Category:Apple Hill Ski Area

The Apple Hill Ski Area was a local winter ski area, located in Kernsville, about ten miles north of Allentown, a mile to the west of Orfield.

Apple Hill was opened in 1962 by Frederick F. Kramer III, of the Kramer's Music Store in Allentown. It cost $450,000 to build and had its own snow-making equipment. It offered beginner and moderate slopes, rope tow and two 1,000 foot T-bar ski lifts, night skiing, and an alpine-type lodge with a rental center, and at least 5 or 6 trails on about 250 feet of vertical drop. The facility also offered a ski school.

The ski area closed after the 1977-1978 ski season and the property was subsequently sold. In December 1978, plans were announced to build a 51-acre recreation complex on the site, containing an 8,000 square-foot wave-making swimming pool; four downhill water slides; outdoor recreation; an indoor grand-prix racing circuit and other activities. However the financing fell through on this, and the property was subsequently never redeveloped.

Today, the former skiing area is now abandoned and overgrown; the main lodge was still standing but very run-down and vandalized. It was a small but quaint A-frame with a rental shop and ski school area on the lower level, and a real nice cafeteria area overlooking the slopes on the upper level. Of the lifts, the main t-bar was still in place. The top station for the beginner rope tow behind the lodge was still there but the lift components are gone.