ELLICOTTVILLE, N.Y. (WKBW) — Holiday Valley Resort in Ellicottville is exactly two weeks away from opening up for this year’s ski season.
“We started last April getting ready for this year,” Director of marketing at Holiday Valley Jane Eshbaugh said. “Hopefully that natural snow comes and gets everybody excited about being outdoors again.”
Holiday Valley has 1,200 employees getting the slopes ready. But for Canadians, crossing the border means getting a test on the way back.
“I think the testing issue is going to make it a little tougher for short-term visits,” Eshbaugh
spoke.
HoliMont Ski Club, also in Ellicottville, said nearly 1,000 members missed out on ski season last year.
“Half of our membership, located on the other side of the Canadian border were unable to get to HoliMont at all,” general manager of HoliMont Ed Youmans said.
HoliMont is set to open a bit later than Holiday Valley, they said they hope to open in mid-December. And they said the news of the border reopening re-energized their staff.
“We are ecstatic about that and that gave us hope for this season,” Youmans said.
Eshbaugh said planning ahead can help you save some money.
“If you buy it [a ski pass] two weeks in advance you get a pretty good discount,” Eshbaugh said.
And Eshbaugh said the best part of Holiday Valley is its variety of activities.
“You don’t even have to be a skier or snowboarder to go tubing,” Eshbaugh said.
