Sports

Hunter Mountain's Orville Slutzky, 1917-2013: The Snow Sports Industry Loses a Legend

He was known for his work ethic.

Here is the latest installment of Chris Dehnel's Snow Business column. 

Eastern skiers and riders are mourning the loss of Orville Slutzky, an industry giant who fashioned a deep, white welcome mat to the New York Metropolitan Area and beyond at Hunter Mountain with a huge arsenal of snowmaking guns and a mountain that presented the terrain to handle it. 

Slutzky died on Thursday at the age of 96. He was born in Hunter in 1917 and raised on his family's farm in Jewett, NY. Aside from his Army service in World War II, he lived, worked and made himself an icon in Hunter.  

In essence, he and his brother, Izzy, who died in 2006, were Hunter.
  
According to Orville's obituary, in September 1939, Orville and Izzy began the I. & O. A. Slutzky Construction Company. Nineteen years later, Orville and Izzy said, through an article in the New York Herald Tribune, that they would donate land for a ski resort. Their plan was to spur economic growth in the area in an around Hunter, according to the obit.
 
The stipulations were that the ski area was to be Hunter Mountain Ski Bowl and that it had to have snowmaking.  

Hunter Mountain Development Corp. was formed and subsequently financed by New York City theater investors, according to the obit. 

The Slutzky brothers supplied the crews that "sculpted the slopes and installed a double chair lift," and Hunter Mountain opened to skiers on January 9, 1960, the obit says.

Hunter Mountain Development Corporation declared bankruptcy after two seasons. Visits were not producing enough profit.  The obit tells us the  Slutzky brothers were not deterred. During the 1961-62 ski season, Orville and Izzy took over control of the ski area - Orville assumed his position as general manager and he would stay for five decades. 

Hunter became know for its snowmaking and diverse terrain. It was a place where new yorkers could get to the country and learn a new sport and it was also a place that had pretty good trail offerings.  

Orville was considered a philanthropist in the community - sometime with credit, but often without. 

At Hunter, his work ethic was legendary and a 12 to 14-hour day was typical, seven days a week, year-round. He often said, “You’ve got to keep your mind and body busy or the ghosts will carry you away.” 

In 2007, Orville and Izzy were honored with the national Ski Areas Association NSAA’s Lifetime Achievement Award for their commitment to the industry.

Perhaps Trista Chiarulli, the marketing and communications manager for Hunter summed it up best with a simple sentence - "It's a sad day for Hunter Mountain."

It's generally sad when a good era ends.


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