Western New York & Southern Ontario Ski Centers
Take advantage of Western New York and Southern Ontario's most famous resource. Area residents have a wealth great ski resorts within easy drive.
Holiday Valley is one of the largest ski resorts in Western New York State, about an hour south of Buffalo. It offers skiing for all abilities on 56 slopes served by 13 lifts, including two high-speed quads, eight fixed-grip quads, a double and two surface lifts, spread over four mountain faces.
Holiday Valley has a vertical of 750 feet, 282 acres/56 slopes of skiable terrain (160 acres/37 slopes lighted for night skiing), and an uphill capacity of 23,850 skiers per hour.
Holiday has five terrain parks and a half pipe, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and tubing in a 10-lane, 900-foot-long park served by two tows.
The full-service resort has three base lodges, dining, retail, ski shop services, overnight lodging and a range of year-round activities. The nearby town of Ellicottville also has dining, lodging and shops.
Several other sizable resorts are within easy striking distance of Buffalo. Greek Peak has a vertical drop of 952 feet, 31 trails, terrain park and tubing park, 10 lifts including a triple, six doubles and three surface lifts, 83 percent snowmaking coverage, and night skiing.
Kissing Bridge is another, and with an enticing name. The area also has eight lifts and 24 trails.
Peek'n Peak has 27 trails, three terrain parks and two tubing parks, served by eight chairs, two magic carpets and two tubing lifts. Peek'n Peak operates seven days and nights each week through the ski season, has extensive snowmaking and full-service ski lodge and ski school.
Holimont bills itself as North America's largest private ski area, at least by most measures, with 50 slopes and trails, terrain parks and a half pipe, served by nine lifts including a quad chair, three triples, three doubles and two surface lifts. It's private on the weekends only, however, and opens its slopes to non-members during the week.
Other ski areas in the region include Brantling Ski & Snowboard Center, Buffalo Ski Club Ski Area (with two chairs and five surface lifts), Byrncliff Resort & Conference Center, Cockaigne Ski Area, Colden Tubing Co. (billed as Western New York's largest downhill tubing park), Denton Hill Ski Area, Frost Ridge, Hunt Hollow (another private area open to the public during the week), and Ski Tamarack.
Those willing to make a longer trek can head east to the Adirondacks, or south to the Poconos of Pennsylvania, where good skiing awaits at many more ski resorts.
The table below provides the ability to compare Buffalo ski resorts based on key attributes such as ski resort statistics, downhill terrain, and skier ratings. Use the tabs below to view the different tables. You can also click on a Buffalo ski resort below to learn more about the ski resort.
Skiing Southern Ontario
Short drives lead to several ski resorts in southern Ontario on the Niagara Escarpment, while a longer car tour can drop you at the lifts on one of Quebec's bigger hills.
Toronto's regional resorts maintain a reputation among families for good places to take the kids. Intimate terrain means not losing the kids between the slopes and the lodge, and lift tickets for a family of four costs far less than bigger destination resorts in the Canadian Rockies or British Columbia.
An hour in the car from Toronto will put you at the nearest slopes. Barrie, Ontario, is home to two resorts that not only run lifts for skiing, but pack out their snow tubing parks with families screaming down the hill together.
Snow Valley caters to families with flexible tickets for two-, four-, or six hours, allowing them to start and end the day when they want. It's the same with night skiing. You can buy a ticket for only two hours as opposed to the entire evening. The resort also houses one of the largest professional instruction school's in the province to aid with learning to ski or snowboard.
Horseshoe Resort, which sits in a north-facing U-shaped bowl, boasts one of the province's longest ski seasons thanks to the bowl's harboring snow away from the sun's melting rays. The resort also uses night lights to runs its lifts 14 hours per day—creating one of the province's longest ski days. Family members not interested in alpine skiing can Nordic ski or snowshoe.
Drive 70-75 miles from Toronto and you can explore two other Ontario resorts. Mount St. Louis Moonstone, located in Coldwater just north of Barrie, gained notoriety when it installed Canada's first quad lift. Now, it has four quads and three six-pack high-speed lifts in addition to its triples and doubles. Tired of driving? Bag the car and catch a bus to and from Toronto daily. But bring the little jibbers. Here, park rats separate into two zones --beginners head to The Junkyard, while advanced riders aim for Out Park.
Collingwood is home to Blue Mountain and one of the bigger verticals in the region at 1,082 feet, which explains why it's the third busiest ski resort in Canada. Four six-pack chairlifts cycle skiers up the hill fast in addition to the resort's other nine lifts. Its Telus Park attracts freeriders for its two superpipes, monster rails, and jumps over 50 feet. Last year, park crews built a 70-foot jump that even wowed riders from Whistler.
Head northeast of Toronto for four hours to reach Calabogie Peaks. The intimate hill and Dickson Manor gives families the freedom to split up to ski or relax in the spa and still catch up to each other before nightfall. The hill may only have three lifts, but that's enough for a couple black diamond runs. Its Pineside Terrain Park is rated as a double black diamond and requires a special park pass ($5 per season) for entry in addition to the lift ticket. Those not ready for Pineside head to the introductory park called The Shaft.
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