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Ken Phillips Sr., owner of the Lake Minnewaska hotels, announced plans in August 1963 for a ski center aimed at intermediate skiers. Ski Minne opened just off Routes 44 and 55, with a 1,500-foot T-bar, a J-bar, five intermediate trails and a glass-walled restaurant that opened in June 1964.1,2,3,4
Read the whole historyTodayRuins of the ski area stand in Minnewaska State Park near the Peterskill entrance.1
Timeline
6 events · swipe
Photos
Memories
Skied Ski Minnewaska, 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 Ski Minnewaska
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- Opened 1964 · 5.6 mi away · New YorkThe Bonticou Ski Area, a small rope-tow and T-bar slope on Mohonk Mountain House land in New Paltz, open from 1964 into the early 1970s.
- 1960–1978 · 9.1 mi away · New YorkA hotel and ski area above Ellenville, the country's only Chinese American-owned ski resort, that ran on and off from about 1960 until 1978.
- Years not yet collected · 9.7 mi away · New YorkThe one-trail ski slope of the Nevele, a Catskills resort hotel outside Ellenville, served by a double chair and a rope tow.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 4 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Ken Phillips Sr., owner of the Lake Minnewaska hotels, announced plans in August 1963 for a ski center aimed at intermediate skiers. Ski Minne opened just off Routes 44 and 55, with a 1,500-foot T-bar, a J-bar, five intermediate trails and a glass-walled restaurant that opened in June 1964. Hudson Valley One dates the opening to 1964, NYSkiBlog to 1965.1,2,3,4
The northwest-facing hill had about 385 feet of vertical from a 1,600-foot base, with snowmaking on about 60 percent of its trails. Steel for a new double chairlift arrived in December 1971, and the chair went in that winter.1,2,3,4
Downhill skiing ended after 1977–78; NYSkiBlog says 1977, and it is not clear whether thin snow or skiers' taste for bigger hills was to blame. Cross-country skiing went on at Minnewaska. Fire destroyed the restaurant in 1981, and the state bought the Minnewaska property in 1987. Ruins of the lifts can still be seen near the Peterskill entrance to the state park.1,2,3
TodayRuins of the ski area stand in Minnewaska State Park near the Peterskill entrance.1
Timeline
- 1963Ken Phillips Sr. announces an intermediate ski center3
- 1964Ski Minne restaurant opens in June; ski center opens1,3
- 1971Steel arrives for a new double chairlift, installed that winter1,3
- 1978Ski Minne shuts down after the 1977–78 season1,3
- 1981Fire destroys the Ski Minne restaurant1,3
- 1987New York State buys the Minnewaska property1,3
Sources for this history (4)
- 1Hudson Valley One · The brief reign of downhill skiing in the Shawangunks (Frances Marion Platt)
- 2NYSkiBlog · The History of Mohonk and Minnewaska (Peter Minde)
- 3lakeminnewaska.org · Lake Minnewaska History
- 4skikabbalah.com · Ski Minne
Photos
No photographs of Ski Minnewaska 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 Ski Minnewaska, in their own words.
Facts
Location
41.7413° N · 74.2194° W · New York · Shawangunk Mountains
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
1964–1978
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