Snow Valley
A southern Vermont area that ran from 1938 to about 1982, rotted for two decades, and was bought in 2004 and brought back as a private members mountain reached by snowcat.
- Region
- Vermont
- Country
- USA
- Status
- reopened
- Year opened
- 1938
- Year closed
- 1982
- Reason for closure
- Not documented in detail in accessible sources; the area shut in the early 1980s, the period when many southern Vermont hills of its size were squeezed out by larger neighbours with better snowmaking.
History
Snow Valley sat in Winhall in southern Vermont, on the road between Manchester and Bromley, and ran for roughly 44 years from 1938 until about 1982 - fifteen trails on around 700 ft of vertical, with snowmaking, grooming and cross-country trails alongside. Its lift fleet changed shape over the decades, from two rope tows and a 2,500 ft Roebling T-bar to a Poma around 1960 and finally a Borvig double chair around 1977. After it closed the site was left alone and went the way such places do: two decades of vandalism, collapsing buildings and regrowth until the trails could barely be walked. In 2004 the entrepreneur Chris Franco bought the property and turned it into something unusual - a private, non-commercial ski area, its trails recut, a new T-bar installed, the unsafe original lodge demolished but its fireplace kept and a new building put up around it, running on natural snow of 120 inches or more a year and reached by snowmobile or snowcat rather than by road. It is one of the more complete revivals in New England, though not as a public resort. Trail names are not compiled in accessible sources.
Lifts
| Name | Type | Manufacturer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unnamed lift | Chairlift - Double - Fixed | Borvig | Installed around 1977 and in place at the 1982 closure |
| Unnamed lift | Platter | Poma | A Poma lift installed around 1960 |
| Unnamed lift | Surface lift | A beginner tow, in place at closure | |
| Unnamed lift | T-Bar | Roebling | A 2,500 ft T-bar from the earlier lift fleet, alongside two rope tows |
Sources and further reading
More in USA
Location
43.1970, -72.9624