Poster: A snowHead
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In a world of high-technology lifts, groomed runs and big appartment blocks, there are some ski areas that offer a glimpse into simpler values and quieter times.
Mad River Glen in Vermont, just down the road from the bigger and more famous resort of Sugarbush, is one of them. It's a wild, raw mountain which has won over its many supporters. They include the hundreds of skiers who actually own it and run it on a non-profit basis. It even features a single chairlift built in 1949 - Glencoe in Scotland is one of the few other places you can still find them. My brother's just returned from Mad River Glen, having compared it to other resorts in NE America, and preferred it.
Read this lovely account of the place, from The Journal News. Anyone else skied there?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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NO BOARDERS ! ! ! Consider me appalled (or is that appalling?). PS it’s just as nice in the summer, there are hundreds of bike trails in the area. And Autumn is worth it just for the tree show. (nice old memories from a long forgotten kid at summer camp)
JohnB
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You have my sympathies, Masque.
I wonder if any boarders have tried to buy shares in Mad River Glen? More to the point, why are there no boarder-owned resorts? There are plenty of defunct resorts in NE USA, and even it seems France, crying out for a new lease of life.
I'd be all in favour of boarders having mountains all to themselves, despite having introduced snowboards to the UK in 1978. Little did I know!
My sister, who lives in New York State, skis at Jiminy Peak and hates the amount of snow scraped off runs by boarders. The interesting thing is that the snowboard was invented with a view to it being used exclusively off-piste - hence the fact that steel edges didn't appear on snowboards until the mid-1980s....but I digress.
Any Madmen from River Glen on Snowheads yet?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Anyone who can seriously carve a turn on a snowboard gets my tipped hat. Snow-scrapers get a rubber monkey.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Here's another article on Mad River Glen and its 1949 chairlift, from USA Today. Here's an extract:
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So the single-chair lift still runs on diesel fuel, one of the last left in the country. When it broke down for four days in 2003, steel had to be ordered from Ohio and a local machine shop made the replacement part because parts are no longer available.
When the time comes to replace the lift, a majority of shareholders would opt for another single chair, though it would cost more than a double chair, said Jamey Wimble, general manager and president.
"They're willing to pay a premium for it," he said. "The skiers will decide. There's not a lot of places where they do decide."
People accept up to a 30-minute wait in line on a busy weekend to make the 12-minute run to the summit, though they can choose among three double-chair lifts that don't go as high.
"It's not a very economical way to get people up the hill," Wimble said, but added that "the single is very much the identity of Mad River." |
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Didnt read the article yet . They dont allow boarders ? This used to be the case on Ajax Mountain ( Aspen town hill) upto a few years back.
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MRG, Alta, Deer Valley and Taos are (I think) the only resorts that remain boarder-free. - Certainly in the US.
Maybe someone knows of somewhere equally exclusive elsewhere?
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MRG is a bit of a novelty act. Becasue it's a quirky old-school hill, people have a habit of becoming overly enamored with it. If you make any disparaging remarks about the place in front of a true believer, it is intstantly assumed that you can't possibly be a real skier, and your skiing ability and your man/womanhood is brought into question. It's a fun a place to ski once in a while. It's low key. The people are friendly. The food is good and the prices reasonable. On a rare powder day in Vermont it is an equally rare treat. To me, the novelty act gets a bit old after a few weeks of no snow and a couple of New England freeze/thaw cycles. A fun side show, but not a worthy main event. To be fair, I see all New England skiing as a side show compared to main events such as western US/Canada skiing or the Alps.
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