The 41st Annual Empire State Winter Games, originally scheduled for January 28 – 31, 2021, have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [Read more…] about Empire State Winter Games Cancelled
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Update On Minnewaska Preserve Visitor Center Project
Continuing its longstanding efforts to expand and improve Minnewaska State Park Preserve in New York’s Ulster County, the Open Space Institute (OSI) has announced the final phase of its fundraising campaign to support the park’s new, four-season visitor center. [Read more…] about Update On Minnewaska Preserve Visitor Center Project
State-Run Ski Areas Tout Improvements For 2020-21 Season
The Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) is beginning its summer construction season at Whiteface, Gore and Belleayre Mountains with a range of projects designed to deliver greater lift capacity, enhanced snowmaking, expand facility spaces, and provide a more robust online reservation system. [Read more…] about State-Run Ski Areas Tout Improvements For 2020-21 Season
10th Mountain Division and Adirondack Ski History
Hal Burton. Arthur Draper. James Goodwin. These figures, each one an Adirondack legend, opened the area to winter skiing, from the backcountry ski trail on Wright Peak to the first downhill runs at Whiteface.
Not coincidentally, all three were members of the 10th Mountain Division, created in 1940 to provide the US Army with ski troops and soldiers who could fight an Alpine War.
The 10th would find glory in the Italian campaigns in the final months of World War II, as historian Maurice Isserman recounts in his new book, The Winter Army. [Read more…] about 10th Mountain Division and Adirondack Ski History
Ski, Snowshoe Into Adirondack Great Camp History
While the grounds of Great Camp Santanoni in Newcomb are open to visitors 365 days a year, the buildings are not typically open to the public during winter months.
The exception are designated Winter Weekends, when the rustic historic site is staffed with guides, and snowshoes are provided at the gate for the ten-mile round trip.
[Read more…] about Ski, Snowshoe Into Adirondack Great Camp History
Skiing in Sullivan County in the 1940s
It was in October of 1948 that what local newspapers called “Sullivan County’s first commercial ski slope” began to take shape.
It was Christmas Hills on DeBruce Road in Livingston Manor, and despite the claims, it was not the first ski operation in the county, as Liberty Winter Sports, Inc. had operated the Walnut Mountain ski hill in Liberty more than a decade before. [Read more…] about Skiing in Sullivan County in the 1940s
Skiing Comes to the Sullivan County Catskills
Long before the opening of Davos in Woodridge ushered in a new era in skiing in Sullivan County, before the Concord and Grossinger’s pioneered snowmaking techniques to service their rudimentary ski hills, and even before the Miller brothers operated Christmas Hills in Livingston Manor, skiing made its local debut at Walnut Mountain in Liberty.
In October of 1936, a corporation known as Liberty Winter Sports, Inc. purchased most of Walnut Mountain from Frank H. Mauer with plans to create a skiing facility at the site of the old Walnut Mountain House. Dr. S.W. Wells was president of the group, which also included B.K.J. Eenberg, Thomas P. McNamara, Albert T. Decker, Joseph E. Fersch, Paul H. Allen, and Gunnar Bjorgstrom. Joseph G. Dowling handled the publicity. [Read more…] about Skiing Comes to the Sullivan County Catskills