At Holiday Valley Resort in Ellicottville, even more guests are showing up than usual to hit the slopes.

“Things are going great this season,” said Dash Hegeman, Director of Marketing at Holiday Valley. “We’ve got a lot of happy customers out there. It’s awesome.”

Hegeman noted attendance is up this year, with guests also enjoying the new Holiday Valley tubing park, which opened with 21 lanes of tubing this season. Several times this season, the tubing park has already sold out.

At Peek’n Peak Resort in Clymer, as of Friday afternoon, a season total of 99 inches of snow has accumulated. A base depth figure is 8-48 inches. Updated forecasts are available online.

A snowboarder is shown on a slope at Holiday Valley Ski Resort in Ellicottville.

Peek’n Peak reports that 12 of the 26 trails are open, as well as eight ski lifts and the 180 Terrain Park. Live camera feeds of the slopes and a complete list of the open trails are available online at pknpk.com.

This season, snow has been much easier to come by in Ellicottville than a year ago. Hegeman called it “night and day” from last year. While western New York was hit with a few big winter storms last winter, Hegeman noted the majority of the snowfall was in the northern end of the county. This year, the south towns are getting more snow and longer periods of cold weather to allow for the snow to be maintained at Holiday Valley.

“We opened up with a solid selection of terrain and have been able to build on that pretty much every week throughout December,” Hegeman said. “We’re entering the new year really excited about what we’ve been able to do in December, with a lot of enthusiasm about the rest of the season to come.”

Holiday Valley opened Dec. 6 and has been open ever since. The goal this year is to stay open until April 6. Last year, even in challenging conditions, Holiday Valley was open for 115 days.

The increase in attendance at Holiday Valley could be due to the closing of the Cockaigne Ski Resort in Cherry Creek, but even so, Hegeman feels the industry as a whole does not benefit from its absence.

“It’s a shame when any local ski area has to go out of business. It’s not something we are remotely happy about,” Hegeman said. “Each ski area in this region serves a purpose.”

Hegeman visited Cockaigne growing up and felt it was a great spot for inexperienced skiers and snowboarders to hone their craft before taking on more challenging slopes at other venues like Holiday Valley. Without that option, Holiday Valley and Peek’n Peak are tasked with keeping the love of snow sports alive with even more customers.

“Hopefully all of those people that were skiing or riding at Cockaigne continue to do so, and they’re either now going to Peek’n Peak or they’re coming to Holiday Valley. Ideally, they didn’t just drop out of the sport entirely. That’s the last thing that we want,” Hegeman said. “We want people out on the slopes as much as possible. Obviously, we want them coming here, but for the longevity and the health of this industry, it’s important to make sure that people have options.”

Peek’n Peak offers a “snow sports school” program, along with private lessons beginning at age 3 up to adults and even groups. Contact the Snowsports Desk at 716-355-4141, extension 7350 with questions. Visit pknpk.com for more information.

Holiday Valley also offers lessons, beginning at age 4. Lessons are broken into age groups 4-11; 12 and up daytime; and 8 and up nighttime. There is also a “Your Turn” women’s clinic Feb. 24-25.

For more information about Holiday Valley and its offerings this season, visit holidayvalley.com