For 34 years in Mercer County, skiing was for everyone.

From when Belle Mountain opened to skiers in 1963 to its last season in 1997, local residents could enjoy a day on the slopes for as little as a dollar.

That’s how much a lift ticket cost for county residents for much of the ’60s and ’70s. And that’s why almost anyone who grew up in the area has fond memories of the “Belle Bump,” the small ski slope in Hopewell Township that brought skiing to the masses.


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Hamilton resident Frank Zabara, who oversaw snowmaking and lift operations at the mountain in the 1980s and ’90s, said it all started out with just one slope and a tow rope powered by an old jeep.

The tow rope looms large in the memories of those who skied at Belle Mountain. A chair lift was added in later years, but the tow rope was the fastest way to get up the mountain. It was little more than a long loop of rope with an engine at one end and a pulley at the other.

To get to the top of the slope, skiers lifted the moving rope from the ground and held on as it dragged them up the mountain.
Mercer County resident Bob Miller said the tow rope had many hazards.

“You could be going up the mountain and the next thing you know, the person in front of you can’t grip the rope hard enough and all of a sudden they’re sliding back the rope coming straight at you,” he said.

Other risks included getting rope burn on your gloves or pants or getting hit by loose skis or out-of-control skiers coming down the hill. People with long hair risked getting it tangled in the slowly rotating rope and dragged all the way up to the safety gate at the top of the mountain, which triggered the whole thing to shut down.

In the early days, there were outhouses and a tiny, smoky warming hut. Later, actual bathrooms were added, and an octagonal building was constructed housing a snack bar and picnic tables.

There were two main slopes at the mountain, a long intermediate trail and the expert slope. The expert slope was a steep 175-foot drop. At the bottom of the hill, the only thing stopping skiers from going straight onto Valley Road were bales of hay and a snow fence.

“There were many people who slammed into the hay bales on any given day,” Miller said.

Crude though it was compared to the extensive ski slopes in the Poconos and New England, it was still the best place to ski for many local residents. Belle Mountain had floodlights, so it was open until 10 p.m. most nights. Locals could go there after work.

Snow-making equipment added in later years meant that there was good skiing there all winter. Many local residents learned to ski at Belle Mountain and continued the hobby long after the Belle Bump closed forever.

Hopewell resident Ricky Weidel, owner of Weidel Realty in Ewing, said he learned to ski at Belle Mountain. Weidel loved it so
much, he went on to become an amateur ski racer, and took many first place finishes at Belle Mountain’s annual race. He said the expert slope was good training for the hills he later tackled in New England.

“It was short but it was a steep as any other mountain,” Weidel said. “Racing at Belle Mountain spurred me on to continue racing on an amateur level for many years.”

Hopewell Township administrator Paul Pogorzelski said the mountain was an important place in the culture of Mercer County.
“All of the people who I’m aware of in my circle of friends, and certainly Hopewell residents who skied regularly at Belle Mountain are good or expert skiers today,” he said.

That option is not available for kids growing up in Mercer County today. Even if the nearest ski resorts weren’t a two-hour car ride away, the expense puts skiing frequently out of reach for most families.

Hopewell resident and Chief Financial Officer for the Township Elaine Borges remembers learning to ski there in the days of 50-cent lift tickets. She and her sister became ski instructors in their teens and spent every winter at Belle Mountain. She hasn’t been able to offer her own family the same privilege.

“It’s too expensive and I’m too far way,” she said. “I actually have a nine-year-old son, and he’s never skied a day in his life, and it’s a shame.”

The mountain had its own traditions and customs. Borges recalls the annual ski race, as well as a somewhat less publicized “sloppy” race in the mid-80s. The race took place at the end of the season, when slope was half mud and half snow. A course was set up that included stops where “racers” had to do ridiculous stunts like limbo under a bamboo pole, or roll over a hay bale. The winner was the person who finished with the time closest to the pace-setter.

Judy Niederer worked at the mountain for 12 years, ending up as the ticket manager. She said they would often play music on the slopes, piped in from WPST or other local radio stations. It added to the friendly atmosphere of the mountain.

Several ski clubs made their home at Belle Mountain, including the Trenton Ski Club. The Trenton Ski Club, formed in 1952, held regular meetings at Belle Mountain. Former Trenton resident and longtime club member Bob Germond said about 20 members would go there every Wednesday night to ski and enjoy a campfire.

“It was a very small mountain, but you either skied on a small mountain or you didn’t ski,” he said.

A volunteer ski patrol watched over the skiers at Belle Moutnain. Pennington resident Gordon Bamford, now 93, joined the ski patrol in the ’60s so his kids could ski on the mountain for free. Bamford said his kids still love to ski, and his daughter was even on the Rutgers University ski team.

“It was a great place for local children to go and not at a great cost,” he said. “Today you take your family to the Poconos and by the time you pay for the lift fees and other fees it’s $300. It’s quite expensive to do that, so if Belle Mountain were still in business, I would think it would be very heavily used.”

But all good things come to an end, and the end came for Belle Moutnain in 1998. Pete Daly, spokesman for Mercer County, said the county was forced to close the money-losing mountain for financial reasons. The county had turned over management of the mountain to a private company in 1993, but they too were unable to turn a profit.

Niederer said one of the problems was that there was always a crowd there when it snowed, but too few people realized that there was great skiing to be had even when it didn’t snow, due to the snow-making equipment.
“We had no budget for advertising, ” she said. “If people didn’t see snow in their back yards, they didn’t think we were open.”

Zabara said parks and recreation crews, who tended the golf course the rest of the year, made snow with water and compressed air.

“The overhead was expensive, and if you didn’t get cold weather to make enough snow to where you would draw large crowds, then it was kind of expensive to operate,” Zabara said. “We didn’t have a big budget to do advertising, but we were very capable of making snow as good as any other place in the Poconos.”

Most of the buildings that made up Belle Mountain have been torn down, but the ski slopes are still there and still free of trees. It’s no longer a ski resort, but it might be the best sledding hill in the county.

Daly said the hill was closed to sledders for a time this winter, due to safety concerns. But you wouldn’t have known that judging by the number of people who were trudging up the hill toting snowboards, skis, sleds and toboggans on a recent Thursday afternoon. The mountain has been covered with a thick blanket of snow for most of the winter.

Daly said there are no plans to do anything with the property at the moment.

Niederer knows that the mountain will never again be a ski slope, but as recreation director for Hopewell Township, she often thinks about the place, wishing it were back in business.

“It brings back a lot of great memories,” she said.