New film celebrates community-supported ski hill in Warrensburg
By Rick Karlin
Hickory Ski Center, a small-but-challenging ski center near Warrensburg, had a brief viral moment 16 months ago.
The attention started when operators of the ski center needed to raise $38,000 for insurance in order to open for the 2023-24 ski season.
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Without that, state lift inspectors wouldn’t certify Hickory’s aged Poma and T-bar lifts for operation.
Hickory had been closed since 2016 because the lack of snowmaking meant there weren’t enough skiable days to make the operation profitable. While it is owned by a group of shareholders whose families helped start the area years ago, it had become something akin to a club.
In recent years, the mountain has attracted uphill skiers: hardy types that ascend the slopes using a “skin up, ski down” approach.
Related reading: A ski mountain’s rebirth
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But the place still had a reputation for good skiing and manager Sue Catana’s Facebook post quickly went viral.
The Albany Times Union and several ski-focused social media sites picked up the call for help. Local devotees began contributing and buying season ski passes.
Most notably, operators of the Unofficial Networks ski site and of the Indy Pass multi-mountain pass chipped in more than $30,000 needed to pay Hickory’s insurance bill.
News that Hickory’s lifts would be spinning elicited cheers from the area’s fans, many of whom live in and around the Southern Adirondack communities of Warrensburg, Glens Falls and Lake George.
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Capturing the efforts on film
That community spirit caught the eye of Kingston-based cinematographer Ian McGrew, who started researching Hickory’s history and decided to produce a short documentary.
The result is a half-hour film, “Reviving the Legend,” which premiered in January to a full house at a small local theater, the historic Strand in Hudson Falls.
“Reviving the Legend” will be screened at Tannery Pond in North Creek on Friday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m.
McGrew drew on archival footage of the ski resort in better times when it was bustling with weekend visitors from the surrounding area. He also weaved in photos and interviews to portray the area past and present.
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The spot’s DIY nature also comes through in the film, with Catana describing how she did everything from taking lift tickets to answering the phone and making vats of chili hours before the lifts opened.
Her father, Hans Winbauer, helped build the area after WWII. He was among the ski pioneers, including members of the 10th Mountain Division U.S. Army ski troopers who, after returning from combat with the Axis forces, went on to build mega resorts in the U.S., including Vail.
Hickory, though, stayed true to its small-town, club-like roots. McGrew’s film highlights families of skiers bringing their children to the resort to make their first turns.
McGrew, 37, grew up skiing in the Catskills’ Belleayre ski area where he instructed and helped build terrain parks. He was also an avid photographer – “I always had a camera in my hands,” he said. That led to a career as a cinematographer. He does work for ESPN and golf shows.
He plans to enter “Reviving the Legend” in several outdoor and film genre competitions next year and plans to find an online outlet for it in the near future.
Top image: Skiers make their way toward the summit of Hickory Ski Center as wind fills the air with flakes of snow. Explorer file photo by Alan Wechsler.
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