After Long Legal Saga, Closed NY Ski Area Has New Owner and Reopening Plans

After a twisty tale of legal action and a prolonged closure, the Syracuse, New York, area Toggenburg Mountain has a new owner and is set to reopen for the 2027-28 season. 

As part of a settlement announced by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG), the ski area, shuttered since 2021, was sold to local business owner Douglas Wheeler and his family.

“Our intention for Toggenburg is and has always been the same. To acquire Toggenburg Ski Center and return it to its former glory while modernizing the technology and adding new attractions,” Wheeler’s son, James, wrote in a Facebook post.

He said his family has called Toggenburg’s local town Fabius home for generations and added that, before 1953, they owned the property the ski area sits on.

“73 years later, that land has returned to our families hands,” he wrote.

Likely because the deal was just announced, Wheeler didn’t share specific plans for improvements at Toggenburg. But he wrote that anyone who wants to help now can support his family’s other businesses: Patriot Prints, Countryside Excavation, and Patriot Diesel & Auto.

“This project is a huge undertaking. It will take extensive time, money, and manpower to accomplish this task,” he wrote.

The years-long Toggenburg saga began when Intermountain, which owns two other nearby ski areas, Song and Labrador, bought Toggenburg. 

After Intermountain shut down Toggenburg in 2021, the OAG argued that the company did so to direct traffic to Song and Labrador, stifling ski competition in the Syracuse market. Attorney General Letitia James sued Intermountain in 2022 and, in 2025, a judge sided with her, ruling that the company had, indeed, violated state antitrust law.

“Competition among Syracuse ski areas means more choices and better prices and services for New York skiers,” said James in a Friday news release. “We’re putting an end to Intermountain’s illegal monopoly that allowed it to raise prices and take advantage of skiers.” 

The OAG ultimately secured a settlement with Intermountain requiring it to sell Toggenburg to Wheeler. As part of the sale, Intermountain must pay $30,000 to New York and cannot try to buy back Toggenburg, officials said.

Located about a 30-minute drive outside Syracuse, Toggenburg was one of many smaller Northeast ski areas with humble digs that catered more to locals than travelers from afar. According to nyskiblog.com, it operated five lifts and had a 760-foot vertical drop. 

Wheeler said in his post that there are plans for a YouTube channel documenting the “journey” as well as Toggenburg Merch for sale on the Patriot Prints website within the next week.

“We hope that everyone will follow along and enjoys seeing the ins and outs of not just this project but our everyday life,” he wrote.

Related: Eggs, Bacon, Frozen Nose Hairs and Blower Powder With High Sierra Snowcat & Yurt