THERE IS HOPE!

Skiing goes downhill due to lack of snow By FLETCHER DOYLE News Sports Reporter 12/21/2006
	Click to view larger picture Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News The grass may be green, but Holiday Valley in Ellicottville has four slopes open for skiers. More photos on the Picture Page, C10. Click to view larger picture Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News Catherine Wadih, 6, of Cincinnati, negotiates the beginners slope Wednesday at Holiday Valley, where only a few of 53 slopes were open, thanks to unseasonably warm weather. Temperatures were in the 40s Wednesday, with blue skies and bright sunshine - just the kind of weather guaranteed to cast a pall over Ellicottville. Area ski resorts depend on the 12 weeks of skiing and snowboarding that start Christmas weekend, so resort owners and their customers weren't singing the praises of unseasonably warm weather. "I'm sitting here five days before Christmas and I'm a little nervous," Kissing Bridge President Mark Halter said by phone Wednesday. "The extended forecast is not encouraging. "I keep checking to see if we're going to get some of that Canadian air, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen soon. That air must be having passport issues." Kissing Bridge was open for three days in early December but has been closed since. All that's left of that snowfall and cold temperatures are two slopes with spotty coverage and some large piles of snow waiting to be spread when temperatures fall. The Christmas week is crucial to snow resorts because it's one of the busiest of the year, generating as much as 25 percent of an area's revenues. "If you lose Christmas week, you can't have a great winter," said Halter, who added that he would be a lot more worried if he hadn't spent so conservatively on facility upgrades during the off-season. "If I had taken on a $1 million debt, I'd be a lot grayer than I am now," he said. Cockaigne also opened for three days before shutting down. The warm weather "ground us to a halt," said spokeswoman Linda Johnson. "There's still snow [on the hill] but we're waiting to see what happens. Grass is growing on people's lawns; it's really disgusting," she said. Holiday Valley and Peek 'n Peak have stayed open since early December, but with reduced terrain. In fact, Holiday Valley held a snowboarding event last weekend and drew about 100 riders. Both areas are benefiting from extensive investments in snowmaking, which is needed because they have hotels and condos rented and they have to offer their customers something. Peek 'n Peak has seven slopes open and Holiday Valley has four. Both are looking at several windows of predicted cold when they can make snow and open trails. Holiday Valley hopes to have as many as 10 trails and five lifts open by the weekend. Making snow in the recent warm weather is expensive, but according to Peek 'n Peak's Chip Day, pounding out snow is well worth it because the cost is minuscule compared with the money that would be lost if people canceled their room reservations. "We're converting an indoor tennis court into a play area for kids. We're trying to help ease the pain if we don't get all 27 slopes open," Day said. "We're making the best of it. We haven't had to cancel a thing." The biggest losers are the employees and businesses that make their money off the ski business. "My face is cringing, it's been bad," said Victoria Brown, owner of the Ellicottville Depot, which depends upon Holiday Valley. "You ask people, "How are you doing?' and everyone's as depressed as the next person." Slow business has Brown calling in fewer cooks and waitresses. The ski areas are not calling in part-time staff members who were trained months ago for the Christmas rush. People who use these jobs to generate extra spending money for the holidays are having to do without. "It's a tough one," Brown said. "I was looking to have a little more money for Christmas shopping. I'll have to rob Peter to pay Paul." No snow means almost no business at Byrncliff Resort, the cross-country and golf area in Varysburg. "It does hurt us if we don't have snow," said manager Scotty Meidenbauer of Byrncliff. "We are on one of the main snowmobile trails in Wyoming County. With no snow, snowmobilers can't take advantage of our food and beverage [service]." Restaurants and gas stations around Byrncliff are similarly affected. Snow generates money in Western New York. Meidenbauer said the presence of 20 golfers on his course Wednesday couldn't make up for the non-existent skiing business. Sales were also down at the Ski Market in Williamsville, according to assistant manager Paul Dzierba. "We're feeling the effects for sure," Dzierba said Tuesday. "When there's no snow here, fewer people come. We're doing well because it's the week before Christmas, but if it was snowing we'd be doing substantially better." Regardless of the current conditions and a 10-day forecast that looks good for holiday travelers, the resorts aren't panicking. They've been through this before. No lesson or racing programs have been canceled; all are still on schedule to begin Jan. 3, after Christmas week, as expected. What the resorts are selling now is hope, one of the messages of the season. The warm temperatures mean that Lake Erie is relatively warm, increasing the odds for a major weather event. A few lake-effect snows would allow the areas to play catch-up, to make up in January and February the business they lost in late December. The situation is similar to that of the Buffalo Bills: "You can still have a good season," KB's Halter said. "You just can't make the playoffs." For more information on Chautauqua Lake Real Estate & Living visit: www.chautauqualakehomes.com