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...otherwise known as the explore that tried to kill mookster.
One of the first things that attracted me to American exploring was Grossinger's Resort - a sprawling former Jewish holiday destination nestled in the Catskills mountain region of upstate New York. During the early to middle of the last century dozens of resorts and hundreds of smaller hotels popped up around the region catering for Jewish families who often were turned away from other resorts. These resorts grew, prospered and declined within three generations, during the latter stages the younger generations were moving on to other holiday destinations leaving an ageing clientele who were never replaced. By the early 1990s the vast majority of the old resorts had closed and either been demolished, converted into summer camps or left to rot. The last bastion of grand resorts, Kutscher's Country Club, only shut down a couple of years back but was demolished almost immediately afterwards by the new owners of the land.
This resort is one of many left abandoned and rotting (more on that later). We had never seen any photos from here before venturing inside, in fact I can't recall seeing any online at all before we went in so it was a real adventure not knowing what, if anything we would find.
It was all fairly uneventful until we got into the main hotel building. Parts of the building were collapsing, some of the floors were showing telltale wavy signs and it was pretty decayed. Onwards I pushed, up into a certain room on the top floor. The ceiling insulation had completely fallen through over everything in the room which I thought made a cool photo or two so I snapped away happily, went to venture to the back of the room and then suddenly all I was aware of was a loud cracking sound, the world going into slow motion and next thing I know my arse is somehow perched precariously on a rotten beam with my legs dangling free into the room below. I thought to myself 'this is a bit of a predicament I'm in', so I called for my friends to come help. While they were on their way I was looking for somewhere to put my hands to try and stabilise myself a little, I grabbed what was the door handle into the bathroom with my left hand and while searching for somewhere to place my right hand I ended up putting my hand straight through the floor it was that rotten. That was the only moment I thought to myself 'oh shit this is bad'. My friend turned up and I told him to grab the loop on top of my rucksack and pull me upwards whilst I lever myself up using the door handle, and by doing that I kind of just popped out the hole onto fairly solid ground.
I think it was to do with the adrenaline more than anything but once I had been extracted I had the biggest smile on my face and was laughing madly whilst stood there covered in rotten wood and insulation, with only a cut up hand for my troubles.
"Lets go see that chapel in the basement" I can remember saying right after that...and we did!
This was the room where I discovered the express elevator downwards...
And this was the end result after my rescue. The large hole was made by my body, the small hole above it was where I put my hand straight through the floor after, it was that rotten.
Thanks for looking!
