Monticello, New York — Holiday Mountain was on the verge of closure in 2023, with a developer aiming to buy the area and convert it into housing. However, local businessman and Plattekill Mountain patroller Mike Taylor stepped in to save the ski area. Some of the projects over the past few years include a new expert trail, a chairlift replacement, refurbishing the old lifts, significant snowmaking upgrades, new night lights, and more. With it being only 85 miles away from New York City, it has the potential to become a happening place.
The work has continued this offseason, with some of the projects being a refurbishment of the Roman Candle chairlift, the acquistion of a Tow Pro that will service a new terrain park, rebuilding the pumphouse that caught fire earlier this year, doubling their lights for night skiing, moving the tubing park and adding a SunKid magic carpet lift to service it, and more. While these are great improvements, the most significant project may be happening in the area that won’t even open next winter.
Holiday Mountain has been working this summer on regrading and stabilizing a terrain zone that’s been closed for decades. The area was damaged due to a flood, along with its former usage as a motocross course. The former chairlift was inoperable, meaning that Holiday had to find a replacement.
On Monday, Holiday Mountain provided more information on which chairlift they will use to service the revived terrain pod.
With new lifts being expensive, and demand for used lifts increasing, thus becoming harder to find, the ski area had to get creative. Some of the parts will come from the former Turkey Trot lift, which will include the lift towers. The other parts of the lift are coming from another used Borvig chairlift that Holiday acquired. Thanks to some modification work with Partek, this will allow them to put together a triple chairlift that will be able to safely service the ski area for years to come. So far, engineering and topography work has been completed on the lift, with most of the work scheduled for next summer. It will have a length of around 1,100 feet and a vertical rise of 230 feet.
The future terrain pod will add nine new trails to Holiday Mountain. The short yet steep terrain will diversify the New York ski area’s terrain lineup. It will feature snowmaking, with the snowmaking pipe and electricity process already being started this summer. This new terrain pod is expected to open during the 2026-27 ski season.
Image Credits: Holiday Mountain
