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Winter Skiing
To some folks from the city, the Catskills is
just one big, undifferentiated place "up there." Yes,
there is good downhill skiing in the Catskills, but further
up and not in Sullivan County. Unfortunately, no part of the
Catskills has everything. In Sullivan County, you get wonderful
lakes, rolling farmland and the Delaware River but not
great downhill skiing. Northeast of here, in Greene County,
you do get downhill skiing at Belleayre,
Windham and Hunter
Mountains, but not the lakes or the Delaware River.
The closest "real" ski areas to Sullivan
County are Belleayre
in the northern Catskills, about 44 miles from Roscoe (1 hour
driving) and Elk Mountain
in Pennsylvania. Elk is a nice mountain with a 1,000 vertical
(its where I ski.) Elk is 31 miles west of Callicoon, about
a 45 minute drive.
For smaller, closer mountains, there's Big
Bear at Masthope Mountain in Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania, just
across the Delaware River from Barryville. Big Bear is a smaller
mountain, good for an occasional day or to try out those new
skis. And in Sullivan County itself, we have Holiday
Mountain near Bridgeville with a 400 foot vertical (they're
tag line, "Where Great Skiers Begin" sort of says
it all) and the Villa
Roma Ski Area near Jeffersonville with a mind-boggling 250
ft. vertical.
So you can see, Mount Snow or Killington we ain't.
There's enough skiing close by for an occasional day trip to
schuss down the slopes (and an hour drive on a Saturday to Belleayre
is a heck of a lot faster than a 2 1/2 hour drive from the city
to ski.) But if you're looking for looking for the Sullivan
County equivilent of being just off the Killington access road,
this isn't the place.
But while we don't have a lot of downhill action
right here, cross country is BIG. In the farm areas of western
county, many farmers open up cattle fences to permit snowmobilers
to travel through (and some of those trails cut by snowmobilers
go for miles and miles). Those snowmobile trails make great
cross country trails. The Frost
Valley YMCA, just over the Ulster County line northeast
of Claryville, offers some of the best 'formal' cross country
trails in the east.
If downhill skiing is your thing, you're probably
better off heading to the northern Catskills or over to the
Poconos. But and I'm sticking my neck out here
I will venture that Sullivan County, with our lakes, rivers,
golf courses and woodlands, offers more recreation options the
rest of the year.