TR - Holiday Valley, NY 2/23

[guitar73]

last weekend we made the long trek west and north up to holiday valley in western NY. we left right after work on friday and drove up to state college where we met up with a college buddy of mine who still lives in state college. papa johns and belgian beers were the order of the nite.

 

got on the road sat AM around 7:15-ish and made it up to HV around 10AM. parking lot was hopping, but we managed to score a relatively close spot to the holiday valley lodge. booted up at the car, got the lift tix and headed up the mtn.

 

for those who are unfamilar with the mtn, HV has three peak areas and two valley areas.....a similar arrangement to sunday river (but on a much smaller scale of course). HV claims to have 750ft vert, but in reality it skis like 500ft off any given lift. even with the short vert, the resort spreads out nicely over 1,400 acres. most of the trails are narrow and windy, but there are a few very wide cruisers as well. while there were alot of people on the mtn, we never really felt like it was overcrowded there. yes, there were some lift lines at the more popular lifts (which accessed the easier terrian)....but we stuck to the less-frequented lifts that had the better (more interesting) stuff. HV has enough variety to keep someone occupied for a full day, maybe two....but not much more than that.

 

temps were in the low 30's and got to the mid 30's by lunch time. the snow was hero all the way, but got scraped off as the day worn on. coverage in the trees was a bit thin. bumps were kind of soft, but the troughs were boiler plate.

 

runs of the day inlcude:

 

the wall - the steepest trail at HV. short and sweet. center was a bit wind-swept, but skier's left was the bomb.

 

eagle/falcon/hoot owl/ raven - this pod of black trails had very few people on it and was sheltered from the wind, so the snow was pretty descent. falcon had some nice, soft bumps on it. eagle is a straight shot under the eagle quad lift; nice place to lay down some GSS rails

 

happy glades - probably the most scenic place at HV. it's a grove of well spaced spruce trees, low-angle pitch but has a few nice little rollers to play with. this stand was gladed very nicely, unlike most of the other trees at HV.

 

mountain coaster - we hit this up at the end of the day. cool for something different to do. $8 per ride.

 

all in all, HV is a neat little place to visit, if you are in the area or have friends/family near by to visit.

[guitar73]

Nice report..holiday valley often is tops in ski east surveys because it seems to be a big draw for Midwesterners...how was the steepness compared to the poconos? Was there natural snow on the ground?

 

we saw quite a few ohio license plates there. HV could fit right in with the pocono mtns. yes, there was a good bit of natural snow there.

[IrishSnow686]

I used to ski HV all the time when I went to school at Univ. of Buffalo. Couldn't ask for a better deal, $70 student season pass to 4 mountains. HV was a fun place and when the lake effect snow hits, its right in the zone to get some big dumps. I'd compare it to CB of the pocono's in terms of popularity. Friday night school clubs and the weekends were mobbed, not sure if that has changed at all. Definitely get alot of OH people, which is only about an hour away.