The history the Catskills as a winter sports destination dates back to at least the 1920s, but the attempt to create a year around vacationland did not meet with immediate success. In fact, some spectacular showings at a few of the hotels over the ensuing years notwithstanding, the effort was still largely hit or miss well into the 1950s.
Grossinger’s had entertained more than 850 guests over the Christmas-New Year holidays in 1929, and had its largest weekend ever up until that time, winter or summer, on Washington’s Birthday weekend in 1941, but no hotel – not even Grossinger’s – was able to do that kind of winter business on a regular basis. [Read more…] about Catskills Ski Resorts’ Early History
In the motor toboggan era – the time before the advent of the modern 
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced that backcountry downhill skiers, snowboarders, and others who may traverse slides or steep, open terrain in the High Peaks Region of the Adirondacks should be aware of and prepared for avalanche conditions.
Although the number of Sullivan County hotels open during the winter months increased significantly beginning in the 1940s, there were attempts to market the county as a winter resort long before that. 
This episode of A New York Minute in History recalls the “Miracle on Ice,” when the U.S. Men’s Hockey team upset the Soviet Union in the 1980