think it still falls within the scope of KBUF...I know Snow Ridge gets ton of lake effect and I think it's the NY ski area that gets the most snow. Compares with No. VT. in terms of snow, I think. But not sure if it's part of KBUF or Albany NOAA Weather service.

Hi WNY.  I have been following the blog for a while, but have only just signed up to reply.  Where is WNY in your mind.  If you mean B-lo then you're right.  If it's Rochester, then you're not  I imagine that you have explored WNY scene already, but have my thoughts on the 4 areas we have.  
Holiday Valley is the beast, but generally crowded and crazy.  They draw on Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Buffalo and the greater Toronto area--all topld about 9 mill people.  The main focus is the Apres, which is second to none and why they made it in the top ten in Ski mag.  
A ridge over is Hollimont.  There claim to fame is being the largest private club in NA.  They have 5000 members and had to cap Canadian membership at 2500.  The Toronto (TO) millionaires all hang out there.  You can ski there on the weekdays and it is in my opinion the best in the area for the pure skiing.  Both of these are about 1-1.25 from downtown Buffalo.  
Kissing Bridge is where I mostly head.  VERY family oriented, well priced, family oriented and down to earth.  Where else can you see skiiers in Carharts!  Why Carhart's?  Because they are there to ski and don't give a shit about how they look, just there to ski.  And being 35 min. from downtown (where I am), evening turns are an easy hit and run.  I like to call it my time at the "gym."  Their ski team has historically put kids on the NYS ski team with frequency, so they are doing something right.
Buffalo Ski Club is the fourth.  You can ski there during the week just like Hollimont.  They are open Wednesday nights.  It is by far the smallest area and has the least to offer, aside from being a reasonably priced, family oriented private ski club.
Interested in where you are actually located.  We have a place up in Gore so we are often driving back and forth.  If you do a blog get-together I will do my best to attend.

Maybe my definition of Western NY is too wide... but I would LOVE both of your help with the WNY directory:

http://directory.nyskiblog.com/Western-NY-Ski-Areas-f4642493.html

Split em up.

Send me 350+ words on each. Terrain, snowfall, vibe, what makes them unique, pros and cons.

If you need convincing I'll try to think of some incentive.

Gorefarmhouse wrote

 Where else can you see skiiers in Carharts!  Why Carhart's?  Because they are there to ski and don't give a shit about how they look, just there to ski.  

Ever ski @ Greek Peak???? We totally rock carharts and duct tape baby