Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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Paleface Ski Center ran on Bassett Mountain beside Route 86 in the town of Jay, about four miles east of Wilmington and Whiteface. Lost NY's author counts it as the first true ski resort in New York.1,2,3
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Memories
Skied Bassett Mountain, or worked there?
Tell us what you remember, or what this page has wrong. Memories show here, credited to you, after we read them; facts are checked against a source before they change a figure.
Lost near Bassett Mountain
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1948–1960 · 4.8 mi away · New YorkNew York State's first major ski area, on the wind-scoured north side of Whiteface Mountain near Wilmington, which ran from 1948 until 1960.
- Years not yet collected · 10.7 mi away · New YorkThe Lake Placid Club's own ski hill north of Mirror Lake, served by T-bars, which opened to the public in 1976 as Mt. Whitney Ski Center.
- Years not yet collected · 13.6 mi away · New YorkA small in-town beginner hill behind the Lake Placid Center in Lake Placid, served for 37 years by a rope tow and later also by a Poma lift.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 4 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Paleface Ski Center ran on Bassett Mountain beside Route 86 in the town of Jay, about four miles east of Wilmington and Whiteface. Lost NY's author counts it as the first true ski resort in New York. A double chairlift and a T-bar served about 700 feet of vertical, with snowmaking and night skiing on Wednesday and Friday nights.1,2,3
Most ski guides from 1970 to 1978 list 15 trails and put the drop between 720 and 750 feet. A 1978 trail map shows four novice, five intermediate and two expert trails, gives 820 feet of vertical, and lights three trails for night skiing. The pages read do not say when it opened or closed.2,4
Sources for this history (4)
- 1Skikabbalah · Paleface (Bassett Mt.)
- 2Skikabbalah · Paleface, guidebook references
- 3Skimap.org · Bassett Mountain (Paleface)
- 4NYSkiBlog · Paleface Ski Area Trail Map 1978
Photos
No photographs of Bassett Mountain we may republish yet
Its old photos and trail maps live on the sites that collected them, and Google finds the rest.
Memories
What skiers remember of Bassett Mountain, in their own words.
Facts
Location
44.3864° N · 73.7598° W · New York · Adirondack Mountains
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
not yet collected
Closed for good; the year it closed is not yet collected. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
Its numbers
all 3all 3, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain