Park agency OKs amendment to ORDA’s unit management plan
By Zachary Matson
The Adirondack Park Agency on Thursday paved the way for upgrades to the bobsled sliding track and new competitive mountain bike course at the Mount Van Hoevenberg Olympic complex.
The park agency at its regular meeting approved the latest amendment to the Olympic Regional Development Authority’s unit management plan at the bobsled and cross country ski trails complex that straddles state intensive use and North Elba-owned easement lands near Lake Placid.
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The APA board unanimously approved the UMP amendment, with Art Lussi and Zoe Smith recused.
The amendment enables ORDA to construct a new refrigeration plant on easement lands and improve lighting, track shading, curves, maintenance access and audience viewing along the sliding course. It also solidifies a competitive mountain biking course at the state facility, with construction of course features focused on easement lands.
“There is no construction on the forest preserve,” Ashley Walden, president and CEO of ORDA, told APA commissioners.

The authority emphasized that proposed work would focus development on easement land, rather than state-owned lands, which as part of the forest preserve fall under the state Constitution’s forever wild clause. The center’s parking area and a large field called “the stadium” are on forest preserve lands and technically violate the constitution.
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Lawmakers in 2023 passed a constitutional amendment parsing Mount Van Hoevenberg from the forest preserve. It will need second passage this year under the newly-elected state Legislature before going to a statewide vote in November.

ORDA officials previously suggested they intended to begin the now-approved upgrades by April, after the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation World Championships, and complete them by December.
Approval comes as ORDA holds out for the possibility of hosting sliding events for the 2026 Winter Olympics if host-country Italy fails to update its bobsled track in time. New York last month advanced over European alternatives as a backup site.
The management plan amendment also establishes a permanent cross-country mountain biking course to host competitions. The venue hosted its first World Cup in mountain bike racing last year on its existing cross-country ski trails but some of the features added had to be temporary.
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Rebecca Dayton, general manager of Mount Van Hoevenberg and the Lake Placid Olympic Jumping Complex, has said the goal is to build a permanent course with some flexibility to allow for new routes and features. Mount Van Hoevenberg is slated to host two more years of the biking competition, likely adding a downhill race as well as the cross-country event.

Located off Route 73, the complex supports both winter and summer sports including cross-country skiing, biathlon, bobsled, skeleton, luge and more recently mountain biking and indoor rock climbing. A new hiking trail to the top of the mountain has also attracted visitors, as has a mountain coaster. Construction is in progress for a new trail up Cascade and Porter mountains that would begin at the center’s trailhead.
The unit management plan is necessary under regulations set up for the Adirondacks. State lands are partitioned into units in the Adirondack Park, each intended to have its own management plan. APA commissioners with the vote certified that the amended plan conformed to its rules and regulations and the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan.
Mount Van Hoevenberg’s plan was last amended in 2018 to allow for additional ski trail development, snowmaking, a new lodge, the development of the mountain’s hiking trail and other changes.
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ORDA operates multiple Olympic training venues in the Adirondacks and a downhill skiing center in the Catskills, and is funded by the state. The current year’s budget allocated $82.5 million to the authority.
Perhaps ORDA could consider putting more effort into the more tourist friendly XC ski terrain within the Van Hovenberg complex. The 1980 Olympic biathlon trails are the rolling and flat trails that are most suitable for rookie skiers and elite skiers putting in their required long slow distance days. Accessing these trails from the current lodge/sliding center requires a descent down to the moderate terrain where tourists can more safely ski; a nearly impossible feat for many on skis for the first time.
While part of ORDA’s mission is attracting high level competitions (often with staggering price tags), ORDA is also charged with developing facilities that contribute to the local and regional economy. Properly maintaining and promoting already existing facilities that attract paying visitors would be a win, and maybe offset the large price tags that come with hosting the elite international competitions.