If you’re connected to New York skiing, it’s been hard to miss the blizzard of activity at Holiday Mountain, following the acquisition of the property by the Bridgeville Ski Company, in May. Leading the effort is Mike Taylor. He was born in Monticello NY and grew up skiing the hill.
I drove up on Sunday to meet with Mike and see it for myself. We met in the outer lot, near the North Lodge and the Fun Park. Mike was driving a red Jeep Wrangler that would prove integral to our tour. The volume of work-in-progress inspired a million questions and Mike had the answers. I’ve got two stories to tell, first the backstory.
There is a bit of history surrounding this bend in the Neversink River. At the beginning of this tale, Mike’s great-grandmother, Maude Crawford, owned a large property in the town of Thompson that included the present day ski hill. Her land was relatively flat at the top, with a pronounced plunge down to the river.
In 1955, New York state forced Maude to sell the most ‘usable’ (flat) part of her land, to accommodate the widening of Route 17. She didn’t have much use for the steep terrain that remained, and she sold it to the town for $5,000 in 1957.
In December of that year, the Thompson Parks Commission opened Holiday Mountain, operating a rope tow and t-bar in what is known as The Bowl. In the 1964, just south of The Bowl, a Poma chair was installed serving Turkey Trot and Kroeger Pass. Then in 1968, to the south of that, Roman Candle was added. Sometime in the 1990s Manny’s Run and Benson’s Glade were cut and lights are installed on all three runs.
In 2000, budget considerations motivated the town to sell the ski area, and Holiday was purchased by a private company. A few years later, the Fun Park was added. In recent years the ski area shrank, as trees were reclaimed The Bowl and eventually the North slope.
When the property went up for sale this past spring, it seemed likely that the land would be purchased for real estate development, and the ski area would close. Mike is an entrepreneur at his core, and there’s something inside of him that wouldn’t let the ski hill go.
He readily admits he has no ski area management experience, but it’s clear that over the course of his career, Mike’s developed a understanding of management, construction and logistics that is serving him well during this top-to-bottom renovation.
In the fall of 2023, Bridgeville Ski Company is going big. The infrastructure update is mind blowing.
To start, we peeked into the North Lodge, it was mostly empty, with a few remnants of the arcade from the Fun Park. For this season, the plan is use the North Lodge as base for tubing without any renovation. Next to the lodge are twelve lanes of snow tubing ready for finishing touches.
There’s buried drainage you’ll never see, trails have been reclaimed and widened. Below the South Lodge is the new Learning Center, to be outfitted with another magic carpet before opening day. Down at riverside, there are (3) new 250 hp National Pumps with GE motors backing up the original 150 hp model that served the entire mountain until now. Mike estimates it will take two days below 28 degrees to cover Roman Candle, Manny’s Run and Benson’s Glade and another two days to cover Turkey Trot and Kroeger Pass.
The biggest story has to be Turkey Trot. We drove the Jeep up Kroeger Pass to the top of the lift. The trail hasn’t been skied for at least five years, and the liftline was covered with pine trees. It’s not a simple matter to get lifts running and approved after five idle years. The original 1964 Poma is scheduled for final inspection next week. All systems are go. 🤞
This season on the North slope, Holiday will use existing snowmaking pipe and portable Hedco fan guns to blow Turkey Trot and Kroeger. Independence Run has been cleared, but won’t have snowmaking this year. Long term plans include a lift re-alignment (stay tuned) and air/water guns on installed Kroeger and Independence. You get the sense when talking to Mike that ‘long term’ and ‘next year’ are somewhat interchangeable. It’s safe to say that plans for Turkey Trot for ’24/25 are ambitious.
We got back in the Jeep and headed down to the South Lodge, and up Benson’s to the top of Roman Candle. Roman has a new electrical feed and is getting new 12 inch steel water pipe that will supply (7) SMI Super Pole Cat fan guns.
In addition Holiday is adding (4) portable SMI portable fan guns and (45) Ratnik air/water stick guns. In a move to guarantee independence and capacity, Holiday has added a 1.2 megawatt generator and 1600 CFM diesel air compressor. Most of the electrical infrastructure for snowmaking has been replaced and 110 new “snow bright” lights have replaced the 40 year old metal halide lights on that side of the mountain.
At skier’s left we checked out Holiday’s newest trail, Hackledam. There’s significant work to be done, but when it is complete, the run will qualify as expert terrain to rival the pitch on trails at Hunter and Plattekill.
Back at the bottom of South, we headed back up Kroeger to check out The Bowl, the original terrain pod at Holiday. Unlike the rest of the mountain, The Bowl is made of sand, and has some pretty interesting contours and vegetation islands. From the response I’ve seen Holiday’s social media, this part of the mountain was a favorite back in the day.
At the top of The Bowl is the terminus of the iconic Poma that can be seen from Route 17. The search is on for a replacement lift, to install next spring. The plan is to replace all the snowmaking and open as many as several additional trails for the 2025-26 skiing season.
We headed back down to the base, and spent another hour talking in the parking lot. I’ve never met a person quite like Mike, up close. His entrepreneurial drive is a dominant force, but he loves skiing, community and life too. This season he’s going to do he what does every winter, patrolling Plattekill and skiing Holiday.
Mike wants to grow the positive impact Holiday Mountain has on Sullivan County. Monticello High School needs Holiday if they are to continue to have a ski racing program that produces New York State champions. Masters racing program, USSA racing, weekly ‘beer league’ night racing and firefighter races are all on the table.
I’ve never seen anything quite like this in New York, and I want a front row seat. See you on the hill.
Great job Mike and team on achieving a huge amount in a very short time. I haven’t skied Holiday since the 90s, but I have a ton of nostalgia for it since it was one of the places where my love for skiing began. Can’t wait to get down there this winter to see the improvements and ski it again.
This is awesome! I skied there when I was about 10 and took a ski lesson there, the beginnings of my biggest passion. I still look for that lone chair when I drive by on 17. Glad to hear there is new life over there. I wish them a successful season. Keep us posted.
Fantastic in every way! Grew up and learned to ski at Holiday in the 1970’s when my parents had a house at Lake Louise Marie. So many memories of Holiday and so much skiing there back in the day. When my son was old enough in 1994 or so we took him there to ski for his first time on a mtn. Kudos to Mike for bringing this history back; as the story points out, the grounds could have been sucked up for real estate development but this is so much more fun! I can’t wait to get there at some point this winter.
Thanks Mike and good luck to you and the new Holiday Mountain!
The stoke is high here. Chapeau, Mike.
Great news. Brother used to race motocross in the early ‘80s real close to HM. Read they had mx at the mtn, still have it?
Does that Poma floater face the southwest? Had one at Hunter and Sterling Forest/TR.
Very interesting read on the history in the borche belt, thank Harv.
Good luck Mike!
My wife and I met Mike this past Summer and spoke at length on its past history and future. Mike’s going to need all the support he can get…locally from Sullivan County and the State. It’s tough to have an economically feasible ski mountain without either public support or real estate development. Plus it wouldn’t hurt if it’s a cold snowy winter.
I like many grew up at Holiday taking the bus from school for night skiing and waiting in line for 20 min for a 3 min run. For a small ski mountain it turned out many excellent skier’s who passed on the love of the sport to their children. Every-time you went down you remembered each spot that challenged you and did it over and over again. Hitting the lip of the bowl propelled you to jump over the bowl.
My Dad, Marvin (now 96) was a ski commissioner during its time of growth adding the new area (now 60 yrs old) and chairlift and self-loading Poma. Vic Gordon ski manager was everyone’s Dad and many kids can remember being called out for unsafe ski practices.
What Holiday did that was really special was bring in 40 busses on a weekend of inner city kids and teaching them how to ski. Try to find any mountain doing that today.
So, let’s get out there and support skiing at Holiday. I’ll be there.
Awesome. This is the most exciting story in NY skiing right now. I can’t wait to ski Holuday this year.. Really looking forward to it.
Back in the 70’s I used to work as a ski instructor for a Huntington Long Island based ski tour company (Mt.SkiSpree Tours) and I remember bringing a bus there occasionally and staying at the Paramount that was close by.
Thanks for joining me on a tour Harvey. This is truly a multi-year “rebirth” project but we’ve made some serious advancements with infrastructure upgrades this year. As anyone that’s ever skied Holiday know – we have some GREAT terrain to be tapped, we have plenty of snowmaking water, a friendly municipality that’s 100% supportive, we’re easy to get to adjacent to NYS 17, 85 miles from NYC, in a river valley that’s colddd, plenty of hotel rooms, casino visible from the top of the triple and great buildings to work with.
Top of the mountain is relatively level so we’re talking possibly adding snowmaking for nordic trails with its own lodge. In the talks. 12 lanes of snow-tubing under construction from our separate “North Lodge”. Racing’s back at Holiday — we’re totally committed with getting after-school programs and high school alpine racing back throughout the region. Holiday’s a gift to this area and we’re looking forward to bringing it up to its full “fun potential” in coming years.
Check us out…. skiholidaymtn.com !
Been working in the Monticello area for parts of the last 7 years. While working on the roof at the World Resorts Catskill Hotel, in the Winter, we saw white gold in the distance. Never skied it, but checked in out on a couple non-busy work days.
Now I permanently work 10 minutes away and hope to do a little after work skiing at Holiday, this winter.
As a Monticello resident, I learned how to ski at Holiday Mtn at age 10 in 1957… on Northland skis with Cubco bindings… when season ski passes were $25!! I’ve since graced other ski areas in New York, Upper Peninsula in Michigan, Vermont, Utah, Colorado, Virginia, Italy, Austria, France, Switzerland….even Pennsylvania and New Jersey!! My heart is where it all started…Holiday Mountain!! Many thanks go to my uncle Marvin Blumenfeld and my long time neighbor Don Hammond who had the forsight to follow thru with their dreams.
Great story, and hats off to you and your crew, Mike. Looking forward to making some turns at Holiday this season!
Kudos to you Mike for having the tenacity and the ambition to re~birth a childhood stable in the lives of Sullivan County households. I had a fabulous fun filled childhood thanks to Holiday Mountain. My father, deceased, was a local attorney and was at the groundbreaking for chair 1 along with Vic Gordon and Marvin Blumenfeld.and others. All of us kids grew up together. This is a monumental happening for Sullivan County and yes for sure Taylor will need the communities help. Go Mike!!!!
Great job my hats off to Mike Taylor have skied there way over 50 days the bowl was great slope and what a great water supply he has! I will be there!