page_title: Hunter Mountain (ski area)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Hunter Mountain (ski area) / History
caption_attribution_description: Hunter Mountain.
context_page_description: Hunter Mountain is a ski resort located in Greene County, New York about three hours northwest of New York City in the town of Hunter, New York. It features a 1,600-foot vertical drop.
  From its inception in the late 1950s, the management of Hunter Mountain has employed extensive snowmaking facilities. Hunter was the first ski destination in the state of New York to install snow-making, the first in the world with top-to-bottom snow-making, and the first in the world to have 100-percent snow-making coverage of the mountain.
  The resort offers snow tubing as well as skiing. Hunter Mountain also features four terrain parks and holds freestyle events throughout the ski season.
context_section_description: During the mid-'50s a group of local businessmen, including Orville Slutzky, Karl Plattner Sr. and Israel Slutzky, developed plans to revive the area's economy after the Great Depression, World War II and the decline of Catskills tourism had caused long-term economic distress. The sport of skiing was becoming popular, and the group considered developing Hunter Mountain as a ski resort. After a failed lobbying attempt to get the state to develop a new ski area on Hunter Mountain, the group contacted Denise McCluggage, a sports editor at the New York Herald Tribune. They told her they had a mountain to give away to any developer who would build a ski area called Hunter Mountain on it. McCluggage wrote an article that attracted the interest of a group of Broadway show-business people.
  This group created the Hunter Mountain Development Corp., which was the first operator of Hunter Mountain. Headed by James Hammerstein, the son of Oscar Hammerstein II, the group included many Hollywood and Broadway stars of the time. With Orville and Izzy Slutzky providing most of the land and their firm I. & O.A. Slutzky providing the construction, ground was broken to develop the ski area in the summer of 1959.  The area was given to the group to operate with two stipulations: that it be called "Hunter Mountain Ski Bowl" and that it have snowmaking capabilities, which was a relatively new technology at the time.
  On January 9, 1960, Hunter Mountain opened for the first time with the original "B" Lift in operation. The original "A" Lift was under construction and was not completed in time for the first season. The old Starr Hotel served as the first base lodge, located just below the old Ski and Snowboard School administration building. When the Hunter Mountain Development Corp. went bankrupt by the middle of the 1961/62 season the Slutzky brothers took over the operation.
  During the summer of 1962, the "A" lift was completed. This opened up the skiing to the summit. Over the next several years, many new trails were cut, including the opening of the Belt Parkway and the construction of the Upper Shop, and more snow-making was installed. In the summer of 1963, Hunter opened for summer skiing on plastic chips. Summer skiing lasted only a few years. During the winter of 1963/64, Hunter Mountain opened for night skiing for the first time. Night skiing was discontinued in 1972.
  In the summer of 1964, construction of the present-day base lodge began, which opened on December 12, 1964, featuring a 300-seat dining room, an indoor swimming pool, sauna, health club, and massage rooms. The "D" Lift opened in December 1967, the first triple chair at Hunter Mountain. Also that winter, Hunter Mountain became the first area in the world with summit to base snow-making with the completion of snow-making lines to the summit. Also at this time the "East Side" was developed including K-27 (38–44 degrees, steepest run on the mountain), East Side Drive and The Milky Way.
  In the summer of 1969, construction of the trails on Hunter West began. It was opened with the "Z" Lift for the season. That summer, the Summit Lodge was constructed. The first Hunter Summer Festival took place in July 1975 with the ten-day German Alps Festival. Under the direction of Don Conover and his family, the festivals grew steadily each year thereafter. The Colonel’s Hall was added to the base lodge in the summer of 1977. In addition, the Mini-Lodge in Hunter One was constructed. The Mini-Lodge has since been removed. In 1980, Hunter Mountain became the first ski area in the world to feature snow-making on 100 percent of its trails.
  December 1983 saw the opening of the Sushi Bar in the Summit Lounge. In the summer of 1987, The SnowLite Express Quad was built along with the West Wing and CopperTree Restaurant addition to the base lodge.
  In 1989, Hunter became the first area in the U.S. to install an automated snow-making system. The system installed on Racer’s Edge by York International was and still is operated remotely from the Upper Shop. This year also saw the completion of the first L
caption: Hunter Mountain
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