Betsy Pratt, our previous owner and visionary behind the Co-op, passed away peacefully today, Friday, March 17th, 2023 at the age of 95. Surrounded by loved ones, Betsy spent her final days watching snow fall on the Single Chair webcam. We owe Betsy a great deal of gratitude for protecting and preserving our paradise. Thank you, Betsy. If you don’t know her story, we welcome you to it here.
Betsy Pratt, born March 12th, 1928, began skiing Mad River Glen while attending Vassar College. It was on one fateful ski trip in 1954 that she met Truxton Pratt, a New York banker. At the time Betsy worked as assistant treasurer of the Ford Foundation. Betsy and Truxton soon married and had four children Polly, Amanda, Liz, and Truxton. They all learned to ski at Mad River Glen and the family had a ski home in Fayston.
Betsy considered herself a steward of the mountain and dedicated herself to maintaining Roland’s vision. She always saw Mad River as a place that offered a challenging, outdoor adventure in a pristine, natural setting. A place with an ethos that developed organically, and a firm foundation based on the idea that love for the sport outweighed financial considerations. She was always concerned about keeping Mad River in its natural state as much as possible.
In 1995, Les Otten, who’d just started building his resort empire with the American Skiing Company, made an offer to buy out Mad River Glen, which Pratt had presided over during the previous 20 years. As legend has it, when Otten approached her at the bar, Betsy took a drag off her big corncob pipe, blew the smoke in his face, and told him where he could stick the check. Then she sold it to skiers for half the price and financed it interest-free until she sold enough shares.
In December of 1995 the Mad River Glen Co-op bought Mad River Glen from Betsy Pratt.
