By Dan Balkin
Holden Martinez.
In many ways, skiing in our region can be traced back to the enthusiasm for the sport generated by the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. Before there was skiing in Ellicottville, the first powered ski lifts – rope tows – popped up in the Boston / Colden Valley. That area is where Kissing Bridge and The Buffalo Ski Center (formerly known as the Buffalo Ski Club) are located today. Long before snowmaking, with each fresh dump of natural snow, early skiers in our region would either drive or take a passenger train to the Boston Hills. Some daring souls, seeking new adventures, started to take the same train further south to Ellicottville. The Buffalonians often stayed at the Hotel Lincoln, which eventually became the Ellicottville Inn, and in more recent years was converted into condos. In 1935, Ellicottville native Dr. Bill Northrup and other locals, along with some skiing enthusiasts from Buffalo, established a ski run on Fish Hill. Fish Hill is located to the west of HoliMont on Rt. 242. One of the early skiers at Fish Hill was Bill Merk, the founder of HoliMont. Bill and his wife Freda enjoyed to ski-tour across the top of the ridge of present day HoliMont and drop down to ski through what would be the present day runs of Punch Bowl and Meadow.
And then the war came – WWII that is. After the war ended in 1945, skiing enthusiasts would scour the Army Surplus Store for wooden skis with beartrap bindings and reversible 10th Mountain Division fur-hooded parkas which, to create camouflage in the snowy European mountains, were olive green on one side and white on the other side. These veterans of skiing the vast Alps found Fish Hill a bit tame for their taste. At this point, the Ellicottville Ski Club abandoned Fish Hill and established a new home on the much steeper and more challenging Greer Hill – currently HoliMont’s easternmost slope. Eventually, in 1957, Holiday Valley’s first lift, the Yodeler/Champagne T-Bar was installed (today these slopes are serviced by a high-speed quad). This T-Bar was a sensation and the springboard for Holiday Valley’s rise and great success.
Holimont visionary Bill Merk, however, had the idea of forming a private ski club, and in 1961 HoliMont’s first trail was cut. Seven more trails were added in 1962. In the early days, members did not know the trails by names but simply by numbers, 1-8. In February 1964, the original Exhibition chairlift became operational. It was located on the skiers right (heading down the slope) of the Exhibition slope. Prior to that, HoliMont’s first Tucker Snowcat (grooming machine) was equipped with a sled which skiers would place their skis on and then jump on top of for the ride up the hill! The early days, as in most new businesses, were financially rocky, but the club survived and prospered. Often, after spirited debates, lifts were added and new trails were cut – dramatically expanding the club’s original footprint. Any HoliMonter knows that our Canadian friends have played a huge role in our growth and long-term success. This leads us to arguably HoliMont’s greatest escapade: In 1976, members volunteered to erect HoliMont’s Racing Center. Being in the construction business, Canadian member George Megarry said he would provide the crane to put the rafters in place. After investigating the logistics of moving his crane across the Peace Bridge on a flatbed truck, George discovered he would have to fill out stacks of paperwork. George, having an entrepreneurial bent, thought this problem over and realized that the paperwork problem could be avoided. One Friday afternoon, he and his friend Gordon Wilkinson, still in their business suits, hoisted themselves into the crane’s driver cab and chugged up to a U.S. customs booth. As one might imagine, the American customs agent asked what in the world they were doing. George Megarry nonchalantly informed the agent, “I’m going to work on my ski chalet in Ellicottville.” The customs agent smiled and shrugged, waived them on, and the rafters in the race center were put in place. Two nations, one ski area, a shared set of friends. Perfect.