Photo from ‘Reviving the Legend’ courtesy of Ian McGrew

The long-struggling Hickory Ski Center, which dates to the post-war period, will not be opening this season.

The historic area announced on its website Nov. 7 that they won’t be open for either lift-served or human-powered uphill skiing in the 2025-26 ski season.

“Currently, there are no plans to operate this season,” reads a statement on the News section of the area’s website. “Our hope is that as a new management model unfolds, Hickory will again be a place for families to gather, friends to connect and kids will learn to ski.” 

“Please be advised that public access is no longer available for hiking, skinning, snowshoeing, disc golf or camping. There will be opportunities for reserved group use. There will be construction work on the lodge and a new web page being designed. New beginnings for The Legend that will emerge in the coming months.”

Despite its respectable 1,200-foot vertical rise and some genuinely twisty, challenging trails, Hickory has long been hindered by its lack of a snowmaking system and an ancient lift system featuring two poma lifts and a t-bar.

The area opened last February when enough natural snow piled up but was quickly held back when the two poma lifts broke down.

The area’s travails briefly went viral in November 2023 when they said on Facebook that they still needed $38,000 to pay the insurance premium needed to run the lifts. They urged fans of the area to purchase season passes or to donate to an affiliated foundation to raise the funds.

News media and a number of websites picked up the plea.

That led to a partnership with Entabeni Systems, a company that provides digital technology to ski area, the Indy Pass program and the Unofficial Networks website. They put in enough money for Hickory to pay their insurance premium.

The effort also inspired a documentary ski film, “Reviving the Legend,” by Hudson Valley cinematographer Ian McGrew. See our story here.

Hickory had been on-again, off-again for several years, depending largely on how much snow fell during each winter.

For the 2021-22 season, Hickory operated solely as a skin-up ski-down area, charging $10 per visit on the honor system. Before that it had been closed since 2015.

The area was built after World War II by a group of veteran ski troopers and local ski enthusiasts.

In keeping with that history, Hickory is redolent of a nearly by-gone era in skiing, with low prices (day passes last year were $45 for those 70 and older and free for those 17 and under), basic accommodations and a proud lack of style consciousness. It was the kind of place where skiers could wear their 80s-era C.B. jackets or kit-made down parkas without feeling out of place.

Hickory is located in Warren County, not far from Gore.

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Rick Karlin

A retired newspaperman, Rick Karlin was most recently the acting business editor for the Albany, NY, Times Union. He has also covered state government, the environment and energy development as well as the ski industry. He previously worked in Maine and in Vail and Glenwood Springs, Colorado, where he covered the tourism and mining industries among other topics. In addition to freelance writing, he is a certified ski instructor at the Windham Mountain Club in the Catskills and earlier in his life worked as an instructor at Keystone, Colorado. He has also served as a volunteer with the Vail Mountain Rescue Group.

Latest posts by Rick Karlin (see all)

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• Adirondack’s historical Hickory Ski Center will not operate this season - November 20, 2025
• Historic Hickory Ski Area Becomes Film Subject - March 5, 2025