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Mad River Glen Ski Area | |
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Mad River Glen is a ski area frozen in time. Big-time development changed most other ski resorts, but Mad River is preserved as a place for ardent, purist skiers who want to experience the sport the way it was before the developers moved in. |
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"Ski it if you can" is the slogan here, and the challenge is accentuated by the annual Mad River Glen Triple Crown: an Unconventional Terrain competition (rocks, small jumps, steep slopes, even cliffs), the Vertical Challenge (only on the steepest, straightest trails), and the knee-punishing Mogul Challenge. Mad River Glen, near Waitsfield VT (map), is for ardent, purist skiers, and is proud of it. Its role in life is to maintain a 1950s ski resort well into the 21st century. You get a special feeling of accomplishment after a day on the slopes here! Where else can you find a single-chair ski lift? Mad River Glen had one of the first ski lifts in the USA (1947), and it's still in operation. Formerly driven by a diesel engine, the single-chair lift has undergone extensive restoration and renovation in 2007. An environmentally-friendly electric motor replaced the noisy, smelly diesel, the towers were re-footed, and new chairs replaced the old ones—but it remains a single chair lift, which is the way Mad River skiers like it. They like the contemplative 12-minute ride to the top of the mountain, and the fact that a single chair lift keeps the volume of skiers lower—more like the old days. There are several other lifts (including two double chairs), and minimal snowmaking capability (15%), but the point is this: General Stark Mountain (3662 feet/1116 meters) is a challenging mountain (good mostly for experienced intermediate and expert skiers, but with some slopes for the less experienced), and it's kept that way for the joy of those who love the challenge. In fact, it's actually owned by a skiers' cooperative of nearly 2000 members dedicated to preserving the ski area's uniqueness, and the natural beauty of the mountain. Services such as trail grooming and patrols are minimal, the base lodge facilities are "primitive" by the current standards of the more highly-developed Vermont ski resorts, but all this only adds to the old-time atmosphere. The facilities are not well adapted to snowboarding, and to keep the ski spirit intact, snowboarding is not allowed. If you want that, they suggest nearby Sugarbush. The vertical drop is 2,075 feet (632 meters), with 45 ski trails (13 green, 14 blue, 18 black), and four ski lifts (three double chairs and the famous old single-chair). The preponderance of trails (three-quarters of them) are for moderately well-trained or expert skiers, although the Birdland area is for novice and beginning-intermediate skiers. Mad River Glen is west of VT Route 100, an easy drive along Route 17 from Waitsfield VT (map): Bolton Valley Ski Resort: 45 miles (72 km) N, 1 hour Boston MA: 180 miles (290 km) SE, 3.5 hours Hartford CT: 196 miles (315 km) S, 3.75 hours Montpelier VT: 32 miles (52 km) E, 50 minutes New York City: 295 miles (475 km) S, 6 hours Sugarbush Ski Resort: 10 miles (16 km) S, 20 minutes Stowe Mountain Ski Resort: 40 miles (64 km) N, 1 hour Mad River Glen has a ski shop, rental shop, a ski school, and a nursery. For information, contact Mad
River Glen
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Mad River Glen: the only place in New England that you'll get to use an antique single-chair lift.
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