Vermont Ski Museum to return to original roots

Stowe, VT-The Board of Directors of the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum in Stowe has decided to change the facility’s name back to the Vermont Ski Museum. 

Back in 2011, the decision to add snowboarding reflected the significant impact Vermont had upon snowboarding development and history, according to Tom Sequist, the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum Board chairman. Among Vermont’s contributions are the annual staging of the U.S. Open and Burton, the snowboard manufacturer founded in Manchester Center, VT. With snowboard sales and daily area visits way down, combined with the fact that the U.S. Open has been moved to Vail, and with Burton Products now produced in China, it only makes sense to return to our roots that served us so well in the past.

This decision to revert back to the original moniker reflects the importance skiing has had upon Vermont winter sports.  As early as the 1930’s, the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) began cutting ski trails in Vermont in an effort to promote tourism and recreation.  Snow trains and ski resorts soon followed. According to NELSAP.org Vermont once boasted as many as 146 ski areas. It suddenly dawned on us that not one of these area's opened as a snowboard area!

In an effort to help promote the name change, the Vermont Ski Museum will premiere a Mad River Glen exhibit this September entitled “Ski it if you can”. 

A number of years ago, the Vermont Ski Museum was moved from its original location in a barn behind the Brandon Inn in Brandon, Vt., to its current location in the Perkin’s building near the four corners in the center of Stowe that also includes the Vermont Ski Hall of Fame.

Return to Pallavicini

We'll be heading to A-Basin in early March and hope to ski Pali Face it's signature Black Diamond Run. This letter to Skiing Magazine was written as a response to their guide.


A Pallavicinian Response
As soon as I saw your Guide to “Arapahoe Basin’s Pallavicini Lift” October 2008, I had to immediately call my long time ski buddy Jimbo Cline. “Page 55, do you think Mark saw the article?” was my question to Jim.

Back in ’02 the three of us did a week long, end of season, "Skiing Road Trip"; hitting all of our favorite Colorado resorts. Our last stop was A-Basin. Near the end of a great day we decided to try our luck on Pali Face a very steep run of almost 40 degrees. Jim suggested a quick pic of Mark and myself just below the top. That’s when near tragedy struck. The snow gave way under Mark’s downhill ski, he fell shoulder first down the face never getting a chance to get his skis under him. Mark slid and bounced till both of his skis snapped off and flew into the air. Mark franticly tried to self arrest to no avail. Jim and I helplessly watched Mark reach terminal velocity and start to bounce through the lower mogul fields before finally coming to rest down near Palliwog about 1,000 vertical feet below. Mark scared the shit out of us, we thought he was dead.

I never really got a chance to ski the run and just picked up bits and pieces of Mark’s debris as I made my way down to him. By some miracle Mark wasn’t killed or even badly injured just a little torn up from the corn snow exfoliation. A little blood dripped from his bitten tongue, and his jacket was up around his neck. We got him back to the lodge, poured him a beer, and called it the end of the day.

Now Mark is a big kid 300LBS, and a Springfield Cop, used to getting shot at by drug thugs, but his favorite nightmare remains his slide down Pali! One final note, Jim never did get the picture!





Mark “Sparky” at A-Basin late spring ‘02
Pali Face can be seen above him to the right.

Winter Welcome 2010/2011 NELSAP List

Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome 2010/2011 is now available at your favorite beer merchant; let the games begin!

Four NELSAP's in Western Mass>>

I'm ready and waiting for Winter. Lately I've been checking out some "Lost Ski Areas" at http://www.nelsap.org/ to add to my "Must Ski" hit list. Add some snow and I'll check them out real soon! Just in case you are not familiar with NELSAP it stands for New England Lost Ski Areas Project and it's website lists the region's known lost ski areas. Jeremy Davis founded the website in 1998 to preserve the memory of those lost ski areas. My goal is to find and ski as many of those areas as time and snow permits. Here are four I've visited recently that are on my Ski Radar!!

Williston Academy's Area 1946-1972 is found on the Easthampton side of Mt Tom. It had one rope tow and a few trails. A few of the trails look open enough to ski. We found the remains of the rope tow too. I hope to ski this area this winter along with a re-visit of Mt Tom Ski Area, my old stomping grounds.

Mitch's Hockanum Ski Ranch early to mid 1950's is at the base of Mt Holyoke on Rt47 in Hadley. I remember people sledding on this hill back when I was a kid. Hunting around you could see the old engine that powered this rope tow. The hill is really just a big field with an upper narrow trail feeding into it. If I'm already in the area skiing I'll give it a stab.




Tinker Hill 1954-1964 This is the first NELSAP area I ever skied and that was at least 15+ years ago. As a matter of fact the http://www.nelsap.org/ site didn't even exist yet when I made my first crude Telemark turns down it's old tow-line. According to NELSAP the Amherst College ski club privately used this area. I'd love to give this one another shot and try some of the offshoot trails on modern Telemark equipment.

Hemlock Hill Three Rivers/Palmer 1960's-1970's Never skied this one back in the day but many of my friends did. Some of the trails still look clear enough to ski so I'm hoping for an invite to go check it out this winter. Ski-In used to have a ski shop in town back then but later moved to their current location in Wilbraham. I worked for them in the late 80's thru early 90's in my mid-formative Ski-Bum years.

D2R2 - Deerfield Dirt Road Randonnee 2010

August 21st 2010
Well my first D2R2 is in the bag I'm happy to report. In writing this report 48 hours later D2R2 rewrites itself as a fun event!! 180K (110.45 miles)in approximately 12 hours; rolled out at 6:11AM and returned at 6:17ishPM.

D2R2's 180K Route has 4 stages. (Stage 1 36.5 miles 6,000 ft total climbing)made the rest stop at 10AM this was the third time I had ridden Stage 1 and I was ready for it! It was like a nasty old friend ending with a very long climb up to Heath. They say this section is hard but only a warm up!!

(Stage 2 28.7 miles 3500 ft total climbing)This section is very hard with Archambo's Rd 27% grade followed by Hillman's Rd long hard climb.Glad I had done this hill once before before because it seems never ending. Finished up around 1PM and took a 30 min lunch break (great lunch at the covered bridge)

(Stage 3 32.8 miles 5,000 ft total climbing)They call for four hard climbs then a monster. After you enjoy your lunch you get to enjoy more climbing!!!At mile 84 had Ice Cream at the top of Nelson Rd. The Bart's truck was there just for the riders!! At mile 95 we hit Patton Hill's 20%+ grade starting on pavement then turning to dirt. Finished at the rest stop by 5PM for pickles and pretzels. The volunteers were telling people that pickle juice helps with cramps. While I was there a bunch of the hurting were filling their water bottles with the briny juice hoping for the magical tonic to do it's trick. While tired I was lucky not to have any cramps and by sticking to my ride game plan I had plenty of gas left for the end of the ride.
(Stage 4 13.9 miles 1400 ft total climbing)This section is hard too, you're so close yet so far. Several nasty downhill sections and a few steep little climbs let you know it's not over yet.The Hawk's Rd section can eat you alive if you're not paying full attention. Happy to be done by 6:17+- and off my bike.

I'm so glad I pre-road the course over the past few weeks so I knew what to expect. Ted my riding partner,a very strong rider used a 34X32 for his low gear on his Cyclo-Cross bike and cleaned the 27% pitch of Archambo Rd. That was very impressive.For me I was glad to have opted to ride my trusty LiteSpeed fully rigid MTB with more of a smooth tire. For one I could bomb the nasty downhills with confidence and I knew I had a low enough gear to climb anything in my path. I really can't tell you how much I look forward to doing this ride again next year ; I fully expected to meet the "World's Most Interesting Man" on this ride. It truly was Epic in all regards.

More on the D2R2

http://www.franklinlandtrust.org/randonnee.html

D2R2 is a fundraiser for the Franklin County Land Trust. In it's 5 years it has grown to over 650 riders. The 100k and 180K was capped at 600 riders and sold out quickly. 330 riders were signed up for the 180k with it's 16,000+ feet of climbing. Over 80 of the routes 111 miles is on dirt roads.
According to Sandy Whittlesey, founder of the D2R2.We designed it by placing pins in the map where the covered bridges and coolest sights were, and then connected the dots with dirt roads. The flat valley roads of this region are mostly paved; the dirt roads access the remoter areas, and it is steep terrain. Our intent was to make the most beautiful ride we could; the severity is just a consequence of what's there. In fact, the course could be a lot harder if we wanted to make it so. So while web chat pages harp on the severity of the course, all we really want is for people to finish D2R2 saying, "Wow, that was really challenging, but totally worth it because it's such a great bike ride." Thus we hope you come - prepared - to see what this thing is all about.Maybe that's the end assessment after all: if you come with a particular time goal, set your average speed in the first hour or two and try to hold it, this course will eat you alive. But if you come planning to spend a full day out there, forget about your cyclometer and just stay within your comfort zone, you'll have a really great time on some of the most beautiful roads you'll ever ride."

Riding the Thunderbolt

Jan 11,2010 Snow on the ground,it was go time!!

Mt Greylock's Thunderbolt Trail was cut by the CCC in the 1930's for downhill ski racing. It was named after a roller coaster in Revere Mass. The Eastern Downhill Championships of 1936 were held on the Thunderbolt with an estimated 5,000 spectators watching the race.

I've always wanted to ski the Thunderbolt and I did so some years back. I had a good time but the slopes were very overgrown and brushy. Thanks to the efforts of the Thunderbolt Ski Runners the trail is back in great shape. The one thing that hasn't changed is that you need to earn your turns. It was a 2 hour skin up the Bellows Pipe Trail from the end of Gould Rd to the summit of Mt Greylock. After a quick warm up in the Thunderbolt Ski Shelter we were ready for the Vertical Drop: 2,050 ft, that the Thunderbolt had to offer!
I find it amazing that this is almost twice the vertical of the largest of the MA resorts and is larger than most of the VT ski areas as well.


We savored our run down in perfect snow,with only a few rock hazards. Near the bottom of the run we cut hard to the right and passed through the aborted Greylock Glen Resort back to Gould Farm.

I can't imagine how crazy it must have been to schuss this hill back in the day with the equipment they had available. Even on today's gear you better watch your step! It's no Okemo I can tell you. But then again that's the charm.

--Skidmarks

Bruce Trail --Out with the New, in with the Old!!!

A trip down the Bruce Trail a 1930's CCC Mansfield Original

The Bruce Trail plunges 2,000 feet down the south side of Mount Mansfield, ending on the trails of the Stowe Mountain Resort Cross-Country Ski Center. It is a legendary down-mountain ski run cut in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Together with the Teardrop Trail, the Bruce Trail endures as a crown jewel in the CCC’s network of down-mountain trails. A ski down the Bruce will make it clear why early skiers traveled so far for this prize.© Copyright Backcountry Skiing Adventures: Classic Ski and Snowboard Tours in Vermont and New York Published by Appalachian Mountain Club Books. All Rights Reserved.

January 31, 2009--Sandy and I decide to climb and ski the Bruce Trail via a climb up the Toll Rd. We start our tour at the Mt Mansfield Touring Center. After picking up the the Stowe Derby Trail we connect with the Toll Rd and follow it up to below Mansfield's Nose at 3850.We ski down to the Octagon for lunch and make our way to the top of the Bruce Trail.

As advertised the trail is only 12-15ft wide! The snow is soft and the trail is in great shape with zero rocks or stumps. We take our time skiing this classic trail in near perfect conditions. The trail snakes and bends it's way down the mountain. I ask myself why everyone isn't doing this?

Sandy crashes and breaks her pole 2/3 of the way down(note to self, bring extra pole).It's hard for me to ski with only one pole! But I think it would have been much harder on 30's style equipment.

We ski out to the XC trails, only 1.5 flat miles back to the touring center. If I was on a Snowboard I'd be hating life!! Reason number 10 to free one's heels!!

Happy New Year

The Start of the 09/10 Season

Fahnestock Ski Area--Carmel NY
Christmas Day Trip Lost NY Ski Areas
This one is a blast from my past! I'm currently doing some research on the long closed Fahnestock Ski Area in Carmel NY. Fahnestock was a small ski area with 2 rope tows, a Poma Lift and a T-Bar. Vert Drop was 235' and it had 2 slopes and 4 trails.

I don't know how old the area is however,Fahnestock was one of the first ski areas in the country to have Snow Making and this was way back in the 50's. From the look of things it's been long closed. Even though the area sits on State Property it is closed to the public and is posted.

Fahnestock will always be a special place to me. This is where my Father taught me how to ski back in the early 70's. I remember being dragged up hill sideways by its rope tow more than once. Life became much easier once I could ski better and was allowed to ride the Poma Lift.


Vic's New Job "Telemarketing" Victor is making his first Telemark turns although he's having a hard time turning right! (That was Zoolander's problem too!) Anyway I think Victor is doing well and he has a natural talent for the sport.
Of course he does have me as an Instructor (PSIA Level II Nordic DH)


Our First NELSAP Attack of the Year /After the "big" blizzard the Saturday night before Christmas, there was just enough snow to make a few turns at JB Williams Park in Glastonbury. Access to the hill required cross-country skiing down the main park trail, followed by a bushwack to the bottom of the tow rope lift. The main slope is all over grown, but the tow line was just wide enough for the first tele turns of the season. Victor lost his cross-country skiing virginity on this day, and he was frequently breathing heavily!