Greek Peak Ski Getaways

A few miles south of Cortland you'll find Greek Peak, a rather expansive small mountain (257 acres of terrain and 952' of vertical) with some big plans.

With a Master Plan that calls for an 18-hole golf course, two clusters of ﾾ acre or five acre home sites, more amenities, and on-mountain upgrades, Greek Peak is poised to expand its appeal in central New York and take the plunge into true four-season status. Part of that "plunge" has already been made, so to speak, with the opening of 25-acre Hope Lake in conjunction with the town of Virgil. This multi-use recreational complex will eventually include the golf course, a convention and conference center, and a second home village.

The mountain as it stands now offers up some fine skiing and riding. Trail names are for the most part taken from Greek mythology, and while Castor and Pollux run side by side and Odyssey, Iliad, and Olympian (the last two often bumped up top to bottom) are black diamond as you might guess, it's best to look at a trail map to know the difficulty or the outlet of the trail you want to take.

Difficulty is about equally divided among ability levels, and everyone has an appropriate choice from the top of six of the nine lifts. This means that families or groups of diverse abilities can ski or ride together and meet at the bottom of the lift they rode up. However, there's not much chance of a party getting separated in the end; with the exception of Greek Peak East all trails lead back to a well-developed, central base area. And should someone, even a child, wind up alone at the bottom of Greek Peak East, the lift attendants there will soon have any errant wanderers pointed in the right direction.

The half pipe and terrain park are right in the midst of the mountain. The half pipe can be reached by three different lifts and the terrain park by four. And both are lighted at night, as are more than a dozen of Greek Peak's 29 trails.

Inside Line
The best place for a group of different abilities to ski and ride together is Greek Peak East. Not only does it have a nice separate feel about it but the trails are laid out in such a fashion that everyone will arrive at the bottom within a few seconds of each other.