Where to Ski: Hickory Hill, New York

Growing up as an Upstate New York skier my friends and I always dreamed of going to Hickory Hill Ski Area on a chance snow day, hoping to hit it right with deep, fresh snow. My friends dad, Gary Moore would tell me stories of how steep the place was in spots and of how he and Dave Harvey would tuck every run from top to bottom when they were kids on the Hickory Ski team. While some of these stories may be taller than they are steep I can finally say I understand Gary’s enthusiasm for Hickory after all these years.

One reason I never made it up to Hickory on those snow days was the lack of myself or my friends owning or having the privilege to drive a car at the age of 10, that and why make mom drive to Hickory in treacherous road conditions when West Mountain was literally in our backyards.  In my case I turned my backyard into a fully functional terrain park, quarter pipe included, when mom refused to drive anywhere.  The other reason for never making it up to the Hickory was the closing of its doors in 2005, for what could have been for good. It was perfect timing, we could all finally drive, snow days where plentiful and the all natural un-groomed gem which was twenty minutes north had shut down.

In the 2009-2010 season Hickory Hill was re-opened by a few locals with the help of an out of town investor who used to ski Hickory Hill. News of the hill re-opening spread throughout the small upstate ski community and the locals as I recall where overly excited.

In February, friend and employee of Hickory Hill, Todd Meyer contacted The Ski Monster in hopes of us sponsoring a three part park competition series the mountain would be holding throughout the month. Being the long time dreamer of Hickory I was excited to hear what Todd was up to in the North Country and decided I had to go see for myself.

One Saturday morning in February I found myself in the midst of the Hickory Hill Tele Fest with a $2.50 breakfast sandwich in my jowls and a few poma lifts to pull me up to fun in its purest form. The hill had been groomed on the lower trails but the top remained untouched by any kind of machine. A few inches of fresh snow and some warmer temps from the weekend before turned the snow into a sort of sugar-bump dreamland, this is starting to sound like Johnny Depp was there with Penelope Cruz making deals with Columbian drug cartels. Anyways, the excellent experience I shared with a few close friends that day was caught on camera and can be seen in The Ski Monster photo gallery, I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.