Same Hill This Winter, a New Plan at Its Base: What's Happening at West Mountain

"The mountain just sits there and smokes money all summer." Spencer Montgomery is co-owner and operator of West Mountain Ski Area, and he gave that line to The Post-Star this fall while describing the redesigned plan for The Woods at West Mountain.

That sentence explains most of what changed at the bottom of the hill on West Mountain Road this year. The coming winter will feel familiar to anyone who skied the hill last season. The plan for the land at its base has been rebuilt around the months when no one is skiing.

The $800,000 problem the plan starts with

Montgomery put a figure on it. Weddings, he told the Post-Star, "help us with the $800,000 burn we have over the summer." He also said West Mountain has already tried two other ways to cover that gap: "We've tried to offset it with a ropes course; it didn't work. We've tried mountain biking; it didn't work."

Events are what have caught on. Sara Montgomery is West Mountain's Weddings and Events Director, and the mountain publishes a 2026-27 weddings and special-events guide. Her husband told the Post-Star that the wedding business is "getting a lot of traction," but the mountain has nowhere for guests to stay. "You can come to the [ski] lodge, but everybody's got to pack up after reception and get behind the wheel. It's just not ideal."

Why a hotel comes before the village

The Post-Star reported that once the town Planning Board approves the plan, the first construction phase would be a 60- to 80-room hotel with an athletic spa and 30 "Tree Houses," described as ski-in, ski-out executive suites run by the hotel. The architects suggested building the hotel first specifically to support the wedding business. The Alpine Village, with shops, a restaurant, condominiums and a pond, would follow.

The architects are Bull Stockwell Allen, a Boston and San Francisco firm whose past work includes Spruce Peak at Stowe in Vermont, the Inn at Sundance in Utah and Bretton Woods in New Hampshire. The town board had already approved the project's Planned Resort Development application and zoning change before the firm was hired. Its job was to turn that approval into what the Post-Star called a "permittable, buildable project."

According to Montgomery, the firm's view is that early buildings set the tone for everything after them. He told the Post-Star the architects said the mountain "could start selling single-family home lots, and get the hotel going and the treehouses, and that would set the genre for the resort."

What moved, and what West Mountain Road gets out of it

Project attorney Jon Lapper described the redesign as rearranging what was already approved. "The goal is to use exactly what was approved in the PRD in terms of the number of square feet of commercial space, the number of residential units, and just change the mix," he told the Post-Star.

The Post-Star listed these as the main changes, the ones that matter most to anyone who drives past the base:

1. Apartments become condos. The planned apartments are replaced with condominiums, bringing the total to more than 300 condos.
2. The amphitheater is gone. It was removed from the plan.
3. Parking moves off the road frontage. The lot shifts away from West Mountain Road, leaving room for a deep landscape park and stream buffer along the front of the property.
4. The village turns to face the hill. The Alpine Village now runs parallel to the face of the mountain, so people walking the pedestrian street look straight up at the lifts. In Lapper's words, "instead of the parking being right in front from West Mountain Road, it's off to the side."

Item three is the change that faces the road most directly. Under the redesign, the frontage on West Mountain Road would be a park and a stream buffer, with the parking lot moved to the side.

The new layout also comes with a new lift. Unofficial Networks reported on July 27, 2026 that the proposed high-speed lift is called the Woods Flyer, with its bottom bullwheel and parking repositioned to match the new village. That lift belongs to the future development, not to this ski season.

The footprint is smaller than "resort" might suggest. In August, Montgomery told the Glens Falls Business Journal that the ski area covers 1,565 acres, 365 of them in the ski center, and that The Woods would use only 53 acres, about 80% of it on the flat land at the bottom. He said the homes would go "about a third of the way" up the mountain, "camouflaged with filtered views and largely invisible from town."

Queensbury Supervisor John Strough's reaction at the town board, as the Post-Star reported it, was short: "I like this design much better."

Where the review stands

The Post-Star reported the project was expected back before the Queensbury Planning Board in October for site plan and subdivision review, a process it described as about six months. The town's calendar listed Planning Board meetings for October 20 and October 27, 2026. Lapper said changes could still come out of that review, including lower density: "Admittedly, it's fluid, and we're still changing things."

The groundbreaking date depends on which outlet you read:

• The Glens Falls Business Journal, on August 18, 2026, reported a hoped-for first-phase groundbreaking in summer 2027.
• The Times Union, on October 1, 2026, said the owners hope to break ground next year.
• The Post-Star described a target of late 2027.

All three point to 2027, which means 2026-27 is very likely the last full ski season before any construction starts at the base.

The winter you'll actually ski this year

The redesign doesn't touch this season's operations. West Mountain hasn't announced an opening day. Its events page says "Opening Day Information Coming Soon!" The lessons page says winter programs run from the December opening through March. Private and semi-private lessons are offered daily: 4 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. on weekdays, and 9:30 a.m., noon, 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. on weekends. The tubing page says 2026-27 tickets and prices will be posted later.

Season passes are already on sale, and the price depends on when you buy. Here is the adult pass schedule, ages 20 to 64, from West Mountain's season pass page:

Anyone buying now pays the top tier, $300 more than spring buyers paid. Other current prices: $849 for teens 13 to 19, $749 for youth 7 to 12, $799 for seniors, active college students and military, $699 for ages 70 and up, and $65 for children six and under. Buying additional passes alongside a full-price adult pass takes 5% off those passes.

Two dates are already on the mountain's calendar:

• West Mountain School Ski & Sports Gear Swap and Bake Sale, November 13-15, 2026, in the Main Lodge. Consignment drop-off is Friday, 4 to 7 p.m. The sale runs Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pickup of unsold items is Sunday, 9 a.m. to noon. Proceeds go to West Mountain School, the mountain's nonprofit that supports ski racing with safety and technical equipment and scholarships. The organizers ask that pets stay home.
• Merry on the Mountain, Friday, December 4, 2026, 6 to 9 p.m. This is the mountain's tree lighting and holiday evening. More details are still to come.

If you live along West Mountain Road or anywhere nearby and want to talk through what the Woods plan could mean for your street once the Planning Board finishes its review, Dina Coluccio follows these Queensbury projects closely and is happy to walk through it with you. Let's Talk.