A 96-year-old former ski patroller at Heavenly Mountain Resort at Lake Tahoe on the California/Nevada border has had a ski trail named after him by the resort.
Martin Hollay worked at the resort for 25 years and was responsible for creating many of the ski runs, particularly on the Nevada side of Heavenly’s huge ski area. He still skied for 100 days last winter.
A petition set up this summer to get a run named for Mr Hollay attracted more than 1300 signatures.
The ski run was christened ‘Martin’s Trail’ at a naming ceremony attended by Mr Hollay, current Heavenly staff, former co-workers and well wishers, who all hiked up to a point commonly known anyway as ‘Martin’s Peak’ where the new signage is in place, along with a Hungarian flag, in honour of Mr Hollay’s home nation.
In addition to the newly christened trails, Heavenly also erected signage by an area of woodland known as ‘Martin’s Trees’ where Mr Hollay planted woodland in 1973 on his own initiative to make up for trees felled when cutting ski trails.
“Your life is and continues to be extraordinary — and that’s an understatement,” said Mike Goar, Tahoe-region vice president for Vail Resorts and Heavenly COO. “Thank you for everything you’ve done in creating this world class ski resort that everyone is so proud to be a part of.”
(Image credit: Heavenly Mountain Resort)
