Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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Innsbruck USA was a mid-sized ski area off Maxian Road in the Town of Binghamton, near Hawleyton, just south of the city. NELSAP dates its opening to sometime between 1964 and 1967; a local hiking guide gives 1965.1,3,4,5
Read the whole historyTodayThe land is Broome County's 466-acre Aqua-Terra Wilderness Area, with trails, a pond and a loop around the old ski slopes.2,6
Timeline
5 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Innsbruck USA, 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 Innsbruck USA
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1935–1970 · 15 mi away · PennsylvaniaA rope-tow ski area just south of Montrose in Susquehanna County that opened in 1935 and was known in its later years as Spruce Run.
- Closed 2004 · 34.8 mi away · PennsylvaniaA ski area at Camp Lohikan near Lake Como, close to the New York line, once called Sno-Hill, whose four lifts served two hills until 2004.
- Years not yet collected · 42.1 mi away · New YorkAn upside-down ski area in Solon, northeast of Cortland, with its lodge at the top, a double chairlift and bowl skiing, listed in guidebooks from 1970 to 1973.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 7 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Innsbruck USA was a mid-sized ski area off Maxian Road in the Town of Binghamton, near Hawleyton, just south of the city. NELSAP dates its opening to sometime between 1964 and 1967; a local hiking guide gives 1965. Two side-by-side T-bars, at least one with a midstation, climbed about 485 feet, and a shorter J-bar served beginners. By 1972 it had 11 trails and three open slopes, and snowmaking and night skiing covered a few trails from the summit and the beginner slopes.1,3,4,5
The end came abruptly in the late 1970s. NELSAP reports that the area could not pay its electric bills and the power company shut off the power. The hiking guide gives 1978 as its last year, while NELSAP says about 1980. Broome County took over the land in 1983.1,3,6
The former ski area is now part of the county's 466-acre Aqua-Terra Wilderness Area, and its Innsbruck Loop trail climbs around the edge of the old slopes.2,6
TodayThe land is Broome County's 466-acre Aqua-Terra Wilderness Area, with trails, a pond and a loop around the old ski slopes.2,6
Timeline
- 1965Opens, by one local guide's count; NELSAP says between 1964 and 19671,3
- 1972Has 11 trails and three open slopes; trail map dated this year1,7
- 1978Last year of operation, by the local guide's account3
- c. 1980NELSAP's end date, after the power company cut the electricity1
- 1983Broome County takes over the former ski area3,6
Sources for this history (7)
- 1New England Lost Ski Areas Project · Innsbruck USA
- 2Broome County · Aqua-Terra Wilderness Area
- 3Wander & Ponder (Bill Bitner) · Aqua-Terra Wilderness Area
- 4Skikabbalah · Innsbruck USA
- 5Skikabbalah · Innsbruck USA, guidebook references
- 6Broome County Parks & Recreation (Eagle Scout project) · Aqua-Terra Park brochure and trail map (created by Cole Diehl with Broome County, Eagle Scout project 2014)
- 7Skimap.org · Innsbruck USA
Photos
No photographs of Innsbruck USA 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 Innsbruck USA, in their own words.
Facts
Location
42.0314° N · 75.9358° W · New York
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
1965–1978
Closed after the 1978 season. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
Its numbers
all 4all 4, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain