whoaaaaaaa what happened to being hyperlocal?!?!!? dont you want ski country to move downtown?

snotnose - That's a pretty big doorstep of 55 miles, but I agree with a regional outlook so I have no problem with it. No doubt soon there will be positive BR coverage of the recent new retail openings at Galleria, the new engineering building construction announced for UB North Campus, the upcoming expansion of Seneca Niagara Casino. All will attract people from other regions to ours, so we all benefit.

People have way to much time on their hands. I figured the "Troll" post would just turn a bunch of site visitors into self proclaimed main post police. Can't we just move on? Watch out, something is grey! Please continue the good work of making sure everything is impossibly black or white and pointing it out in at least 50% of the comments when it never is.

The 55 miles is closer to Buffalo than any other of those cities. All those Canadian visitors pass thru Buffalo. All this post says is it could used by the BCVB to market staying in the area longer to visitors or make them stop altogether.

I taught snowboarding at HV for 6 years and enjoyed it. A couple trips out east and west ruined it for me pointing out our severe lack of vertical. Though I still enjoy going down for the festivities and atmosphere throughout the year and hitting the slopes a couple times each year. Its a nice benefit to living in the area.

Thanks for the story, BRO. It looks like our little secret (Buffalo Ski Country) is getting out. I have sent along the NYT links to a few friends outside of the area that love to talk about their "weekend" ski trips. They scratch their heads when I mention my evening jaunts and day trips.

Unfortunately, I am still afraid to send the BRO link along. The troll posts on this site continue to poison a good thing.

Wow all the predictable drivel posts from the usual one dimensional characters. Also Its getting boring Pundit. You post more on here than on your own blog. Its Newell's site. I think he can post what ever he likes without your approval.

When I was a member of the UB Ski Club I always loved when the bus turned onto the Main Street and the slopes were lit up through the snow in the distance. The snow falling around the little white church with the with the lights beyond is so magical at night. It has an idyllic quality.

Whenever I see the little green oval EV stickers I always mistake them for Ellicottville, not Elmwood Village. God I hate the concept of those things.....OBX always makes me think obnoxious before OuterBanks....oh well, Ellicottville really is something a lot of people take for granted around here....just like the world class Steelhead fishing within 40 minutes of metro Buffalo....not many places have these kind of luxary recreational outlets at their doorstep. We should promote this stuff as much as we do the cost of living or the great chicken wing eateries we offer

your right ellicottville is not so much a suburb of Buffalo BUT IT IS VERY MUCH ONE OF THE SMALL RURAL TOWNS WITHIN BUFFALOS METROPOLITAN AREA (I would put jamestown in the Buffalo metro area too).

I dont know why Rochester always has to be included in articles about Buffalo. Buffalo is most definitely not included in articles on Rochester.

Ellicottville is another growth center and if the GBNRTC was really doing their jobs then they would be considering reactivating commuter rail to Niagara Falls and Ellicottville.

Ellicottville isn't a suburb. It's growth didn't involve class segregation, and it didn't leave Buffalo as the de facto poorhouse for the area. There is a long history of legitimate friction between city and suburbs. Putting it all down to "Elmwood snobbery" or whatever misses the point.

It is an attraction for living in Buffalo. Do you know how many cities would love to be able to offer it's people a winter sport location such as this, along with the lake and river for boating in the summer months? I believe those knocking it, enjoy nether...

Any story about a Buffalo Niagara town in The Buffalo News is a big deal, so let's celebrate!

Pundit - you are a bore.

The reasons for living in Buffalo or WNY are far more than just what happens inside the city boundaries. Sure I think the site started up as a pro-buffalo site, and it still serves that function, often giving light to developments, restaurants and shops that most people in WNY don't know about.

With the growth of readership that BRO experienced it only makesa sense that you expand a little bit to regional issues. Especially those that either promote or detract from the region, including Buffalo.

Either way this is good press for the region (including the city)

The spruce quad sucks, it takes more time to get to the top than it does to ski back down, and it's not all that intersting a run.

Until they buyout Holimount it's a big waste of money IMO. IF/When that happens I hope they upgrade it to a high speed lift.

Otherwise, it's cool for the region to get some press.

That was a great article. I am a skier and have spent quite a bit of time in Ellicottville over the last twenty five years. I was down last saturday and got talking to a few of the locals at the Gin Mill. Its a neat place where you find all types of people, uppity well dressed Canadians, snow boarder dudes, local residents, I even ran into a couple politicians that were hoping someone would recognize them. THe neat thing about it is nobody cared. I even ran into my sister who I had no idea was down for dinner with friends (only one of the four is actually a skier). Back to the locals...They were mentioning how difficult it is to be able to buy real estate. They fear their kids won't be able to settle there unless they move to the outskirts (Great Valley or Little Valley). They mentioned that a lot of the locals aren't complaining about selling there life long homes and retiring on the proceeds. I spoke with a Realtor who said you can't touch a dump in the village for less than 250k.

Ellicottville is one of the great assets of living in Buffalo. Ellicottville is what gets me through the winter. You can constantly ski. I ski out west and recognize that it is different in many ways (size of the hills, powder vs packed) There are very few cities that you can get to a ski resort in under an hour (its 55 minutes from EV to Eville). Even in Denver it takes over 2 plus hours to get to the ski areas. NYC is at least 3 hours to the closest hill. Many friends I know who live else ware are lucky to get a ski weekend in each year, and it usually involves flying some where and renting an expensive condo.

Pundit,

Read my post again. The second half was directed at you. Your constant whining about what BRO's rules is really getting monotonous. You have a site of your own. Make it what you so want BRO to be.

Chocolate,

"Evil" Galleria mall Those are your words not mine. Please don't assign them to me. Also I have never attacked BuffaloPundit.

Pundit,

Make WNYM what you want BRO to be.

Many upper middle class Northeast Ohio residents have second homes and vacation cottages in Ellicottville and Chautauqua County. It's nearly impossible to watch television in Cleveland now without seeing a Holiday Valley or Peek 'n Peak commercial. There's a LOT of East Side suburban Cleveland money being pumped into the economy of the Southern Tier.

Unfortunately, few in Cleveland know what lays beyond just 45 more minutes away in Buffalo. While during the summer months, commercials touting tourism in Michigan and, of all places, Detroit, fill the airwaves in Cleveland, there is no promotion of the Buffalo area .

Dan...good comments...thanks for getting this thing back on track.

Buffalo should take out a billboard in Ellicottville with a big arrow pointing North to let everyone know how close we are and promote the area. All the visitors from Cleveland and Pennsylvania enter from the south and probably don't realize how close they are to Buffalo. Holimont has a great sign entering town that has a simple arrow that points up letting travelers know they are looking at their slopes and not Holiday Valley. Buffalo's billboard could have an aerial view of the southern Tier mountains (hills) with the Buffalo Skyline inflated in it. Arrow and 60 minutes. It'll be 45 minutes if they complete the 219.

Orlanmon - I rarely ski anything more than beginner trails. Unless they're going to use that lift to access Holimont, I really think it's going to wind up being big waste. The people I spoke to on other lifts (a couple from Cleveland, another from near Toledo) complained about the lift and the few trails it allows access to. I hadn't even checked it out until after that, and I had to agree with the complaint.

Maybe it was the way the wind was blowing, but it was also the windiest and coldest lift I was on that day. It was nice to ski on a pretty much empty slope, but the slow speed of the lift is just crazy. Maybe I'm just spoiled by all the high speed lifts they have.

I was happy to find Holiday Valley after I moved here. It certainly lacks the vert, but IMO it otherwise rivals the resorts I learned to ski at in VT. I haven't skied KB in since the first year I I moved here.

Can we get funding to install a quad on the Skyway? Let's get some lawsuits going.

The New quad chair was built to service the new hills and also to get access to the spring lake area that is going to be developed. Ski in /Ski out houses.

I don’t know whether to take Chocolate Shake’s comments seriously…they are so absurd.

CS -- I agree with your opinion on Ellicottville, but not with your opinion on BRO. There is plenty of coverage of non-yuppie stuff here -- east side, south buffalo, black rock, etc. If you were to watch the local news or read the paper, you'd get the impression that these places didn't exist apart from the occasional crime story.

Choc Shake - what's wrong with being economically exclusive when it is involves recreational activities? If you can't afford it you don't go. It's not a right that everyone should be able to go skiing in EV.......its pretty simple.....I don't have a hissy fit because I can't afford the initation fees at an area country club...Should I hold a grudge against the Bahamas because I can't afford to take my family there on vacation?.....what's your take on that?.....or that the Chop House overcharge their steaks........you're damn right they're keeping out the poor people....that's part of the what makes it a fancy restaurant.....and do you actually like places where kids are running wild in the streets..?..

BackFromMaryland -

Dont make any promises you can't keep.

What life experiences did you gain in Maryland that make you so well informed?

Is this your claim to fame.....Maryland? Have you lived anywhere else? What can you apply to help Buffalo escape poverty?

And don't pull a Steel and answer my question with another question......becase you don't have an answer!

BackfromMaryland.........don't leave us with some of these idiots. Stay.

Hey shake...90% of the people in Buffalo can't make it down to E'ville? Do you have a link for that or are you just throwing out ignorant assumptions and stating them as facts?

BTW...one of the many resons I enjoy reading BRO is that they're actively dispelling these ignorant assumptions about Buffalo that people like Shake spew out on a daily basis...In addition, E'ville is just as much part of the Buffalo metro area as Jamestown, Olean, Lockport, ect. Buffalo television, Buffalo Radio, Bills Fans on Sunday.

BackFromMaryland - Just curious why you'd stop reading this site if you like the articles so much but dislike the comments? You say I know that this will likely be among my last visits to this once-enjoyable and informative site

If you like the BR articles so much, why would you stop reading them and deprive yourself? Are you saying the comments are both bad and yet at the same time so irresistable to you that the only way to not read them would be to not read the site at all?

Also, regarding the comments - Yes or No, do you ever click Avoid User? If No, isn't that very inconsistent with your insistence that it's just a few commenters that cause most of your disgust? Why haven't you simply clicked to avoid them when it's so fast and easy?

Chocolate -

Buffalo is anything but an international city...I agree with your points -