In the evening on Monday August 7, severe weather ripped through southern Lewis County in New York. The next day the National Weather Service in Buffalo confirmed that the storm was an EF-3 tornado with wind speeds topping out at 140 mph. The storm carved a path of destruction 16 miles long and 700 feet across at it’s widest point. The last time an EF-3 tornado touched down in New York was back in 2014.
The storm’s destruction began near West Leyden and stretched northeast to Turin NY. The Village of Turin was subject to significant damage. Snow Ridge Ski Resort and the West Wind Motel, 1/2 mile north of the ski area were hit hardest. After that, the long rampage ended; beyond the West Wind Motel damage was minimal.
At Snow Ridge tree damage was extensive. Hardwood trees were snapped at the rootline. All three chair lifts were hit, but none of the cables failed. They were all deroped and knocked to the ground, but the efficacy of the cables is yet to be determined. The Snow Pocket T-bar was also hit, making it a 4 out-of-5 lift disaster. Only the magic carpet was spared.
Building damage was minimal, but the Little Mountain bullwheel house will need to be rebuilt, as well as a number of roofs across the resort. The resort’s Pisten Bully 200 was badly damaged by a falling tree.
Now Snow Ridge is facing what could be the biggest challenge in it’s 75 year history. At the time of year when operations is normally doing routine maintenance on their chairlifts, all three need significant repair. General Manager Nick Mir is confident that Snow Ridge will operate this season, but what this looks like remains to be seen. Now it’s a race against time to prepare the Ridge for the upcoming winter sports season.
Cleanup won’t be easy as trees are putting thousands of pounds of pressure on the chair lift cables. Nick was quoted, “we need real professionals to deal with that kind of danger. We’re going to start by removing the trees and assessing the lifts.”
Snow Ridge has felt a huge outpouring of support after photos were posted on social media. We all know that it’s going to take an all-hands effort to get the resort back on it’s feet in time for the season. The faithful have set up a volunteer day and gofundme campaign to put all of that love to work. See details below.
The Ridge is the epitome of independent mom and pop ski resorts, locally owned and operated with diehard regulars who call the place home. The hill has a strong culture and community, with skiers and riders who are more than happy to show you around. It’s the kind of place where you know all the lifties, and if he’s not too busy, you can ski with the GM.
NYSkiBlog stands with Snow Ridge. Join us at the Snow Ridge Volunteer Day in Turin on August 26 at 10am, or contribute to the effort to get the Ridge back on her feet. All donations will go towards getting the resort operational this winter. NY ski resorts are fiercely independent, but never alone.
Tough to hear this, and hopefully there is some insurance that can help, it is a cool place that I skied at decades ago. As for the PB 200, it is not likely destroyed. There is a lot of demand for PB parts, and I expect the chassis, treads, engine, transmission are all usable and salvageable. I recently saw a completely burned to the ground PB that fetched 10k