Other changes have included new lifts, expanded terrain, and improved snowmaking, along with a bunch of extras aimed at the creature comfort crowd: Windham’s bread and butter. The new owners have invested more than $10 million – the largest single lump of capital improvements in Windham’s 47 years of existence – including $4.75 million in the base lodge for the coming season. Since a group of Wall Street masters of the universe led by majority owners Randy Frankel and Steven Starker bought Windham at the end of 2005, the resort’s transformation into the Catskills’ only upscale ski resort has shifted into overdrive. Not by coincidence, once you arrive at the ski area, Windham Mountain borrows elements of the Deer Valley/Stratton full-service, amenity-heavy operating model – uniformed valets who unload and store your skis, a well-appointed private locker room, two high-speed quads, a posh condo complex, nice eateries… you get the idea. With new sidewalks, period street lamps, well maintained housing stock, a handful of golf courses nearby, and new restaurants, the area is clearly on its way up. Heading west on Route 23 and approaching the town of Windham, the first thing you notice is that the village surrounding the ski resort doesn’t have the down-at-the-heels feel that has pervaded many parts of the Catskills since vacationers began heading elsewhere 30 years ago. But after being dragged kicking and screaming into the “ski family” demographic with a two-year-old son now in tow, I headed up the New York State Thruway last March to check it out. All I knew was that Windham was popular with families - which was historically enough of a reason for me to go elsewhere - and had a corresponding reputation as a mellow mountain. And while Windham draws healthy ski day numbers, it seems to get scant attention from posters on Internet ski forums. Even though it’s one of the Catskill Mountains’ three main ski areas and barely two hours from my house, I never made it up there.
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