by Albert Neubert
The worst thaw in eastern skiing history finally ended this past weekend but not without leaving a lot of casualties in its wake. Southerly ski areas dropped like flies with the meltdown last week. Temperatures rose into the low 70s for several days and it only cooled down to the mid-sixties over the weekend and there were no freezing nights in between so melting was a round the clock affair.
Mohawk, in Cornwall Connecticut, decided to close just before the weekend and in spite of having enough snow to continue. Their decision was mainly because nobody was going to come out in the May-like weather which means very heavy snow under bright sun. Montage, in Scranton, was forced to close even though they wanted to stay open. Shawnee, near Stroudsburg in Pennsylvania and Camelback, near Tannersville, Pennsylvania, called it quits on Sunday. Elk Mountain, in Northeast Pennsylvania, closed on Saturday. Butternut, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, closed on Sunday.
Plattekill, in Roxbury, New York, on the far western side of the Catskills was devastated by the warm spell and was forced to close on Sunday. Plattekill’s owners always leave open the possibility of reopening if there’s a change in weather, like a big spring snowstorm, which they can get because of the location and high base elevation. Holiday Mountain, near Monticello, originally planned to close on Sunday but the frigid winter like temperatures that moved in this week had Mike Taylor, the new owner, change his mind. Taylor told me he was making snow this week and would open with two runs on Friday evening and stay open for the weekend. Taylor wants to make a statement that Holiday is back and better than ever and can outlast all local competitor ski areas.
Taylor said that he’s wasting no time to add to his infrastructure improvements for next season. He’s going to replace the Turkey Trot double chair with a modern quad chair, starting the project in April. …
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