I arrived at Oak Mountain Ski Center with the sun shining down on a bluebird day. As my eyes settled on the scene, they paused on an adorable, sky-blue hut in the foreground of the mountain with a sign that read “Hot Mini Cider Donuts.”
Fighting the urge for a donut stop, I stepped inside the main building and was welcomed by an inviting wooden interior and Laura O’Brien, who owns Oak Mountain with her husband, Matt, and his parents, Kevin and Elizabeth.
Laura started her tour at the Acorn Pub and Eatery, which was decorated with vintage ski art and had a wall of windows looking out onto the mountain. Above the bar hung a clock made from antique T-bar hangers, which Laura and Matt had welded themselves.
Despite its mountain charm, Acorn Pub and Eatery is an unassuming moniker for the place. The restaurant’s chef, Carolyn Abel, served 19 years as executive chef at Edgartown Yacht Club, in Martha’s Vineyard. Abel feeds a hungry crowd with her weekly menus: Mexican on Thursdays, fish specials on Fridays, and rotating choices on Saturdays that range from Southern barbecue to Asian fusion. The Acorn is open 10 months of the year, closing in April and November. Laura and Matt take advantage of that time by traveling in their camper with their two kids. During these road trips, they make sure to include a few “inspiration stops” at other ski resorts.
Oak Mountain was built in 1948, making it one of the oldest running ski resorts in the Adirondacks. It was originally operated by the township, which allowed locals to ski for free. The resort was purchased in 1967 by the Novosel family—first Tom and Milly, then their daughter Nancy and her husband, Norm Germain—who ran it as a private resort and oversaw major upgrades to the mountain, including the installation of snow-making machines, a chairlift, a tubing hill, and the construction of the building that now houses the Acorn. Those ambitious development projects, and the hefty loan they required, happened within a single year. The three years following brought mild winters with little snow and excessive rain, plunging the Novosels deeper into debt and leading them to sell.
For some time after, the village of Speculator leased the resort and, with the help of the nonprofit Friends of Oak Mountain, kept it running until an investor could be secured. The O’Briens were hired as managers in 2010; after falling in love with the place, they stepped up and, as many claim, “saved” Oak Mountain in 2012. They’ve invested heavily in the resort since, adding more snow-making and additional trails, and transforming the Acorn into a favorite local hangout.
The O’Briens hope to continue to expand the mountain’s offerings and improve snow-making capacity. “Every year we try to add snow-making to another trail. We’re not yet at a hundred percent, but we have doubled the snow-making capacity since we bought the mountain,” said Matt. The importance of that is greater now than ever. “Mother Nature can’t be relied on with the same consistency,” he added, explaining how some local ski areas that depend on natural snow, such as Hickory Mountain in Warrensburg, have been forced to shut down due to increasingly mild winters. (A nonprofit plans to reopen Hickory this winter as weather permits.)
Prior to the O’Briens’ ownership, only three ski runs on Oak Mountain had snow-making; today, eight runs are powered with artificial snow. Matt said that expansions are made with sustainability in mind: “The water used from our ponds is all fed by the runoff from the mountain, so we’re just storing water on the hill so when it thaws it goes back into the rivers and streams. No chemicals or pollutants are added to the water—you can still eat the snow, just don’t eat the yellow stuff … it’s not lemonade.”
Along with the resort’s 22 ski runs, 50 skiable acres, and 650-foot vertical drop, Oak Mountain offers a tubing hill, three miles of snowshoeing trails and, in warmer weather, eight miles for mountain biking.
Rare for your average ski mountain, the O’Briens cap the number of visitors to keep their slopes at a comfortable capacity during ski season. They began implementing pre-purchasing and limits on tickets during COVID but have no plans to stop, given the positive feedback they’ve received from guests who have struggled with long lines and packed runs at other resorts.
Smaller crowds and shorter lines aren’t the only edge Oak Mountain has over its larger, state-funded counterparts. Its trails are impeccably groomed, thanks to Matt’s experience working at ski resorts around the country. Since college, he’s filled his bag of snow-making and grooming tricks from various resorts, including Deer Valley Resort, in Park City, Utah, and Stowe Ski Resort, in Vermont. He’s also dedicated countless hours to teaching himself the art of snow-making. “We call him the wizard—he’s not just great at making the snow, but at keeping it. There’s no ice patch he can’t cover,” Laura said.
Another advantage that Oak Mountain has over bigger resorts is that it’s, well, smaller. Mike Rogge, an Adirondack native who now owns the Mountain Gazette, believes it’s the people who make small ski areas so attractive. “They’re not filled with pretension like most mid- and large resorts. Instead, they’re skied by the folks who make the towns run and serve as feeders into the sport, where the youth can let loose and learn how to mess up in a relatively safe environment. They also lead to the kinds of friendships that last a lifetime,” he said. “I grew up skiing at West Mountain, in Glen Falls. The best man at my wedding 30 years later? A fellow West Mountain ski friend. The best people I know continue to spend time at small ski areas.”
Then there’s the generational boomerang effect—people who grow up skiing at these small hills often return with their children and grandchildren. “Folks learn at small mountains and then leave to the bigger areas once they’re more advanced,” Laura said. “But if and when they have kids, they return to the small mountains, like Oak, to teach them. We have fourth-generation skiers who still come because they enjoy that it feels safe, fun and, for them, nostalgic.”
Among the regulars at Oak Mountain, one individual stands out—Bill Osborne, a founding member of Friends of Oak Mountain. Bill grew up in Speculator and said that he’s been skiing here for 73 years. “Since I was four years old. I’ve skied about every mountain in the US, but since I’ve returned to living in Speculator full time, I ski here three days a week—because they’re open three days a week.” Bill pointed to the challenging terrain of the mountain, and how the lack of crowds makes it a favorite for families and those learning to ski. “It’s really the largest recreational resource that we have in the area, other than what nature has given us—the lakes, the beauty of the mountains.”
That strong sense of continuity and community isn’t limited to Oak Mountain’s visitors. Anne Marie Miller, a front-of-house worker and waitress, said she thinks of herself as a mother to everyone at the resort: “I know people just say this, but it really is a family.” The assistant ski school supervisor, Tom Preston, learned to ski on the mountain as a child. Dylan Donecker, who runs the rental lodge, met his wife, Lizzie Perkins, while they both worked on the mountain. They celebrated their wedding at the resort.
Oak Mountain regularly hosts benefits for neighbors in need, as well as fundraising memorials for those who have passed away. Five years ago, Laura and Matt organized “Music on the Point,” hosting a band every Wednesday from the Fourth of July to Labor Day, encouraging members of the community to come out and socialize. The resort throws an Oaktoberfest every fall, a holiday fair, and hosts school programs on Fridays and Saturdays. Matt has served as the village fire chief for the past six years and is the chair of the Speculator planning board. Laura is vice president of the Lake Pleasant Central School District Board of Education.
While at Oak, I spent so much time speaking with the community that I almost forgot to ski. To say I’m a “skier” feels dishonest—I ski, but not yet at the skill level where I’d make myself a noun of it. I often found skiing the runs in the West demoralizing, struggling to balance as world-class skiers weaved around me. Oak Mountain surpassed any skiing experience I’ve had. Beyond the grooming and lack of ice on the mountain—which I had dreaded after hearing too many “ice coast” jokes in the West—the terrain itself was enjoyable, challenging and, as Mike Rogge foretold, lacking in pretension. The view from the top of the mountain was breathtaking: Lake Pleasant and the Sacandaga Lakes, Kunjamuk Bay, and Pillsbury, Snowy and Speculator Mountains. Coming to a halt at the bottom of the hill, I was greeted again by Tom and Bill, who asked how I was enjoying the skiing and shared their own favorite runs. Tom struggled to narrow it down to one, but Bill said that “The Thing” was his all-time favorite.
I left Oak Mountain having learned that people have the capacity to transform the soul of a place—a small mountain in the middle of a northeastern park into the foothold of a community, an old wooden building into a meeting point for multi-generational tradition. Oak Mountain may not offer the long runs or high verticals of larger counterparts, but it makes up for it with quality grooming, a lack of crowds, and a tight-knit community.
If You Go
Find Oak Mountain Ski Center (518-548-3606) at 141 Novosel Way, in Speculator. For seasonal hours, events and snow reports, or to reserve tickets, visit www.oakmountainski.com. The resort celebrates its 75th anniversary on January 27–28.
