A skier goes it alone on Mad River Glen’s fabled Single Chair.
MAD RIVER GLEN
RECOMMENDED BY Eric Friedman
Be it on Boston’s Storrow Drive or Beverly Hills’ Sunset Boulevard, if you sit in enough traffic jams, you’ll notice the following bumper sticker: It’s a great marketing ploy, but it also speaks to the challenges of a mountain designed for skiing, not as part of a larger vacation juggernaut. (Should you find yourself stalled in traffic in Tel Aviv, Munich, Madrid, Milan, Beijing, Lyon, or Athens, you may find the bumper sticker there, too; it’s available in seven languages, in addition to English.)
MAD RIVER GLEN: SKI IT IF YOU CAN
It’s a great marketing ploy, but it also speaks to the challenges of a mountain designed for skiing, not as part of a larger vacation juggernaut. (Should you find yourself stalled in traffic in Tel Aviv, Munich, Madrid, Milan, Beijing, Lyon, or Athens, you may find the bumper sticker there, too; it’s available in seven languages, in addition to English.)
“Mad River Glen is a ski area, not a resort,” Eric Friedman explained. “There’s a difference. Ski areas sell lift tickets, resorts sell lots of other stuff. In an age when the ski industry has evolved into a resort industry, Mad River Glen is still old-school. It hasn’t changed very much since it opened in the late 1940s. The area was started by Roland Palmedo, who was one of the early investors in Stowe. His initial motivation was to bring the mountains of Vermont that he so enjoyed to other people. By the early 1940s, he had become disenchanted with how commercial Stowe had become. He wanted to create a place where skiing was the focus. Palmedo was a pilot, and he flew over the Green Mountains looking for the perfect spot to establish a new ski area. He found it above the village of Waitsfield. When you’re at the top of Mad River Glen and look north, you can’t see Stowe, as another mountain—Camel’s Hump—blocks the view. The story goes that one reason Palmedo chose this site was so you couldn’t see Mount Mansfield!”
Not a great deal has changed since the mountain opened for business in 1948. “In the early days—through the 1950s and ’60s—Mad River Glen went toe-to-toe with the other big ski areas in New England,” Eric continued. “But as the industry changed, we stayed the same. It’s very noncommercial. You won’t see any banners for an ‘official vehicle’ or ‘official beer.’ It doesn’t happen, and people appreciate that. And you won’t see snowboarders any time soon. The area is owned by a co-op, and the 2,200 owners have never shown any interest in opening up the mountain to boarders. In some ways, Mad River is a living museum of the ski industry.” (In fact, Mad River Glen is now the only ski area in the nation on the National Registry of Historic Places—not the lodge, but the ski area itself.)
One shouldn’t mistake a commitment to preservation and history as a sign of presentday calcification. As its bumper sticker implies, Mad River has more than its share of challenging terrain. “I like to think of Mad River as the flyweight boxer of downhill skiing,” Eric said. “At its peak, the mountain is just 3,600 feet. But our two thousand vertical feet are, pound for pound, one of the world’s toughest ski experiences. Mad River has forty-five marked trails. But when the snow is good, you ski the glades next to the trails. I love to take people from out West or Europe out on the mountain. I’ll often hear even the cocky ones say, ‘I can’t believe the skiing on this little mountain.’ (In total, the area offers 115 acres of trail skiing, plus 800 acres of boundary-to-boundary tree skiing.)
“One thing that sets the terrain at Mad River Glen apart is that you get two thousand feet vertical with one chairlift. They don’t build many two-thousand-foot vertical lifts, and this one gets you to the top in nine or ten minutes—it’s the fastest fixed-grip lift in North America. Another thing that’s special is that the mountain is all sustained vertical, with no run-outs. You can jump off a cliff on a double black diamond run and land right in the lift line! If we have a decent powder day, I’ll take the Single Chair up and ski Fall Line and Paradise—or ski my favorite run on the hill, a spot in between the two that we call Falldise—and head right back down to the Single Chair.”
Though there’s some well-deserved bravado associated with Mad River Glen, there are facets of the ski area that have appeal to skiers of more modest ability. “It’s true that we don’t sell a lot of beginner packages,” Eric continued, “but some people who spend time here feel it’s the ultimate family ski area. There’s not as many people as on some hills in the area, and that can help make it a more positive experience for less skilled skiers. I think parents also appreciate the noncommercial vibe. We have a reputation for runs that can make your butt pucker, we have lots of good intermediate terrain as well.”
Ski aficionados who may know little about the runs at Mad River may know a bit more about the area’s most-fabled icon: its single chairlift. It certainly holds fond memories for Eric. “Back in 2001, we realized that our single chair, which had been in operation since 1948, needed to be rebuilt or replaced,” he recalled. “The co-op shareholders considered the various options: a brand-new single, a brand-new double, a gondola. After several years of deliberation, they decided that we should do a historic restoration of the lift, even though it was considerably more expensive than putting in a brand-new single or double lift. We hired a consultant to spearhead the fund-raising. He thought we’d be able to raise $700,000 or $800,000 of the projected $1.8 million cost. We raised the whole $1.8 million, plus enough to establish a healthy maintenance fund.
“My most memorable Mad River moment came when rides on the old single chair were being auctioned off to raise funds. I outbid a guy for the lift’s last four rides. Two were for my sons, one was for me, and the last one was for Ken Quackenbush, who was general manager of the area for forty-five years. Ken is the only guy who has a trail named after him on the mountain. He was ninety at the time. In my office, I have a picture of Ken at the top of the mountain. He represents what’s so special about Mad River Glen: family, camaraderie, and the love we share for the mountain.”
(Regrettably, Ken Quackenbush passed away in March 2012, at the age of ninety-six.)
ERIC FRIEDMAN has been the marketing director for Mad River Glen since the co-op’s inception in 1995. He comes from a long line of great Jewish skiers from New Jersey and currently lives just a bit downhill from the mountain in a 210-year-old farmhouse with his two sons, who represent Mad River Glen’s next generation of rippers.
If You Go
Getting There: Mad River Glen is in Waitsfield, Vermont, roughly 45 minutes south of Burlington, which is served by many carriers.
Season: There’s generally enough snow to ski from mid-December to early April. See up-to-date ski reports at www.madriverglen.com.
Lift Tickets: Full-day tickets range from $49 (mid-week) to $72 (holidays).
Level of Difficulty: Nearly half the slopes are black diamond; however, there’s plenty of novice and intermediate terrain, too.
Accommodations: Mad River offers a number of ski and stay packages with local inns; visit www.madriverglen.com/lodging for details.
