Beloved Mt. Otsego Ski Shop To Close After This Season

By WRILEY NELSON
MIDDLEFIELD

Harry Peplinski announced that his family business, the Mt. Otsego Ski Shop in Bowerstown, will close at the end of the winter season after 46 years of operation. The Peplinskis’ inventory of cross-country skiing and snowshoeing equipment will be sold to Milford’s Woodland Cycles, which will continue to offer local rentals. Peplinski, a long-serving Cooperstown teacher, skiing coach, and slope operator, reflected on his decades in business.

“There was another ski shop on Main Street starting in the late 1930s,” he recalled. “I bought my first proper pair of skis with a metal binding there in 1945. I bought this business from [former Cooperstown principal] Nick Sterling in 1978. He was involved with the skiing hill and with the school, of course. We’ve run it since then, and this will be our last year. I’m very pleased that Woodland Cycles will take over the cross-country ski and snowshoe rentals, because it’s very important to the area. We’re going to help them as much as we can.”

“We’re still going to offer downhill skiing services here, as well as the other products we sell,” he continued.

Peplinski showed off his collection of historic photos and briefly discussed the history of downhill skiing in Otsego County. He began working at Cooperstown High School as a science teacher and skiing coach in 1958. In the 1960s and 70s, he helped run the ski slope near Pierstown. He and his family installed and operated the area’s first T-bar lift.

“In the early 20th century, there was a rope-tow ski hill near where The Farmers’ Museum is now, which offered mostly night skiing,” he said. “In the early days, this shop was very busy because it was the only option in the area for downhill equipment. The whole operation up at the hill was a community effort: People would come and clear out brush for us. People would come and sidestep up the hill to help pack down the slope after a new snowfall.

“The slope was the hub of winter social life in the area for many years,” he continued. “Many people have come into the shop over the years to reminisce about the afternoons they used to spend up there, and the parties they had. The Winter Carnival used to be all about the hill. The school also used to offer a whole program of lessons and instructor jobs on the slope. It helped that the principal was involved.”

Mt. Otsego Ski Shop is located at 217 County Highway 52; call (607) 547-2203 for more information.