FlannSki On our way up to Gore earlier this week we opted to make a pit stop at the recently reopened Val Bialas Ski Center in Utica, NY. The hill is located on the south side of Utica in Roscoe Conkling Park adjacent to the Utica Zoo (you can even see the lions) and Forest Hill Cemetery. Originally opened in 1954 the ski hill had served the city of Utica for many seasons until 2017 when a combination of unreliable conditions and operators saw the lift stop spinning. For 9 years the lifts sat idle until the City of Utica received a grant for $2million to build a modern snowmaking system and reopen the ski hill. Currently a double chair and handle tow serve 5 trails on 250′ of vertical. It looked like a second handle tow ran adjacent to the chair lift serving a sledding hill. The base lodge is attached to the Utica Recreating Center selling lift tickets and simple refreshments. An outdoor skating rink is also located next to the lodge. We pulled into the lot a bit after 2, quickly bought our tickets ($10 for the pair) and headed for the left. While taking some photos at the bottom we happened to meet Mike Galime, the snowboarding Mayor of Utica, who was nice enough to tell us a bit about the reopening of the ski area which was a passion project of his. After that we hopped on the lift for the ride up to the top. There was a nice verity of terrain for such a small area with the steep cemetery trail directly under the lift, some nice blue runs through the woods (and even a small glade) in the middle and the mellower green terrain on the zoo side of then hill all overlooking the city below. Unfortunately the installation of the snowmaking system had gone well into the winter so there was not much of a base and the top of the hill was still chewed up from the construction. We still had a good time exploring this unique area and it made for a nice break on our drive.
ciscokid That’s great ! Another resurrected area. I think Harvey was there too https://nyskiblog.com/val-bialas-opens-in-2026/#more-82303
