Tug Hill Touring Centers
 

A few weeks ago, I asked for comments on touring centers in the Tug Hill
area of New York State. Currently, the only areas of New York State with
snow appear to be the Great Lake snow zones, of which Tug Hill in notorious
(over 200 inches per year).

With no snow here in the Albany area, and little in the nearby Adirondacks,
we headed for Tug Hill for two successive weekends. Snow conditions were
perfect for skiing, even though the one foot base is about a fifth of what
they usually have this time of year.

We went to Salmon Hills last week. Professional groomed trails would have
worked for Olympic competition. But as one poster said, there is lots of
noise pollution, and some fumes, from the snowmobile racers on the adjacent
lake. Trails were extremely easy....even mellow. The area with the most
difficult trails had not been groomed due to insufficient snow. It was a
pleasant day and good skiing. However, the lodge was very slow due to the
Special Olympics event they were hosting at the same time. At lunch time,
the employees seemed to be unable to pour a bowl of chili without extreme
delays.

This week, we went over to Osceola Tug Hill. Also outstanding weather on
Monday and outstanding snow conditions after new lake effects followed the
strong cold front that came through on the weekend. A few further trails
had not been groomed but were skied through and were still wonderful. We
skied nearly all of the 30 or so KM available. Hilly. Narrow beautiful
wooded trails. Appropriately named trails like Kamikaze, The Wall, and Big
Hill told us where to find the more exciting trails.

Osceola doesn't use the modern power grooming techniques, but it wasn't
needed. The entire operation is run out of an old converted farm house with
the owner working long days to update the trail conditions on the web, groom
the trails, sell trail tickets, sell and rent equipment from a well stocked
shop, and collect money for drinks and snacks available for the taking on an
honor system. Three cats circulated among my delighted kids in the small
but very comfortable lodge area.

In short, I loved the place. Oh and it's much less expensive than
Osceola....$12 for adults and $6 for kids up to 17. Then he took two
dollars off the adult tickets because there were a few trees from the
windstorm across the furthest trails that he hadn't groomed. Didn't matter.
We went anyway and stepped over the trees.

I highly recommend Osceola if you like traditional skiing, like hills, and
like narrow wooded trails!

--
Bill in Schenectady

Bill in Schenectady wrote:

In short, I loved the place. Oh and it's much less expensive than
Osceola....$12 for adults and $6 for kids up to 17.

Did you mean less expensive than Salmon Hills?

Lew

Bill in Schenectady wrote:

With no snow here in the Albany area, and little in the nearby Adirondacks,
we headed for Tug Hill for two successive weekends.

I can confirm the part about "little in the nearby Adirondacks." This
past Saturday I went skiing in Newcomb (pronounced "nuke 'em"), on a
fairly flat trail (to Camp Santanoni), and there was barely enough snow
(perhaps an inch) for it be skiable.

Lew Lasher
Cambridge, Massachusetts and Stowe, Vermont

"With no snow in the Albany area". Not true.

The most reliable XC skiing this side of Tug Hill is a half hours drive
East of Albany at Prospect Mtn., VT. I skied there until May 7 a few
years ago. They currently have 5-15" base with 1-2" new snow and 40K
open. This center is open over 100 days a year. It's no Tug Hill, but
it's awfully convenient to Albany and people from all over CT Southern
NY and NJ drive hours to ski there. See
http://www.prospectmountain.com for conditions.

Lew Lasher wrote:
Bill in Schenectady wrote:

In short, I loved the place. Oh and it's much less expensive than
Osceola....$12 for adults and $6 for kids up to 17.

Did you mean less expensive than Salmon Hills?

Lew

Brain cramp. Of course that's what I meant.

Ralph Scott wrote:
"With no snow in the Albany area". Not true.

The most reliable XC skiing this side of Tug Hill is a half hours drive
East of Albany at Prospect Mtn., VT. I skied there until May 7 a few
years ago. They currently have 5-15" base with 1-2" new snow and 40K
open. This center is open over 100 days a year. It's no Tug Hill, but
it's awfully convenient to Albany and people from all over CT Southern
NY and NJ drive hours to ski there. See
http://www.prospectmountain.com for conditions.

Thanks for the tip. I have been to Prospect but didn't consider that
it would have good snow conditions so close by.

I miss the old days when you could ride a rope tow to the top and ski
down.