4 thoughts on “National Winter Activity Center, NJ”
skitheeastAugust 11, 2019 / 8:57 pm
This ski area used to be a public mountain called Hidden Valley. The current owner is a non-profit focused on helping children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds learn how to ski and snowboard.
I learned to ski at Hidden Valley in January 2004. The last time I skied at Hidden Valley was 2006, and I stopped by to look at the lifts in 2013 before they were removed. Here’s what I remember.
The triple called A-Lift and was ridiculously slow. Definitely not 450 fpm. It was the main lift and operated most days. It was one of the first Borvig Triples, and had the same chairs as Tamarack at Stratton but with no foot rests. It had standard Borvig hanging sheaves rather than the ones that hang from the lifting frame like on the Tamarack lift.
The beginner double was called B-Lift. It was actually built in the 1960’s at a ski area called Snow Bowl. When that place closed, it was moved to Hidden Valley. It was considerably longer than the triple that replaced it, and had a massive cage style return at the top that was well beyond where you got off. This was the first lift I ever rode for skiing, and I remember the unloading ramp not being particularly easy to negotiate. You can see on Google Earth where it ended relative to the triple. I’m not sure why the triple is shorter.
The C-Lift was built later, in 1984. It had brown chairs unlike the other two lifts which were blue, so my 5 year old self always called it the “rusty chairlift”. It rarely ran. Only when the triple was closed, and when it was really crowded (mostly racing days). It was run much faster than the triple, so I rode it whenever it was open. It was the only lift of theirs to have lifting frames, and while it had hanging sheaves, they were of the Leitner style rather than the spoke style that was on the other two lifts. When I looked at the lift in 2013, I could tell by the inspection sticker that it had not run a single day in 12-13 (last season before Hidden Valley closed).
I just met the guy who re-started this place as a non-profit. Very interesting person, and I enjoyed learning about the program. Sounds as though Hidden Valley was just to small to operate commercially, so it’s nice to see it still being used this way.
Lift Blog 
This ski area used to be a public mountain called Hidden Valley. The current owner is a non-profit focused on helping children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds learn how to ski and snowboard.
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I learned to ski at Hidden Valley in January 2004. The last time I skied at Hidden Valley was 2006, and I stopped by to look at the lifts in 2013 before they were removed. Here’s what I remember.
The triple called A-Lift and was ridiculously slow. Definitely not 450 fpm. It was the main lift and operated most days. It was one of the first Borvig Triples, and had the same chairs as Tamarack at Stratton but with no foot rests. It had standard Borvig hanging sheaves rather than the ones that hang from the lifting frame like on the Tamarack lift.
The beginner double was called B-Lift. It was actually built in the 1960’s at a ski area called Snow Bowl. When that place closed, it was moved to Hidden Valley. It was considerably longer than the triple that replaced it, and had a massive cage style return at the top that was well beyond where you got off. This was the first lift I ever rode for skiing, and I remember the unloading ramp not being particularly easy to negotiate. You can see on Google Earth where it ended relative to the triple. I’m not sure why the triple is shorter.
The C-Lift was built later, in 1984. It had brown chairs unlike the other two lifts which were blue, so my 5 year old self always called it the “rusty chairlift”. It rarely ran. Only when the triple was closed, and when it was really crowded (mostly racing days). It was run much faster than the triple, so I rode it whenever it was open. It was the only lift of theirs to have lifting frames, and while it had hanging sheaves, they were of the Leitner style rather than the spoke style that was on the other two lifts. When I looked at the lift in 2013, I could tell by the inspection sticker that it had not run a single day in 12-13 (last season before Hidden Valley closed).
Here’s some pictures of the old lifts http://www.chairlift.org/hiddenvalley.html
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I just met the guy who re-started this place as a non-profit. Very interesting person, and I enjoyed learning about the program. Sounds as though Hidden Valley was just to small to operate commercially, so it’s nice to see it still being used this way.
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how does it work as a non profit? Government grants/donations?
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