Holiday Valley is the biggest ski area in western New York, covering 290 acres (117 hectares) over five mountain faces at Ellicottville. A base at 1,500 ft (457 m) rises to 2,320 ft (707 m), a vertical of about 820 ft (250 m). Terrain across the 60 runs is split 37% beginner, 25% intermediate, 36% advanced and 2% expert. Eleven quad chairs and two surface lifts do the work, which is an unusually quad-heavy lineup, so lines stay moving and you can cover a lot of ground in a day.

Each of the five pods has its own personality. Snowpine has the tight woods and The Wall, a double black diamond, while Tannenbaum and Mistletoe run through pines near the main lodge. The original 1957 runs, Yodeler, Champagne, Holiday Run and Edelweiss, are still on the map. Holiday Valley suits families, groups and intermediates most of all, and advanced skiers get a healthy share of steeper trails to work through. Day visitors from Buffalo, Toronto, Pittsburgh and Cleveland make it a busy resort, and many of the trails are open for night skiing.

Holiday Valley operates from early December through to mid-April, with the 2025/26 season running 6 December to 13 April. The resort averages approximately 180 inches of annual snowfall — roughly double the annual totals recorded at competing resorts in Pennsylvania and the Catskills — driven by its position approximately 30 miles from Lake Erie, which delivers lake-effect snow systems reliably from late autumn through early spring.

Lake-effect events at this latitude produce high-frequency, moderate-intensity snowfall that accumulates steadily across the season and supplements the extensive snowmaking system to maintain a consistent base across all 290 acres. The current 2025/26 season has logged a base depth of around 24 inches with a season total approaching 88 inches as of early March, reflecting the reliable mid-winter accumulation the Western New York snowbelt regularly produces.

The combination of 180 inches of natural snowfall and 95% snowmaking coverage gives Holiday Valley one of the more dependable operating records of any Eastern US resort, with conditions remaining skiable well into April most years. The après-ski culture around Holiday Valley is well established, with the village of Ellicottville one mile from the base offering a concentration of restaurants, bars and accommodation that the resort directly benefits from — and which Ski Magazine has ranked among the better après destinations in the Eastern US, not far behind Tremblant and Killington in reader surveys.

College students access the mountain at a reduced rate on Sunday through Thursday evenings, and the Locals Sunday programme provides discounted access for residents within a one-hour radius including Buffalo, Erie and the Southern Ontario communities that make up a significant share of the resort's repeat visitor base.