"Same but different...A big upgrade is on the way in the summer of 2027." That was how Holiday Valley announced, in a September 14 Instagram post reposted by Lift Blog, that Cindy's Quad will be replaced by a new high-speed quad. The new chair will run on skier's right of Foxfire. Starting in 2027-28, Holiday Valley's 70th anniversary season, Cindy's Run will be "wide open and completely free of lift towers."
The new lift opens a year from now. The work to get there is happening this winter, on the mountain Ellicottville skis every weekend. Holiday Valley is building this lift across two seasons, and 2026-27 is the first one.
A lift built across two seasons
General Manager Dennis Eshbaugh described the schedule in an October 3 interview with Storm Skiing. He said the resort hopes to get "the foundations for the tower line in, uh, in October and November." He also noted that "the Europeans have been doing 2-year lift installs for some time." Holiday Valley has built a lift this way before. Eshbaugh said the two-year approach on Mardi Gras gave the resort a better construction schedule and more freedom in deciding which direction the top and bottom terminals would face. He also admitted the resort is "a little tight on time" on this one, though he thinks the foundation line will be ready.
From the public statements so far, the sequence looks like this:
- September 2026. Holiday Valley announces the project. The Mountain Crew has already started cutting trees along the new lift line.
- October and November 2026. Eshbaugh's target window for pouring tower foundations, which overlaps with the run-up to opening day.
- Winter 2026-27. The ski season runs alongside a cleared, partly built lift line.
- Summer 2027. Cindy's Quad comes out and the Doppelmayr high-speed quad goes in.
- Winter 2027-28. The new lift opens during the 70th anniversary season.
Splitting the work this way lets the slowest part of a lift project happen during the shoulder months. The foundation work comes before the snow, and the summer of 2027 is left for setting terminals and stringing the line.
What Cindy's looks like this winter
The chair coming out has a long history. Lift Blog identifies it as a 1991 CTEC quad, and the Cindy's trail has had lift towers down its middle since 1978. Eshbaugh told Storm Skiing that Cindy's started as a double chair and became a quad, so the new lift will be the third chair on this route. Ski-resort data listings put the current quad's ride at about five minutes and fifty seconds, with a capacity of 2,400 people per hour. The resort hasn't published a ride time or capacity for the replacement.
Dash Hegeman, Holiday Valley's director of marketing, told Ellicottville Now that guests "will already notice a difference to the run when they hit the slopes this winter as tree clear is currently underway." He explained the thinking behind moving the lift: "By relocating the lift to the skiers' right of Foxfire, we believe we can create better flow out of the base area while also opening up Cindy's itself."
"The goal is not to fundamentally change the character of Cindy's - it is to make the overall experience in that area better - from the base of the lift to the top and back down the trail."
Dash Hegeman, speaking to Ellicottville Now
Some questions are still open. Based on the timing, Cindy's Quad should stay in service until the summer 2027 swap, but no statement so far says outright that the old chair will run all of this season. None mentions any trail or access limits on Cindy's this winter, either. There's no price yet. Hegeman said the numbers are "still being crunched" and called the lift "a significant, multi-million-dollar investment." The resort's lift status reports once the season starts will be the best guide to what's running on that side of the mountain.
Where this summer's money actually went
The lift is a separate project from the roughly $5 million in work Holiday Valley announced on May 12. According to the resort's capital improvements release, the biggest share of that money went to "continued modernization and automation of Holiday Valley's snowmaking system." The goal is consistent skiing early in the season and in peak conditions all winter. The release says the snowmaking work focuses on energy efficiency, better water and air delivery, and making the most of good weather windows.
These two projects work on different timelines. The new lift will change how fast you get up Cindy's starting in 2027-28. The snowmaking upgrades affect how much terrain is open in late November this year. The same summer package covered upgrades at The Inn at Holiday Valley, new aerial courses at Sky High Adventure Park, improvements to the Holiday Valley Training Center, new turf equipment for the Double Black Diamond Golf Course, and a complete renovation of McCarty Café in the Main Lodge. No published update so far confirms that the café work is finished.
You'll notice the new RFID access system on your first day back. Holiday Valley's RFID guide explains the routine:
- Put your card in a left-side sleeve or chest pocket. An inside chest pocket also works.
- Keep it away from your phone and from credit cards or other magnetic-strip cards.
- Each skier and rider in your group carries their own card, including kids.
- Gate-mounted scanners are at Yodeler, Chute and Sunrise. Everywhere else, an attendant scans your card with a handheld reader.
- Don't bend or punch a hole in the card. A replacement costs $5.
If the back of your card has a Reload Card notice with a QR code, you can add tickets for future visits. To reload online, enter the card number in the web store, choose your ticket and date, and pay. Then you can skip the ticket window. Holiday Valley's reload page also carries an older note saying the update did not apply to season passholders, while Hegeman described online reloading for "eligible passes" this season. If you hold a season pass, ask the resort whether your card can be reloaded online.
Two opening days, fifteen days apart
Ellicottville's two ski areas open on different dates and admit the public under different rules.
| Holiday Valley | HoliMont | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 opening | Friday, November 27, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., weather permitting | Projected December 12 |
| Public access | Public seven days a week | Public Monday through Friday, except Christmas week, MLK and Presidents Monday; weekends for members and guests |
| Adult weekday ticket | $100 all day | $103 |
| Adult weekend ticket | $115 for 8 hours | $130 |
Holiday Valley's lift tickets went on sale October 1, and each RFID card carries a one-time $5 fee. At HoliMont, the 5-day weekday pack is $405 and the 10-day pack is $625. Those prices rise to $420 and $650 after Columbus Day, which is October 12 this year. Holiday Valley's fee-free installment plans for the Classic pass closed August 1.
The November run-up
Fall Fest weekend is over. The 50th Ellicottville Fall Festival ran October 10 and 11, and Holiday Valley's Fall Fest Ski Swap filled the Main Lodge from October 9 through 11. Tower foundations should go in during the next six weeks, and the village calendar fills those weeks too.
Crawl Outta Fall runs Friday, November 6, from 4 to 7 p.m. Registration is at Edna's at the Tamarack Club, and the route continues to bars and restaurants in the village. The next afternoon, Saturday, November 7, the Beer & Wine Festival fills the Main Lodge from 3 to 7 p.m. with live music and more than 50 beverage vendors. Opening day follows on November 27. The Chamber has Christmas in Ellicottville set for November 28 and 29, so the first weekend on snow and the village's holiday weekend fall back to back.
Right across from the resort, this is the first ski season for Wayne's Depot. The Villager reports that Bar Bill's John and Harry Crook leased the old Depot, which is in a building Holiday Valley owns. They kept much of the familiar decor, rebuilt the kitchen around new pizza ovens and added a full pizza menu for the first time in Bar Bill's history. General Manager Vinnie Garafalo is an Ellicottville native. The owners told The Villager that pizza specials will roll out "slowly leading up to the upcoming ski season" and that "Christmas time will be really fun here as well."
Hegeman said Holiday Valley is still planning its 70th anniversary celebration and plans to recognize "the generations of guests, employees, and members of the Ellicottville community" who built the resort. That celebration and the new Cindy's lift are both set for the 2027-28 season, and the work on both begins this winter.
A new lift next to one of Holiday Valley's busiest trails can change how the resort's real estate is valued, especially condos and chalets near the base area. The Nielsen Wroda Team follows these projects closely for owners across our resort markets. If you own near the slopes in Ellicottville and want to know where your property stands as Cindy's changes, The Nielsen Wroda Team can start you with an instant home valuation.
