Talk to any seasoned skier from the Utica area and they will likely have fond memories of Val Bialas. The ski center — named after Valentine Bialas, a local Olympic speed skater — opened in the 1954. It is one of the few municipality-owned ski areas in America.
Val Bialas was a staple in the community for years. Over the last two decades unreliable winters and other economic factors have impacted the ski center’s operations. Over that time, Val has opened only sporadically, with different operators.
Its last official opening was in 2017.
When I set out to ride every area in New York, Val Bialas was on my list. But in the back of my mind I wondered if it would ever open again. This year, the city of Utica enjoyed enough community support — and cold air — to reopen the hill this past Friday, February 13, 2026.
All season Robert has been whispering in my ear, Val is going to open! I asked him to pay attention to the story for me, from his home base, just five minutes and eight seconds from the hill. Send up a flare, or some dramatic signal when the time comes. He did just that.
We got it together, both of us, and arrived in time to make first chair. We ultimately got bumped by patrol, and then the mayor. I actually got third chair, Robert and the Mayor got second chair, and patrol was number 1, as it should be.
Mayor Michael is a driving force behind the ski area’s reopening. He was busy doing TV interviews, and I didn’t get to ride the lift with him, but heard from him in a quick conversation in line for the lift. The city of Utica is pushing an all-season approach for the sports center, investing in snowmaking and lift attachments for downhill mountain biking in the summer. I’m not sure why, but I wasn’t expecting a 35-year-old mayor on a snowboard. It’s awesome. The energy is there.
On opening day lifts spun from 4 to 8pm so we got a bit of everything, daytime, evening, sunset and night skiing.
The center is located in the middle of downtown Utica on Cobb Hill, overlooking the entire city. It was a beautiful scene in the late afternoon light. We went straight down Cemetery, the black diamond rated liftline to catch that view. On our second run Robert slashed the pow on skiers left. We moved progressively farther to skiers right hitting Eagle, the Zoo Trail and Big Val.
I wondered about pow vs groomer skis for this day. Robert assured me there would be some untracked snow and we found lines in The Glades. The snow was surprisingly supportive and bouncy, many days after the last snowfall, as testament to the relentless cold we’ve had in the northeast.
Adjacent to the ski area are city-owned parks, an ice rink and a local zoo. We saw a lion! I haven’t done much (lift-served) night skiing in my life, but I knew that making turns in view of the city lights was something special.
Val Bialas is so close to so many people, with potential as a four-season community center. I’d love to see a bigtime park event come to the venue, with viewing areas, food trucks and all the trappings of an annual festival. It could be great for the city.
Thanks for painting a much more interesting picture of Val that I was expecting to encounter. Unfortunately, plans for today literally got rained out and they will be closed through this week with a target reopening on Sat. 2/21.
Great article!!! Looks like Santa waving from the lift!!!
It was great talking to you in the lift line and the chair ride up.
It’s such a great asset for the area.
The mayor is full energy!!
If you didn’t chase those runs down with a fresh Utica Club, you missed out.
How awesome to have a place to ski right in town. Hopefully they can get some funding for snow making so they can open more frequently.
Excellent! I walked up the hill several falls ago and was impressed by what I saw. Would be great if it reopened permanently with snow making.
Unfortunately bad grooming led to it closing already. We went opening day. I do not understand how whoever was grooming can dig up so much dirt and make the hills look like tubing lanes on openings weekend. You do not see conditions like that at other ski areas only in Utica. One reason nobody will pay $35 to go there. All this snow this year and 2 million in snowmaking upgrades and conditions were some of the worse I have ever seen. You should not be able to tell exactly where the groomer drove. Also digging up as much dirt as they had showing I was shocked they stayed open 4 days. I hope they make changes and get an experienced operator in the groomer otherwise that 2 million upgrade means nothing.
Hard to believe that as a Syracuse native, I’d never even heard of this hill. The only time I went to Utica was to see rock concerts at the Aud!
LOL, Utica Club: aka “Uncle Charlie”
Thanks for the poop, Mike. It reminds me how easy it is to take grooming for granted . . . until it’s botched. For example, Matt at Oak is an absolute artist, not to mention leaving fresh on most runs instead of wall-to-wall, seamless corduroy. And he’s a groomer rodeo champion, to boot. Perhaps it’s the operator, or the equipment. Needless to say that person hasn’t had a lot of experience to have ‘the touch’ at Val, an area that’s been closed for years. (Recently watched a newbie groomer with lots of experience operating heavy equipment spend the better part of a day just retracing a short stretch of trail, back and forth, to get a feel for the machine, blade, and groomer.) P.S. It would be worth sharing your feedback with Val Bialas Ski Area.
To the Ski Blog. THANK YOU FOR THE COVERAGE!
Regarding the operations of the hill on the thread…
In the first four days we had over 700 lift tickets issued, so for that, I thank everyone who came out.
This soft opening is not standard operating for what this hill will be managed as next year, when opened.
This year we had to wait until the conclusion of the construction that had a good portion of Big Val, Zoo Trail, and the top of Cemetery along the lift open for excavation – which was raw dirt fill as of the first week of February from the pump house all the way to the top of the lift.
Due to that excavation – NOT POOR GROOMING OR MANAGEMENT, and the timing of its completion we opened this hill with a very light base of manufactured snow on those parts of the runs and trails. While the parts of the facility that were not under construction had a solid 18-inch pack, the areas of construction on had 3 to 6 inches.
As of now we do plan to re-open, but I can assure everyone that is reading any comments on this blog feed, the hill has not closed due to a lack of grooming or mismanagement. This was a soft open, to test all operations, to get ready for full operations next year.
Again, two weeks prior to the open all of the trenching that took place for the new water and electrical lines, as well as the 15 pedestals for the snow making equipment, was still open trench. This was filled, graded, and we utilized the days in which we were testing the snow making equipment to cover the freshly graded raw dirt fill.
The other situation we are dealing with is the local news is very anxious to use ski reports that would be typical at any other established hill during the spring to “report” that it’s open, closed, open, closed.
This facility, when we open next year, will be no different than what I experience at other facilities.
At the beginning of the season, trails will open one by one, and then I would expect as the season goes on, all will open if mother nature works with us, then as the season winds down, trails will be open/closed to preserve base and keep the operations open as long as possible.
Again, thank you all to everyone who came out, and thank you for the review! Utica is planning this for success, and consistency in the future.
The groomers don’t ski so have no idea it shouldn’t look like it does.
Mayor Galime. Thank you for clarifying the cause for what some perceived to be improper grooming and mismanagement. Keep up the good work.
I remember seeing it when I went to Utica College in the early ’70s, although I hadn’t started skiing yet. Good luck to them in the future-skiing needs these ‘mini feeder areas” to spark interest in the sport.
I live 5 minutes away and this is a huge win for the city of Utica. I have realistic expectations for a resort that has been closed for 10 years, has only natural snow and has a new staff. This place will be a great resource for local kids to have access to snowsports. Excited to see how it will develop in time especially with community support.
Great story, great pics! Congrats to all for all of the work that went into making this happen. I can’t wait to get out there.
Definitely bad grooming always has been there. Opening day trails that weren’t dug up and still dirt showing and ridges from where the groomer made passes. There was a joke back in the day if you could ski utica you could anywhere because the conditions were so bad. Not sure why you get off the chairlift and it’s not a downhill like every ski area. Get qualified people here and it could be a goldmine. You literally had trees down on open trails with no lights.
The soft opening was a lot of fun! It felt great returning to a much-improved and vibrant Val after a decade-long hiatus.
Maintenance and operations this time around are set to a much higher standard, and I know they will only continue to improve. I got the chance to ski there again on Monday, and the conditions (including the grooming) held up really well.
Just imagine how awesome this place is going to be on a powder day!!
Thanks Harv, and Mr. Mayor! Pretty accessible mayor right there, and a great shot of you Harvey. This looks like so much fun.
While I never heard of this ski area previously, it’s great to read about the rebirth and future plans. Seems this is a great resource for Utica and its residents. Love the photos showing the city in the view shed. Nice job by Utica and Harvey for the report.
Glad to hear you made it out Harvey for this special occasion!
Some of these comments are just brutal. For no reason at all.
This ski area is by no means a resort, it’s an area where city kids can come and be exposed to skiing or boarding in a safe and easy area.
As the mayor stated, the grooming was severely impacted by the snow making installation project. That project started in November of 2025 and ended early February 2026. How many areas do you know that even attempt that?! But they did, and they completed it and tested it, and made snow there for the first time in over thirty years. (At one time, this area had one of the best snow making systems in New York).
As for the groomers, no they haven’t won any grooming rodeos, they aren’t even trained as groomers. These folks are equipment operators from our Parks Department. Our Parks and Public Works Departments have some of the most dedicated and committed personnel you could find. They work hard, do what is asked of them, and commit to make our city better. Guess what, next year, after running that groomer and learning the hill layout a little better, you’ll be surprised how well they groom.
So maybe try to be kind and support a ski area that is giving kids a chance to learn a lifetime sport.