The Ski History Blog

The Old Red Gondola

Posted on by 70s Gore Kid

Gore Mountain's old red gondolaIt’s one of my first ski memories — the early 70s, I am 10 years old, and making my first trip to a “real” ski area. After a few fitful starts at some local t-bar/Poma-lift hills, Dad took me with him to the mountain where he skied with some of his grownup friends.

The place is called “Gore,” just over an hour drive from the Colonie area north of Albany, and for this wide-eyed boy, it was if he had set me down somewhere in Austria.

I spent a season on the Goree Gully beginner lift, a long shuffle from the base lodge — “skating” was an adult technique I couldn’t comprehend at the time. I learned to connect turns, do a “stem Christie” (the popular intermediate turn at the time), and found myself making progress.

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Tagged: Adirondacks, Gore Mountain, Ski History21 Comments

Bearpen: The Original Beast Of The East

Posted on by NYSkiBlog

Four months ago, we posted an interview with New York ski history expert Russ LaChapelle, in which he explained how his passion for lost Empire State ski areas developed over the years.

Of the many ski centers that had closed for good, none caught his imagination more than Bearpen — a mountain in the western Catskills that could have turned into the biggest resort east of the Rockies. Instead, it became a forgotten footnote. But this story must be heard.

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Tagged: Bearpen, Catskills, Magazine, Ski History

ThatNYguy: Russ LaChapelle

Posted on by James Michaud
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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Tagged: Bearpen, Catskills, NELSAP, Ski History27 Comments