Snowmobile season starts without snow to ride on

LAKE DESOLATION & TROY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -Snowmobile season is here from mid-December to March 31. But, the lack of snow has put a pause on the sledding and hurt the local seasonal economy.

"You'd probably have to travel over the border into Northern Quebec, probably up into the Mount Vernon area. Northern New York doesn't have snow. Tug Hill has got nothing," explained President of the Saratoga Snowmobile Association, Chaz Albertson.

Albertson and his group are staying hopeful as they plan for upcoming potential snow. "What we're waiting for is cold. We need cold to set in, get all the lakes frozen, get all the swamps frozen. Once that comes, hopefully, we'll get some snow."

Tinney's Tavern is hoping this weekend's snowy forecast will help their profits by bringing in sledders. "Absolutely positively we love the snow. Snow is everything. We are all doing a snow dance. It highly affects the business when we do not have snow," described General Manager, Erika Faas.

Not only restaurants, but snowmobile dealers have seen a decline in business. Edelmann Sales and Service focuses about 25% of business on snowmobiles and adds other sports as seasons change.

This seems to kind of be the trend in the last five to ten years. We're not super worried about it yet as we sell a lot of snowmobiles and winter equipment preseason. It won't start to really hurt us or affect us until like mid-January into February," stated General Manager, Cody Buck.

"A standalone snowmobile dealership isn't something that exists in this area of the country anymore. We're getting by the rest of the year on dirtbikes, ATVs, side-by-sides, that kind of stuff."