Brownski
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2020
So anybody that’s been paying attention to the front page knows, we’ve been keeping a close eye on Holiday’s progress this past year. They haven’t gotten all that much help from Mother Nature thus far but they have worked their asses off and persevered under difficult conditions.
My intention this year was to head up there one or two nights a week so I could just ski for a couple hours and help patrol do sweep at the end of the night but I haven’t managed to follow through on that plan yet. I’ve just been too tired after work, either physically or mentally, so once my ass hits the recliner, I haven’t been able to motivate- need to work on that.
Anyway, this past Saturday I wasn’t scheduled at Plattekill and I saw on IG that Holiday would be opening their double chair after it being dormant for years. Seemed like an easy call to sleep in and make the much shorter drive to Monticello. Maybe I could help out there a little and save myself two hours of driving. That’s what I did. It was a beautiful day.
There were plenty of Patrollers around when I got there but I did my best to be productive. Mostly I just skied laps. As a minor lift nerd, riding the double was kind of cool. The Holiday crew put a lot of work into getting the lift back into service and inspected for this season so seeing their sweat equity bear fruit was nice.
From speaking to various Sullivan and Orange County locals, it is evident that the community appreciates all the work that has been put into refurbishing Holiday’s infrastructure. One of the patrollers I skied with on Saturday told me he had been planning to quit when he hit his fifty year mark last winter but decided to delay retirement when he saw all the work being done since Mike took over last spring. The community spirit is there, in spite of all the challenges and poor weather.
Some time in the afternoon, I noticed that many of the patrollers who were there when I arrived were not around anymore so when the boss asked if I could stick around til close, I said yes absolutely.
I took a break after sunset for dinner, then headed back out for some more runs under the lights.
We shut down the double and swept that side of the resort around 8:15 or so, took a few more runs and then closed down the triple side just before nine. With some cold nights forecast for this week, we made sure to pull all the bamboo and fencing that might get in the snowmakers’ way before we turned the lights off.
So I was there a bit less than twelve hours on Saturday. I was pretty wiped by the time I got in my car to head home. Well worth it.
My intention this year was to head up there one or two nights a week so I could just ski for a couple hours and help patrol do sweep at the end of the night but I haven’t managed to follow through on that plan yet. I’ve just been too tired after work, either physically or mentally, so once my ass hits the recliner, I haven’t been able to motivate- need to work on that.
Anyway, this past Saturday I wasn’t scheduled at Plattekill and I saw on IG that Holiday would be opening their double chair after it being dormant for years. Seemed like an easy call to sleep in and make the much shorter drive to Monticello. Maybe I could help out there a little and save myself two hours of driving. That’s what I did. It was a beautiful day.
There were plenty of Patrollers around when I got there but I did my best to be productive. Mostly I just skied laps. As a minor lift nerd, riding the double was kind of cool. The Holiday crew put a lot of work into getting the lift back into service and inspected for this season so seeing their sweat equity bear fruit was nice.
From speaking to various Sullivan and Orange County locals, it is evident that the community appreciates all the work that has been put into refurbishing Holiday’s infrastructure. One of the patrollers I skied with on Saturday told me he had been planning to quit when he hit his fifty year mark last winter but decided to delay retirement when he saw all the work being done since Mike took over last spring. The community spirit is there, in spite of all the challenges and poor weather.
Some time in the afternoon, I noticed that many of the patrollers who were there when I arrived were not around anymore so when the boss asked if I could stick around til close, I said yes absolutely.
I took a break after sunset for dinner, then headed back out for some more runs under the lights.
We shut down the double and swept that side of the resort around 8:15 or so, took a few more runs and then closed down the triple side just before nine. With some cold nights forecast for this week, we made sure to pull all the bamboo and fencing that might get in the snowmakers’ way before we turned the lights off.
So I was there a bit less than twelve hours on Saturday. I was pretty wiped by the time I got in my car to head home. Well worth it.
