Ellicottville, N.Y. (WBEN) - Snow by the foot fell last week across the Buffalo-Niagara region, and the ski resorts in the southern tier got their fair share too. And the frigid temperatures that accompanied the snow made for prime snow-making conditions for resorts as well.
Despite the midweek warmup, Holiday Valley is working to open more trails and make the most of an unusual winter in Western New York. "It's been fantastic to see winter return to Western New York," said Dash Hageman of Holiday Valley.
While the Northtowns got more snow than ski county, he says the real win was a nice long stretch of cold weather.
"It really allowed our snowmaking team to get out there and make a lot of snow, which just it allowed us to get more trying to open and are people out on the slopes," Hageman said.
Hageman adds the natural snowfall was a treat.
"It's always awesome to see snow industries and people having fun out in the snow," he said.
Hageman says the snowmaking system was really efficient over the past couple of weeks. He adds the warmer temperatures this week will be used to Holiday Valley's advantage.
"We actually will utilize the warm weather period to refill our snowmaking ponds, get more water into it so that when the next cold weather spell hits, we can maximize the system once again if needed," Hageman explained.
Hageman also feels the snowfall also brought a sense of winter back to the area.
"I think it's just created a sense of enthusiasm about winter again, so people up in Buffalo are now looking out their windows and seeing quite a bit of snow in some cases, which gets them thinking about skiing and snowboarding and having fun outside and hopefully not just snow removal," Hageman said.
While winter feels like it just got started, Holiday Valley has been open for 50 days in Ellicottville. Hageman is looking forward to seeing folks come down and check out the resort and what else the village has to offer.