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Holiday Valley Ski Resort

Home / Ski Resorts / Holiday Valley Ski Resort

Holiday Valley is a ski resort located in western New York. It boasts a wide variety of terrain, including 13 terrain parks that cater to skiers and snowboarders of all abilities. The resort receives an average of around 180 inches of snowfall each year, which allows for a long ski season from late November to mid-April. In addition to day skiing, Holiday Valley also offers night skiing on select days during the ski season. The resort is a popular destination for skiers and snowboarders from the surrounding region, and is known for its friendly, welcoming atmosphere.

We recently ranked all of New York's ski resorts, so you can see where Holiday Valley stacks up against all its nearby ski hills!

Season Passes

Holiday Valley is not a part of any nationwide lift ticket system. Passes such as Epic, IKON, or Mountain Collective allow pass holders to ski at multiple mountians with a single purchase. Unfortunately, none of those passes with with Holiday Valley Ski Resort. To purchase season passes, you'll need to visit Holiday Valley's website.

Lodging Options

There are numerous options to stay at Holiday Valley around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.

Holiday Valley Mountain Resort Terrain Overview

Holiday Valley has a total of 60 ski trails, which are serviced by 13 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. Holiday Valley is considered a smaller than average ski area, with only a maximum of 290 acres available to ski. This area is equivalent to 117 hectares, 0.5 square miles, or 1.2 square kilometers.

Holiday Valley's slopes see on average 180 inches (5.5 meters) of snowfall a year. That is almost 15 feet every year!

Trails
Total Runs
60
Ski Lift
Lifts
13
Skier
Skiable Acres
290(1 km2)
Snow
Annual Snowfall
180"(5,486 cm)

Holiday Valley Ski Resort Elevation

Holiday Valley Ski Resort has a summit elevation of 2,250 feet, or 686 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 1,500 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 750 feet (229 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.

Holiday Valley has a very low summit elevation. The summit of this park is one of the smaller ones in the country.

Mountain Summit
Summit Elevation
2,250'(686 m)
Vertical Drop
Vertical Drop
750'(229 m)
Mountain base
Base Elevation
1,500'(457 m)

Holiday Valley Ski Resort Difficulty Level

Score
Difficulty Score™
37.6out of 100
←  EasyHard  →
Holiday Valley can be beginner-friendly, but it depends on the ski trails you ride. While it ranks in the lower half of all North American ski areas in terms of overall difficulty, it still has 63% of its trails rated at or above intermediate ski level.

 DID YOU KNOW?

At Parks & Trips, we've created a proprietary Difficulty Score that attempts to show how difficult a particular ski slope is. We get to this number by combining a number of metrics for each resort and comparing them to its peers. Most of the score is based off the amount of easy-intermediate-expert slopes by acreage and the maximum vertical drop of the overall resort, but also includes a few lesser-used metrics as well.

Our algorithm compares each resort’s metrics with all others in North America, then assigns each a Difficulty Score, which we use to rank them accordingly. Resorts with a lower score are easier to ski than those with a higher one. However, a high score does not mean that the resort does not have any easy slopes, or vice versa. This is just an overall score given to the resort based on all its metrics grouped together.

Skiable Terrain by Difficulty Level

Holiday Valley has 290 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.

Holiday Valley is mostly a beginner-friendly ski area, with about 37% of its trails as easy. However, it also has its fair share of more difficult runs - which account for the remaining 63%.
Green Circle
Beginner
37%(107 acres)

Beginner trails (identified by a green circle) are the easiest trails on the hill with a gradual 25% or less gradient, and are usually wide to accommodate beginner skiers.

Blue Square
Intermediate
27%(78 acres)

Intermediate trails (identified by a blue square) are usually the most popular and crowded runs, which have a slope of anywhere between 25-40%.

Black Diamond
Expert
36%(104 acres)

Expert trails (identified by a black diamond... or two) are the hardest slopes on the mountain, and have very steep gradients over 40%.

Is Holiday Valley Ski Resort good for beginners?

Holiday Valley can be beginner-friendly, depending on the runs you take. While it ranks in the lower half of all North American ski areas in terms of overall difficulty, it still has 63% of its trails rated at or above intermediate.

Holiday Valley Ski Resort Location

Holiday Valley Ski Resort is located in the state of New York, USA. This ski area is nearest the town of Ellicottville, NY.

Address:
Ellicottville, NY 14731 USA
View on Google Maps

Website:
holidayvalley.com

GPS Coordinates:
42.26000, -78.68000

Getting to Holiday Valley Mountain Resort

By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Holiday Valley Ski Resort), its coordinates of 42.26000, -78.68000 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Ellicottville, NY to get close.

By Air: If you are coming in from across the country, then you may need to board an airplane to get here.

A large airport has scheduled major airline service with millions of passengers per year. This type of airport always accepts international flights. Here are the closest large airport(s) to Holiday Valley Ski Resort.

NameCodeCityDistance
Buffalo Niagara International AirportBUFBuffalo, NY47 mi
Lester B. Pearson International AirportYYZToronto, ON109 mi
Syracuse Hancock International AirportSYRSyracuse, NY143 mi

A medium-sized airport has scheduled regional airline service. This type of airport may or may not accept international flights. Here are the closest medium-sized airport(s) to Holiday Valley.

NameCodeCityDistance
Bradford Regional AirportBFDBradford, PA32 mi
Niagara Falls International AirportIAGNiagara Falls, NY60 mi
DuBois Regional AirportDUJDubois, PA76 mi

There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Holiday Valley Ski Resort, but we didn't list them here due to the fact that no major airlines go through them.

Other Nearby Ski Resorts

Skiers will - especially if coming from far away - try and visit a couple different slopes all in the same trip. Here are the closest other ski slopes within 100 miles of Holiday Valley Ski Resort.

NameLocationSummitDifficulty Score™Distance
HoliMontEllicottville, NY2,260 ft42%2 mi
Kissing BridgeGlenwood, NY1,750 ft34%24 mi
SwainSwain, NY1,970 ft37%44 mi
Peek'n PeakClymer, NY1,800 ft32%56 mi
Bristol MountainCanandaigua, NY2,200 ft36%72 mi
SugarloafCarrabassett Valley, ME4,237 ft67%74 mi
Mount Pleasant of EdinboroCambridge Springs, PA1,540 ft26%77 mi
Ski SawmillMorris, PA2,215 ft35%88 mi

Holiday Valley Ski Resort Mountain Stats

NameStatistic
Summit Elevation2,250 ft
Base Elevation1,500 ft
Vertical Drop750 ft
Trails60
(37% Beginner,  27% Intermediate,  36% Expert)
Lifts13
Skiable Acres290
Avg. Annual Snowfall180 inches
Holiday Valley Ski Resort Mountain Stats
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