Ski patrollers on the slopes at Hogback Mountain.
Davis, a meteorologist from Saratoga, NY, is the founder of the New England Lost Ski Areas Project (www.nelsap.org) and author of “Lost Ski Areas of the White Mountains.” He’s also the foremost, if not the only, authority on the disappearing ski areas of the region.
The region’s hillsides are dotted with former ski areas. Some are still clearly identifiable, like Maple Valley in Dummerston, which operated up until about a decade ago. Some of the older ski areas, many closed since the 1970s, are only discernable to the trained eye – identified only by a change in tree growth where a trail once ran, or by rusted towers running up a wooded hillside, only visible in fall and winter.
Most of these small ski area were mom and pop operations, run by families, for families. There were no inns and fancy restaurants; the focus was on the skiing. In his latest book, Davis says southern Vermont was once home to 60 ski areas in addition to the 13 that still operate today.
Davis says his interest in lost ski areas was sparked as a youngster when he caught a glimpse of Mount Whittier, in West Ossipee, NH, during a family ski vacation. “I was just getting into the sport,” Davis recalls. “And I found it fascinating to see a whole resort falling apart. Kids like to explore things, and it spurred my interest.”
Davis saw more abandoned ski areas during subsequent family trips. Curious about their history, he discovered there was a dearth of written sources on the areas. There were no books on the subject and, at the time, there was no Internet to search, so Davis began gathering information on his own. “When I went skiing, I asked people on the lifts what they knew about the closed areas that were nearby,” Davis says. “I found brochures in antique shops, and articles in old issues of Vermont Life. There was a great article on Dutch Hill in Vermont Life.”
In 1998, while at Lyndon State College in Lyndonville, Davis created the New England Lost Ski Areas Project and put the information he had gathered on the World Wide Web. The result was an explosion of interest. People contacted Davis with stories about their experiences at the ski areas. Some sent photos and memorabilia. Others contacted Davis to tell him about ski areas that weren’t on his list. “It really exploded,” he says. “I couldn’t believe how fast it picked up.”
For Davis, the fascination with lost ski areas is equal parts adventure, mystery, and nostalgia. “I love exploring things,” he says. “I like to uncover bits and pieces of the past, and to see photos of what was. This is lost Americana.”
Davis says small family-run ski areas peaked in the early to mid-1970s. Few of the small areas had snowmaking equipment, and a few snowless seasons coupled with a series of oil crises hit the small areas hard. But Davis says it wasn’t the weather or gas prices that drove the final nail in the coffin of the small operators, it was the cost of insurance. “I’ve heard a theory that it was caused by the changing American family, that with the rise in divorces and both parents working, there wasn’t as much time for family ski trips,” Davis says. “But there were several factors that collided in the ‘70s, the biggest being insurance rates.”
Longtime ski enthusiasts may be familiar with many of the ski areas Davis profiles in his book, from Mount Tom in Woodstock to Sugar Bush in Jamaica. And Davis devotes considerable ink to the lost ski areas of the Deerfield Valley. Tiny ski areas like the Wilmington Tow, a 1,000-foot rope tow that was operated in the village during the late ‘30s and “40s; and the North River Ski Area, a 500-foot rope tow in Halifax, each get a mention. But Davis delves into the bigger areas like Chet Page’s Burrington Hill, in Whitingham, in greater depth, and with vintage photographs. Burrington Hill, he notes, called itself “The world’s smallest ski area,” in contrast to nearby Mount Snow, which called itself the largest ski area.
“Carl Yettru, who skied here in the late 1960s, remembers the friendliness and hospitality of the Pages,” Davis says in the book. “His sons particularly enjoyed the heated outdoor pool, and he recalls that he and his wife had a hard time getting them to leave.”
Davis says Hogback Mountain Ski Area had a unique layout allowing skiers to start their day by skiing down the Rim Run trail to reach the main T-bar. “Hogback was an excellent ski area to learn the sport and featured a topnotch ski school,” Davis says of the popular area. “Tino Koch, the multilingual head of the ski school, came from Switzerland, where he had 30 years of ski teaching experience.”
Photos of Hogback include recent images that show how nature has moved in to begin reclaiming the mountain. The book also features Dutch Hill in Readsboro, and “hybrid” areas such as Prospect Mountain in Woodford, and Carinthia in West Dover.
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