Plattekill Mountain To Open Mid-December For 2017-18 Season

Plattekill Mountain in Roxbury, New York, is planning to open its doors for the 2017/18 season next Saturday, December 16. Skiing and snowboarding will be on tap for opening weekend as well as $10 lessons to learn to ski or snowboard offered December 16 and 17 at 10am. Snowtubing operations will begin December 26th.

Due to the inevitable swings in temperatures that typically prevail in late fall and early winter in the Northeast, snowmaking operations at Plattekill often don't start until after Thanksgiving. This year, was no exception, as it looks like winter will be arriving this year during the first full week of December.

Plattekill's Operations Manager Ken Davie explains: "When you are a smaller family- run mountain, you can't afford to risk losing early snowmaking snow you make to a warm up and have to start all over. It's simply too costly to have it all melt and too much of a business risk." Now, the mountain now sees a great window of opportunity for a long range, sustained forecast of cold temperatures and snowmaking at Plattekill is set to begin Thursday, December 7. Davie further explains that "once we start running the snow guns, it will be a 24/7 effort, in order to get the good base we need to open before the natural snow starts falling."

Plattekill has been steadily increasing its snowmaking capabilities each year, with the most recent improvement being the installation of 21 new snow guns on the popular "Shredded Mozzarella" trail over the summer. Not only will this new addition provide even more snow coverage on the mountain, but it will also produce the snow necessary for the mountain to feature a brand new terrain park, set to be up and operating early in the season.

Other improvements include all new rental equipment inventory and a new Junior Learn to Ski or Snowboard Lesson Package which will specifically be offered for children ages 7-12. The mountain will also be offering discounted group rates for groups as small as 6 people, whereas in years prior, groups were required to have a minimum of 15 people.