New England Lost Ski Areas Project(nelsap.org)
nelsap.org
New England Lost Ski Areas Project
http://www.nelsap.org/
8 comments
I just now realized I owe nelsap.org a debt of gratitude. I _stumbled upon_ this site back in 2004/5 and, for some reason, was inspired to ride my bike down Neutaconkanut Hill in Providence. The "trail" was pretty much non-existent and that trip wasn't particularly fun, but it did give me a taste of what mountain biking _could_ be like. Afterwards, I decided to explore other biking trails in the area (Lincoln Woods, Burlingame, Weetamoo Woods, etc.) and I've been mountain biking regularly ever since.
I remember skiing Prospect Hill as a teenager. In the wintertime prior to 1990 it was possible to leave work at Polaroid or one of the other big office complexes along Rte 128 in Waltham and be booting up at the base of Prospect Hill 15 minutes later. Just a few slopes and a WW II-era T-bar, but still ...
http://www.nelsap.org/ma/prospecthill.html
ETA: A quote from a former employee during its last year of operation:
I was part of the ski school management team in Prospect Mountain's last year of operations, 1990. They had been out of business for two or three years before this season. A man named "Bill Krikorian" had been trying to reopen Mt. Watatic in Ashby, MA. The town fathers saw through him and would not allow him the permits. He leased Prospect Hill from the MDC, but three problems arose: 1. They would not give him a liquor license for the premises 2. There was virtually no natural snow that winter 3. His "cannon-style" snow gun literally blew up on the hill in mid-December.
http://www.nelsap.org/ma/prospecthill.html
ETA: A quote from a former employee during its last year of operation:
I was part of the ski school management team in Prospect Mountain's last year of operations, 1990. They had been out of business for two or three years before this season. A man named "Bill Krikorian" had been trying to reopen Mt. Watatic in Ashby, MA. The town fathers saw through him and would not allow him the permits. He leased Prospect Hill from the MDC, but three problems arose: 1. They would not give him a liquor license for the premises 2. There was virtually no natural snow that winter 3. His "cannon-style" snow gun literally blew up on the hill in mid-December.
This is one of my favorite sites on the internet. Having grown up skiing at Ascutney, one of the largest ski areas to ever die, seeing it and other CT river valley areas such as Mt Tom memorialized here is very meaningful to me.
You'll be happy to know that Ascutney is going through a bit of a revitalization at the moment! Countless volunteers at both Ascutney Outdoors and Asctuney Trails have put in a huge amount of work to add over 50 miles of mountain bike and running trails, a free rope tow, and access rights to the entire mountain (got a few GREAT backcountry ski days in this winter). If you're still in the area, its definitely worth checking out.
http://ascutneyoutdoors.org/story/ http://ascutneytrails.com/about/
http://ascutneyoutdoors.org/story/ http://ascutneytrails.com/about/
Maple Valley still has infrastructure in place though I'm sure it's rotting away. I drive by there often when I'm back in 05301-land and it's haunting to behold. I think it's been for sale[1] for ... decades ... hard to imagine small hills like this ever being economically viable again. Even when I was a kid my peers chose to break their arms and legs at the more distant (and likewise defunct) Hogback Mountain.
[1] https://youtu.be/eb9iZY_wCwc
[1] https://youtu.be/eb9iZY_wCwc
That video brings me back. I learned to ski and snowboard at Maple Valley. My elementary school had a program where you could get a seasons pass and go there on Wednesday's and Fridays. In high school we ended up at Okemo which wasn't bad but never had the charm of
Maple Valley.
I grew up in CT and we would go to Mt Tom if we were feeling ambitious. I've since moved away, and I literally just learned that Mt Tom was closed. Sad news!
Mohawk is still open! I learned to ski at Catamount and it was closed for a few years and then successfully reopened. I think the best of New England small hill ski slopes is Butternut (locally called Butt Nut) and if you want to see what these small slopes were like would be a good place to experience it. I miss the Ice Night Skiing at Sundown which is still there.
Sad I don't live there anymore such a fun place to ski and then if you wanted Vermont Skiing on big slopes was just a few hours away.
Sad I don't live there anymore such a fun place to ski and then if you wanted Vermont Skiing on big slopes was just a few hours away.
Sundown is where I did most of my skiing -- tiny, but a lot of fun! I'd be really heartbroken if Sundown closed.
I seriously have had the most fun skiing Sundown at night with a dozen friends. We all were pretty experienced skiers and we went down the toughest hills in the NE together and we don't dare wipe out. Go to Sundown and it was always comical. You could be on a green "Deer Run" and wipe out skiing backwards because you hit an ice patch.
Me too. Our school did Friday afternoons at Ascutney. King Ridge and Suicide Six (free J-bar!) were other local areas I remember that now only exist on Nelsap.
Suicide Six is apparently still there: http://www.woodstockinn.com/ski-area
MIT used to have a house in basically the backyard of Suicide Six that Laurence Rockefeller (who also owned the ski area) donated. Living groups and others would rent out the place. We usually skied at Killington but we'd put in short days at Suicide Six as well.
MIT used to have a house in basically the backyard of Suicide Six that Laurence Rockefeller (who also owned the ski area) donated. Living groups and others would rent out the place. We usually skied at Killington but we'd put in short days at Suicide Six as well.
Nice! A blast from the past. This is a classic "old internet" site that still works fine and appears to be maintained by someone.
<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 6.0">
Guess he's manually updating it now ... or running FrontPage on an old PC.
Is it possible to run FrontPage on a newer PC?
Guess he's manually updating it now ... or running FrontPage on an old PC.
Is it possible to run FrontPage on a newer PC?
[deleted]
Easy to get lost in this site. Many unusual stories, including the "Private Property No Trespassing Keep Out Ski Area" (http://www.nelsap.org/ma/private.html):
I actually once owned the farm that included the hill that the ski slope was on (long before I bought the property though). I was there with Peter Kallander, its owner operator, on what was likely the last occasion the rope tow was operational on that site. I think it was in the fall of 1983. Peter was the guy that built the lift and owned several hundred acres including the mountain.
Peter was a pilot of wide-body jets for Delta Airlines. He had a small private airport on the site (with grass north-south and east-west runways), and the run-out for the ski slope ran across the east-west runway over toward Stoneybrook golf course a few hundred yards away. Peter built that golf course with his dad when he was younger on another part of the property. It was a small 9 hole par 3, which is the golf equivalent of his small ski slope. They sold the golf course at some point I believe. Here's the Airline Owners and Passengers Association link to the private air strip, which is still in operation: http://www.aopa.org/airports/09MA.
... Kallander Hill, which it should be referred-to as, was north facing, and had two purposes. In the summer and the fall, Peter told me if the conditions were right, he would take his plane up the hill and take off. I never saw him take off on that side of the hill because my property was a few hundred yards south and west, and the ski slope faced pretty much due north. I did, however, help Peter clear the west side of the mountain in 1983. At that point he hadn't been operating the lift in the winter for a number of years. The lift was an old farm vehicle with its drive-train intact. I did see it, and I think we may have fired it up that day to see if it was still working properly. He showed me how it operated because he knew I was a life-long skier and had learned at a place like this in Dudley Mass near Nichols College, and at Mount Tom and Maple Valley. The rope was attached to one of the back wheels with its counterpart at the bottom. He'd just start it up and run it for his kids and their friends. I don't recall him ever saying if it was ever a commercial venture for Peter. It was likely just for his kids and for locals. Peter was a popular guy around town and had been the president of his class in high school.
... We cut down a number of cedars that fall weekend, and I took them to use for a fenced-in paddock that I was going to build off my barn (which I never got around-to). Peter then had a west-facing runway on Kallander Hill that could be used when the winds came from the other direction. I don't believe anyone ever skied on that, although I had planned to try it. My estimate is the hill had a vertical of at least 200-250 feet. On that day Peter gave me the history of the mountain that I note here. Over the next year I did see him take off from the part of the hill we cleared. I think he did that as a practice exercise for having to take off or land in extraordinary conditions. He had a house on Moosehead lake in northern Maine, and would fly up there regularly.
Around the time I moved away a few years later he had purchased an amphibious plane (either a Lake or a Seabee), with a large prop high and behind the cockpit. I did see him taking off and even doing the last part of his landings on the side of the mountain with that and its predecessor plane, sort of like touch and goes. It was an amazing site for me and all the other neighbors that could see it. I think he bought the rear prop plane because there wasn't enough prop clearance on the west facing hillside given the steeper grade.
Peter also told me that the mountain was his retirement, so that would explain why he never tried to develop it into a commercial ski area, as he did with the golf course. He was going to build houses on it. Clearing the portion on my side was likely a part of that strategy. It was pretty steep, and I didn't quite understand how he was planning to do that. I also didn't completely realize how big the mountain was. But he had been seeing it from all angles during his years of flying around it.
About 15 years ago he did that and there must be 60 high-end homes/condos on it now, most with magnificent views. It's a high density development with 2-4 units in each structure. They've also made major topographical changes, taking off at least 100 feet of vertical and creating a large plane for the area where the homes are now.
I actually once owned the farm that included the hill that the ski slope was on (long before I bought the property though). I was there with Peter Kallander, its owner operator, on what was likely the last occasion the rope tow was operational on that site. I think it was in the fall of 1983. Peter was the guy that built the lift and owned several hundred acres including the mountain.
Peter was a pilot of wide-body jets for Delta Airlines. He had a small private airport on the site (with grass north-south and east-west runways), and the run-out for the ski slope ran across the east-west runway over toward Stoneybrook golf course a few hundred yards away. Peter built that golf course with his dad when he was younger on another part of the property. It was a small 9 hole par 3, which is the golf equivalent of his small ski slope. They sold the golf course at some point I believe. Here's the Airline Owners and Passengers Association link to the private air strip, which is still in operation: http://www.aopa.org/airports/09MA.
... Kallander Hill, which it should be referred-to as, was north facing, and had two purposes. In the summer and the fall, Peter told me if the conditions were right, he would take his plane up the hill and take off. I never saw him take off on that side of the hill because my property was a few hundred yards south and west, and the ski slope faced pretty much due north. I did, however, help Peter clear the west side of the mountain in 1983. At that point he hadn't been operating the lift in the winter for a number of years. The lift was an old farm vehicle with its drive-train intact. I did see it, and I think we may have fired it up that day to see if it was still working properly. He showed me how it operated because he knew I was a life-long skier and had learned at a place like this in Dudley Mass near Nichols College, and at Mount Tom and Maple Valley. The rope was attached to one of the back wheels with its counterpart at the bottom. He'd just start it up and run it for his kids and their friends. I don't recall him ever saying if it was ever a commercial venture for Peter. It was likely just for his kids and for locals. Peter was a popular guy around town and had been the president of his class in high school.
... We cut down a number of cedars that fall weekend, and I took them to use for a fenced-in paddock that I was going to build off my barn (which I never got around-to). Peter then had a west-facing runway on Kallander Hill that could be used when the winds came from the other direction. I don't believe anyone ever skied on that, although I had planned to try it. My estimate is the hill had a vertical of at least 200-250 feet. On that day Peter gave me the history of the mountain that I note here. Over the next year I did see him take off from the part of the hill we cleared. I think he did that as a practice exercise for having to take off or land in extraordinary conditions. He had a house on Moosehead lake in northern Maine, and would fly up there regularly.
Around the time I moved away a few years later he had purchased an amphibious plane (either a Lake or a Seabee), with a large prop high and behind the cockpit. I did see him taking off and even doing the last part of his landings on the side of the mountain with that and its predecessor plane, sort of like touch and goes. It was an amazing site for me and all the other neighbors that could see it. I think he bought the rear prop plane because there wasn't enough prop clearance on the west facing hillside given the steeper grade.
Peter also told me that the mountain was his retirement, so that would explain why he never tried to develop it into a commercial ski area, as he did with the golf course. He was going to build houses on it. Clearing the portion on my side was likely a part of that strategy. It was pretty steep, and I didn't quite understand how he was planning to do that. I also didn't completely realize how big the mountain was. But he had been seeing it from all angles during his years of flying around it.
About 15 years ago he did that and there must be 60 high-end homes/condos on it now, most with magnificent views. It's a high density development with 2-4 units in each structure. They've also made major topographical changes, taking off at least 100 feet of vertical and creating a large plane for the area where the homes are now.
A friend is working on providing access to abandoned ski areas in the rockies, how timely, and what a relic!
Does he/she have a website or a forum? I think I know folks who would be interested in this.
Unless they don't want the publicity. I'm not that popular though. :-)
Unless they don't want the publicity. I'm not that popular though. :-)
Here are some in Colorado. Most ski resorts (open and closed) in Colorado are on public land.
http://www.coloradoskihistory.com/lostresorts.html
http://www.coloradoskihistory.com/lostresorts.html
Great website! Took my first and only ski lesson at Broadmoor. They had an alpine slide as well at one point. Only time I've skied as I tried snowboarding the next time and never looked back (those scotch-guarded jncos kids wore... ugh ;)
Thanks for that. I snowboarded at Cuchara a couple of times. I had a great time, but even then my general impression was that they were keeping the lifts going just long enough to sell off the rest of the adjoining condos and cabins...
Neat :)
Crazy, I never would have guess some of these I live very near. thanks for this.
There used to be a huge number of these rope tow and a hill or maybe a chairlift and a small mountain areas in New England. But the business really became go big or go home given factors like snowmaking and modern chairlifts. There are a few survivors but not many.
Even some of the bigger mountains are struggling. Saddleback, in Rangeley, ME has shut down, and Sugarloaf, also in northwest ME, is not doing that great.
Ugh I HATED Sugarloaf. Got my ticket cut at 9 am for doing a helicopter on a small jump on the side of the trail. I never went back. They claimed to be the family resort and would hunt teenagers down, this was a few decades ago. I never was even warned at any other resort in my life and never had my ticket cut.
To call Saddleback a bigger mountain is somewhat of a misnomer... they're never been very popular, despite being a hell of a mountain. Blame the location.
And while I'm not too certain on the prospects of Sugarloaf, I can't see it struggling too badly. They have held high profile events consistently, and they're owned by Boyne who have a consistent track record of running resorts. They're a strong operator in the industry.
And while I'm not too certain on the prospects of Sugarloaf, I can't see it struggling too badly. They have held high profile events consistently, and they're owned by Boyne who have a consistent track record of running resorts. They're a strong operator in the industry.
I do very little downhill skiing these days and don't subscribe to any of the magazines. I confess to being out of the loop on demographic and other trends.