Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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Otis Mountain sits off Lobdell Road and Route 9, about two miles south of Elizabethtown. The Elizabethtown Ski Club leased the hill and began a small ski program in January 1940, running it on and off until 1959.1,2
Read the whole historyTodayThe privately owned land is a mountain biking and trail area and home to the Otis Mountain Get Down festival.4
Timeline
7 events · swipe
Photos
Memories
Skied Otis 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 Otis Mountain
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- Years not yet collected · 15.6 mi away · New YorkPaleface Ski Center, a ski area on Bassett Mountain beside Route 86 in Jay, east of Wilmington, with one double chairlift and a T-bar.
- 1948–1960 · 18.8 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 · 19.3 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.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 4 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Otis Mountain sits off Lobdell Road and Route 9, about two miles south of Elizabethtown. The Elizabethtown Ski Club leased the hill and began a small ski program in January 1940, running it on and off until 1959. Local volunteers then formed the Otis Mountain Ski Corporation and reopened the hill in January 1965.1,2
Within five years the corporation could not cover its costs, and in 1970 Jane and Herb Hildebrandt bought the property. They added a T-bar, improved the facilities and offered free skiing on Wednesday nights, and ran it as a family hill from 1972 to 1979. Guides of the 1970s list a T-bar and two rope tows, night skiing and a vertical of 350 to 385 feet. Poor snow kept the Hildebrandts from opening for 1979–80 and the winter after.1,3
Jeff Allott bought the hill in 1994 and brought skiing back with a simple rope tow, which was still running in 2015. The land, over 600 acres in private hands, is now known for mountain bike trails and the Otis Mountain Get Down music festival.1,4
TodayThe privately owned land is a mountain biking and trail area and home to the Otis Mountain Get Down festival.4
Timeline
- 1940Elizabethtown Ski Club starts a ski program on the leased hill1
- 1959The ski club's sporadic operation ends1
- 1965Otis Mountain Ski Corporation reopens the hill in January1
- 1970Jane and Herb Hildebrandt buy the property and add a T-bar1
- 1979Hildebrandts' last season; poor snow keeps them closed after1
- 1994Jeff Allott buys the hill and revives skiing with a rope tow1
- 2015A rope tow still runs on the hill1
Sources for this history (4)
- 1Elizabeth Cantrell (first published in Offprint Magazine) · Otis Mountain Get Down: Little Mountain, Big Heart (Elizabeth Cantrell, September 2015)
- 2skikabbalah.com · Otis Mountain
- 3skikabbalah.com · OTIS MOUNTAIN References
- 4Town of Elizabethtown · Otis Mountain Recreation Area
Photos
No photographs of Otis 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 Otis Mountain, in their own words.
Facts
Location
44.1912° N · 73.6010° W · New York · Adirondack Mountains
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
from 1940 · the year it closed is 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 4all 4, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain