Great thread.
I grew up in New England, too. In Eastern MA. There was a pretty decent hill, Boston Hills, in North Andover, about 20 minutes from our home. It was NELSAP'd in the 1980's as I recall. Less than 300 feet of vertical, one double chair and two J-bars. Closed after a couple of lousy snow winters. The real estate has largely been developed since. There were also the small ski hills in a number of neighboring towns....all rope tows. All long gone. The local high school in our hometown raced in a league that trained and raced at all of them. 1970's. They all race at Bradford, Nashoba, and Blue Hill these days.
My dad was a hard core skier, and he was an engineer by education. We owned an older farmhouse, which was across the road from the original farm land. Behind our house was a pretty great hill. About 100 feet of vertical at most. My dad decided that it would be a good midweek thing to have a rope-tow, and lights, and one "trail". So as a family project we built one. Cut the trail, blasted some rocks, and found an old Slant-6 Dodge to power it. My mom was a former racer and instructor, and college lacrosse coach. She loved kids, and she took no prisoners. She was very comfortable running that lift, and serving hot chocolate. So, while we skied in New Hampshire every weekend, we also logged a lot of miles at home. I was just a little guy 4 to 6, and it was fun. My dad then worked out a business deal that put us in Switzerland for the next five years. He took down the rope tow, when they sold the house. My uncle kept it all stored in his barn....forever.
When we were looking a high schools for me {before the days of the first ski academies}, skiing was a big focus. Most of the schools that we visited had their own ski hills. Holderness had their own {though the racers trained at the "new" Waterville Valley}, as did Berkshire, Deerfield, Eaglebrook, Vermont Academy, New Hampton, Hebron, KUA, Tilton, . Gould skied at then small Sunday River, but also had their own small hill. All are gone. Proctor still operates Blackwater, and Kent's Hill in Maine has their own area. Both pretty viable. All these schools also had their own ski jumps. Those are very long gone. You could still see Gould's on the access road into Sunday River until about 10 years ago.
A lot of New England colleges also had small ski areas, that are no longer running. Of course, the two big ones still are: The Dartmouth Skiway, and the Middlebury Snowball, which are very legitimate. Big enough to hold "real" FIS races, etc. The lodge at Dartmouth is spectacular. They are the only ones left. Williams had this slalom hill which abutted their golf course, and it was the steepest thing I ever skied. Like a cliff. Had this crazy handle tow. St. Lawrence had their own hill back then. They also all had jumps. Norwich had a great ski area. They had a very solid D-2 ski team, as well. They, and the town, put in a 3500' double chair, and they could do some real racing there. As I recall, things like insurance made the town and the school get out of the business, and sell off the lifts. Newfydog and I both raced downhill there i the 70's....more like a SG of today. Our school, Colby, had a pretty neat little area that's no longer operating, but there is talk that it may be brought back to life. WE spent more time at Sugarloaf. Colby's hill might have been 200' feet of vertical, with one T-Bar and a rope tow that never ran. The school still owns the land, and there's interest between the two and the school in making it happen. The jump...not so much. The jumps at Dartmouth {on the golf course}, and Middlebury disappeared decades ago.
Colby-Sawyer college, in New London, NH skied at King Ridge. Neat area, with the lodge and parking at the top. That one closed around 1995. Really to bad, as it was about 500' of vertical, and some fun terrain, and decent lifts. They went belly up, and it was auctioned off. All of the lifts went elsewhere. For a long time, the cut trails were very visible, even in the summer, when you drove up I-89. That one closing was a surprise to me. I think that Sunapee being so close was the killer for them.
NELSAP.org is fun to look at if you're into this stuff. Lots of info there.
I grew up in New England, too. In Eastern MA. There was a pretty decent hill, Boston Hills, in North Andover, about 20 minutes from our home. It was NELSAP'd in the 1980's as I recall. Less than 300 feet of vertical, one double chair and two J-bars. Closed after a couple of lousy snow winters. The real estate has largely been developed since. There were also the small ski hills in a number of neighboring towns....all rope tows. All long gone. The local high school in our hometown raced in a league that trained and raced at all of them. 1970's. They all race at Bradford, Nashoba, and Blue Hill these days.
My dad was a hard core skier, and he was an engineer by education. We owned an older farmhouse, which was across the road from the original farm land. Behind our house was a pretty great hill. About 100 feet of vertical at most. My dad decided that it would be a good midweek thing to have a rope-tow, and lights, and one "trail". So as a family project we built one. Cut the trail, blasted some rocks, and found an old Slant-6 Dodge to power it. My mom was a former racer and instructor, and college lacrosse coach. She loved kids, and she took no prisoners. She was very comfortable running that lift, and serving hot chocolate. So, while we skied in New Hampshire every weekend, we also logged a lot of miles at home. I was just a little guy 4 to 6, and it was fun. My dad then worked out a business deal that put us in Switzerland for the next five years. He took down the rope tow, when they sold the house. My uncle kept it all stored in his barn....forever.
When we were looking a high schools for me {before the days of the first ski academies}, skiing was a big focus. Most of the schools that we visited had their own ski hills. Holderness had their own {though the racers trained at the "new" Waterville Valley}, as did Berkshire, Deerfield, Eaglebrook, Vermont Academy, New Hampton, Hebron, KUA, Tilton, . Gould skied at then small Sunday River, but also had their own small hill. All are gone. Proctor still operates Blackwater, and Kent's Hill in Maine has their own area. Both pretty viable. All these schools also had their own ski jumps. Those are very long gone. You could still see Gould's on the access road into Sunday River until about 10 years ago.
A lot of New England colleges also had small ski areas, that are no longer running. Of course, the two big ones still are: The Dartmouth Skiway, and the Middlebury Snowball, which are very legitimate. Big enough to hold "real" FIS races, etc. The lodge at Dartmouth is spectacular. They are the only ones left. Williams had this slalom hill which abutted their golf course, and it was the steepest thing I ever skied. Like a cliff. Had this crazy handle tow. St. Lawrence had their own hill back then. They also all had jumps. Norwich had a great ski area. They had a very solid D-2 ski team, as well. They, and the town, put in a 3500' double chair, and they could do some real racing there. As I recall, things like insurance made the town and the school get out of the business, and sell off the lifts. Newfydog and I both raced downhill there i the 70's....more like a SG of today. Our school, Colby, had a pretty neat little area that's no longer operating, but there is talk that it may be brought back to life. WE spent more time at Sugarloaf. Colby's hill might have been 200' feet of vertical, with one T-Bar and a rope tow that never ran. The school still owns the land, and there's interest between the two and the school in making it happen. The jump...not so much. The jumps at Dartmouth {on the golf course}, and Middlebury disappeared decades ago.
Colby-Sawyer college, in New London, NH skied at King Ridge. Neat area, with the lodge and parking at the top. That one closed around 1995. Really to bad, as it was about 500' of vertical, and some fun terrain, and decent lifts. They went belly up, and it was auctioned off. All of the lifts went elsewhere. For a long time, the cut trails were very visible, even in the summer, when you drove up I-89. That one closing was a surprise to me. I think that Sunapee being so close was the killer for them.
NELSAP.org is fun to look at if you're into this stuff. Lots of info there.