Skaneateles Ski Club, NY

It’s become a cliché for downhill skiers to bemoan how their beloved sport has become increasingly corporatized over the past two decades, and how there are fewer and fewer local feeder hills — places where, as the Cheers theme song intoned, “everybody knows your name.”

Skaneateles Ski Club entrance

The not-for-profit Skaneateles Ski Club, located on the eastern perimeter of Central New York’s Finger Lakes region, is one of those increasingly rare ski areas that transports you back to a time before the words “bottom line” became paramount in the industry.

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ThatNYguy: Russ LaChapelle

Belleayre single chair
Belleayre Single Chair

I first became aware of Russ LaChapelle through his posts on the Snowjournal forum under the screen name “ThatNYguy.” In addition to his extensive nuts-and-bolts knowledge and outspoken opinions about New York’s rich ski history, I liked how he conveyed the emotions behind his passion for Empire State skiing. In 2002, Russ launched “Skiing History in New York” — a website designed to tell the stories of the state’s lift-served ski hills and mountains, both those still in operation as well as the many that had closed.

But what really fascinated me were Russ’s ongoing reports about the rise and fall of Bearpen Mountain, a ski area in the western Catskills that closed 50 years ago, and his efforts to make it accessible to skiers once again. Following is a discussion that details one man’s views of the changing landscape of NYS skiing from the late 1960s to the present.

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