Mad River Glen (tel. 802-496-3551; www.madriverglen.com) is an anomaly in this era of accommodations-oriented mega-resorts where real estate sales rival (or eclipse) skiing operations in the business model. The northern Vermont ski area opened on Dec. 11, 1948, with a single chairlift (in both senses of the word, one chairlift strung with single-seat chairs), five steep, sinewy trails (Catamount, Lift Line, Fall Line, Canyon, and Porcupine) and a modest day lodge (endearingly called the Base Box).
Changes came slowly: A new trail here, a new trail there; a rope tow in 1954; a T-bar four years later; a pair of double chairlifts accessing easier runs on Sunnyside and Birdland, respectively in 1961 and 1967; several expansions of the Base Box. These changes have been incremental and subtle, rather than revolutionary, so that people who skied Mad River six decades ago would still recognize it if they stood by the Base Box and looked up the main liftline -- a single chairlift to this day.
Now bracketed by Sugarbush on south and Sugarbush Mount Ellen on the north, Mad River Glen has stayed true to its roots and remains a quintessentially old-style New England ski area. In six decades, it has had only three owners: founder Roland Palmedo (1948-72), Truxton and Betsy Pratt (1972-95) and the Mad River Glen Cooperative (1995, presumably until the end of ski time). It is the country's only cooperatively owned ski area. Shareholders are fanatically committed to preserving a classic, no-frills ski experience. When it was time to rehabilitate the iconic single chair in the summer of 2008, shareholders raised $1.65 million to do so and dismissed any suggest to upgrade it to a double.
Sure, there's some grooming and some snowmaking now, but there are more black diamond trails (21) than blue squares (16) or green circles (10), with just five lifts access them all -- not one a high-speed model. The most challenging terrain is off the single chairlift, as it has been since the beginning. Skiers view snow-covered stumps and rock bands not as obstacles, but as launching pads for big-air jumps. Some runs like Catamount off the top are straightforward and hard to miss. Others, like Beaver with an entrance at the end of a stand of birch, are elusive.
Named trails, however, are only part of the Mad River Glen experience. Long before "glade skiing" really was known in the East, regulars threaded through the trees and named their favorite routes. The woods between Catamount and Antelope, for example, were nicknamed Cantaloupe.
Because of the abundant steep terrain, the modest two-gun snowmaking "system" and the area's disinclination to over-groom, Mad River Glen skiers tend to be good, really good on their boards. Not surprisingly beginners who start out on the uncrowded easy slopes quickly become skilled. The area's slogan, "Ski It If You Can," appears on bumper stickers seen all over North American ski country because Mad River skiers like to brag, no matter where else they travel. They are all skiers too, because Mad River Glen, which permitted snowboarding for a few years in the late '80s, is one of the three ski areas in the U.S. that prohibits snowboarding. Telemarking, that graceful free-heel technique revived from skiing's early days, is predictably popular.
Where to Stay
Mad River Glen is a world unto itself, but it is part of the Sugarbush/Waitsfield universe (www.madrivervalley.com) with abundant lodging, dining, shopping, and other diversions. Staying in a quaint bed-and-breakfast and dining in traditional country inn enhances the Mad River Glen experience. Some properties offer lift/lodging properties at 20th-century, especially in midweek.
Mad River Glen Stats
Lifts: 2 double chairlifts, 1 single chairlift, 1 surface lift; 3,574 hourly capacity
Vertical: 1,600 feet
Skiable Acres: 140 acres of trails (10% with snowmaking); 700 acres boundary to boundary. Average annual snowfall, 275 inches
Trails: 45 (9 beginner, 16 intermediate, 21 advanced/expert)
Terrain Parks: "All of Mad River Glen is a terrain park," an area spokesman says.
