Anyone ever been to Holiday Valley?

[race_ski]

I'm heading out to Holiday Valley with my parents on Friday, never been before. Wondering if it's any good or if I'm in for a weekend of boredom?

[trainnvain]

Find some booze.
No, not a bad hill for where it is. Good snow usually.

[booner]

good bars, good snow for where it is,WEAK vertical

[Hugh Conway]

It's an undiscovered Alta. Chamonix before the crowds. Whistler without the wankers.

[race_ski]

Looks like they only have one double black
Any idea how good it is?

[dumpy]

Having not skied Bristol and skiing Ho Val once, but being from just ways east of you, I have a general idea what Bristol is all about, here is my $.02:

It'll feel a lot like Bristol, maybe a hair bigger. A good LES dump can make it a lot of fun, pretty much the same deal as every other ski area across the I-90 corridor. Now that it seems to be the darling of gaperific mags like Ski, it may be over run with Volkl carving skis and Bogner outfits.

Ellicotville is a pretty sweet little town, a few decent ski shops there, I was actually bored with a few hours to kill in Niagara Falls one day and made the almost 2 hour drive down to hit the shops. I'm assuming this is just a day trip, so I'm not sure if the town will even play a factor, but E-ville is pretty cool.

[race_ski]

Big fan of Bristol, besides Whiteface I think it's the best in NYS

It's 2 days but we're staying right at HV so (if it's any good) I can ski from opening til close. Probably won't head into town unless the skiing really sucks

[pineconepete]

700' vert, not much snow latelty so watch out for ice
Have fun in town

[booner]

Big fan of Bristol, besides Whiteface I think it's the best in NYS

It's 2 days but we're staying right at HV so (if it's any good) I can ski from opening til close. Probably won't head into town unless the skiing really sucks

Gore is the best in NYS..but don't tell

[race_ski]

Gore is the best in NYS..but don't tell

No way! Gore is ok though

[fish]

gore sucks. holiday valley is alright... too flat though. bristol is the best in western NY

[link1]

Bristol defintely has HV beat on vertical. Bristol's main downside is lack of glades which HV does have to some extent. The problem with HV is the amount of people. It draws many people from Canada, as well as western NY, PA, OH, and even Indiana( 6 hour drive). There is really nothing else to ski around, so lots of lift lines. Very nice town though.

[race_ski]

Yeah it was interesting. Went to town for a bit, nice ski gear but tourist priced like 10%+ retail so that was annoying. It was and ok suki thogh. Half the staff seemed mad at the world and the other half were really nice. Few good diamonds, double diamond was a joke though. 20 ft max and all it was, was this trail they decided not to groom or even out. Other thing that really pissed me off was ALL the staff smoked. 3/4 of the lift guys were smoking.

Good weekend over all but I don't think I'll be back anytime soon.