Monticello, New York — It’s probably been the busiest offseason ever at Holiday Mountain.
Bought by local businessman Mike Taylor in 2023, the work has been practically nonstop to give a ski area on the verge of closure a much-needed jolt. Some of the projects over the past few offseasons have included installing a refurbished quad chairlift, reopening trails closed for years, opening Holiday’s first double black trail, adding a terrain park with a rope tow, making extensive snowmaking upgrades, purchasing new on-mountain equipment, building a new base lodge, and moving its snow tubing zone. Despite all that, the biggest projects may be happening this offseason thanks to the North Pod expansion.
Yesterday, Holiday Mountain revealed its new trail map. Designed by Senan Gorman, the map builds on his previous work and now includes the new terrain. It shows the future names of the trail and chairlift.
About The Expansion
This offseason, trails in the North Pod (also known as “The Bowl”) return to Holiday Mountain. Due to erosion from extensive BMX use, along with flooding in 2006, a multi-year effort was undertaken to ensure the terrain was stable and ready for skiers and riders. All of these trails will have snowmaking capabilities and lights for night skiing. The steep-skiing highlight will be the Free Bird trail, a double black diamond with a headwall pitch of 43 degrees. The new terrain zone will connect to and from the Turkey Trot pod thanks to ingress/egress trails.
Holiday Mountain took an unconventional route for its lift. Rather than building a new chairlift, it acquired used parts to assemble a triple chairlift for this new pod. The old chairlift, which hasn’t been used in many years, was removed during this offseason.
Also notable is the completion and opening of the North Lodge. It was supposed to open last winter, but a fire delayed that. This will allow Holiday Mountain to have snow tubing operations there, which will be located next to the lodge.
Image Credits: Holiday Mountain
