Lost Ski Areas: Belle Mountain, 1960-1998 : Lambertville, NJ

Filmed and edited by Avery Zucco.

Photos from NJ.com and Historic Aerials.

Quick ski area facts:
Operated 1960 - 1998
Snowmaking : yes
Slopes and trails : ~3-4
Aspect : summit ~300ft, vertical drop ~180ft
Lifts : 4 including two rope tows and a handle tow plus one double chair (*Hall, 1969 or 1971 depending on source)

*The double is also cited as being installed in 1971*

[arts.]

It was such a fun, well made, little ski area. Full snow making, ski lifts, fully lit. 20 - 25 minutes to Princeton. You could have fun after school/work. I had heard it closed because there were too many warm winters; the equipment wasn't in bad shape. Too bad it didn't survive and was scrapped.

A mountain bike club made a course on it after it was closed but they left quite a mess and didn't really clean up after themselves. Most of the scars seem to finally be gone.

Great memories. Thanks for making the video.

[skr]

Do I remember? I just snowboarded Belle two weeks ago yewwww 🏂🏂🤙Make Belle Ski-able Again!

[jogborn]

This was the ski area of my youth. I went on to a career in skiing for a while. I’ll give the props to a Belle Mountain for that. Fantastic memories of destroying gloves on the rope tow!

[dougc]

Thanks for the memories. learned to ski there in the late '60s and early "70s. the hart vs head vs K2 debates. the older kids were always doing bad stuff in the warm up shed that our mothers warned us about. night skiing. glad I grew up then. still at it with an EPIC pass, but not as good as Belle Bump. still have rope tow clasp.

[TerlinguaSara]

Thank you, I skied there as a little kid in the 90s. I feel like we went there every weekend in the winter! Sad to think those days are long gone... Skiing is an expensive sport and little hills like this made it more accessible.

[Sam-rtpu]

Thanks for the video. I learned to ski there beginning in 1975 and went frequently into the mid-80s. Virtually all of your information is correct as I remember it. Two points of clarification: 1) per my memory, there was a wooden fence and a wall of hay bales at the bottom of the two smaller slopes so there wasn’t really a risk of skiing into the street. In fact, my very first lesson was on the walkway up to the beginner slopes; 2) there wasn’t a second operational rope tow on the “expert” slope, just the main rope tow. That rope tow was a struggle for a little kid. It would tire your arms out and rip a pair of gloves to shreds within a few hours.

I went on to be a lifelong skier all over the Northeast and out West and owe it all to Belle Bump. Thanks again for posting.

[brookekohlhofer]

I moved a year and a half ago, but spent the last 20 years in that area. I moved there, shortly after Belle Mountain closed, but many years before I actually tried skiing. I used the area for conditioning of endurance racing horses. It was very cool to ride by and see what was left of the lifts, before they were removed. I wish I would have been able to experience it as a skier.

[custom]

I attended Rider College in the early 70's and skied at Belle. Thanks for this !

[bonefishboards]

That was a fun and convenient hill for us.

[jp]

My dad and I would drive to Camelback or Mountain Creek every weekend to ski, but we'd come here on Thursday nights after he was done with work to get some night laps in. Fun times.

[garrettshoughton]

My dad used to be the manager of Howell living history farm, my family lived in the White House at the bottom of bell mountain from 2000-2012! It was a great place to spend my childhood!

[discobean]

I always wondered what that little white shack was by that pond!! We speculated many times... now I know! So interesting. I assume anything old is farm related.

[dannyeastep]

Well done. I lived in the area, but never rwent.

[samanthab]

I grew up going to Arrowhead in Marlboro. Moved out here in 94. Had every intention of bringing my son there but he wasn’t born till Dec. 96. We did get that big snowfall in Jan. 96!

[williamlane]

Blast from the past. I worked there in 94-95.

[MichaelWood-ds]

The ski area was close to Valley Road and there was a fence at the bottom lined with haybales to prevent skiers from skiing into the road. I seen many of crashes into those over my years of skiing at Belle Mt.

[garrettshoughton]

I used to live in that house at the bottom of the bump!

[jpoRS]

I used to hike to ride here in the early 2010s, it's so much more overgrown now.

[MichaelWood-ds]

I learned to ski here in 1971 and skied there until it closed in the late 90's.

[viadharmawheel]

Had a big hay bale wall before the street, nobody went into the street.