Mad River Glen and its Single Chair

Mad River Glen first cranked up its now famous Single Chair on Dec. 11, 1948. Roland Palmedo, the mountain's founder, had built the Single Chair at Stowe in the 1930s. Early on in Stowe's skiing history, he became disenchanted with vying commercial interests there and became committed to developing a new ski area where sport, not profit, would be the objective.

Palmedo, a Navy pilot that served in both World Wars I and II, took to his plane and scoured the Green Mountains for the perfect location to start his new venture.

After carefully considering various options that included Killington Peak, Mount Abraham and Mount Ellen, he settled on the relatively diminutive General Stark Mountain.

He selected it because of the trail and terrain potential, its northern exposure, the abundance of snow, and that it resided entirely on private land. He purchased over 700 acres from the Ward Lumber Company and began work toward fulfilling his dream.

Previous ski history columns:

• Sugarbush: How 2 ski areas became one
• History Space: The story of Smugglers' Notch Resort
• The storied history of Jay Peak Resort

Palmedo believed that "a ski area is not just a place of business, a mountain amusement park, as it were. Instead, it is a winter community whose members, both skiers and area personnel, are dedicated to the enjoyment of the sport." Mad River Glen developed over the years with this vision of community as its foundation.

He also believed in working with nature and not against it. "Only by walking up, down and across the mountainous bowl Palmedo chose for Mad River Glen could he feel, sense, see where and how the trails should be cut to fully utilize the terrain's contour thereby providing the best possible fall-line skiing experience," as Mary Kerr describes Palmedo's trail building philosophy in her tome, "Mad River Glen. A Mountain Love Affair."

Enter the Single Chair

He engaged the American Steel & Wire Company to build a state-of-the-art Single Chair which, at the time, was the fastest in the world. The mountain opened for the 1949 season with a network of five trails. Mad River Glen was considered a "top shelf" ski area that went toe-to-toe competing with New England's best known early ski operations.

Over the ensuing decades the new Sunnyside Double Chair was added in 1961 along with its gentle terrain, followed by the Birdland novice area in 1967, and the Practice Slope Chair in 1971. As the ski industry changed with the advent of snowmaking and increased grooming, Mad River Glen remained relatively untouched by time. This was due mostly to the fact that there was precious little water for snowmaking and the steep, raw terrain did not lend itself towards more grooming.

In 1972, a group led by Truxton Pratt purchased Mad River Glen with his wife, Betsy, taking controlling interest of the Mad River Corporation upon his death in 1975. Over time and in many ways, Mad River became a skiing backwater, year after year became increasingly unique in the ski industry. Betsy Pratt worked hard to maintain Palmedo's vision and stewarded Mad River Glen by protecting it from the many changes in the ski industry. When Pratt decided to sell the ski area, she wanted to sell it to the only people she felt she could trust: Mad River Glen's loyal skiers. After several failed attempts she stumbled upon the idea of creating a cooperative ownership structure to achieve her goal.

Ski cooperative forms

On Dec. 5, 1995, a new era began when the Mad River Glen Cooperative was formed, creating the first and only cooperatively owned ski area in America. This meant that the Mad River Glen's famously devoted skiers owned their mountain and controlled the destiny of the legendary ski area. The sale of Mad River Glen to its skiers occurred in an age when the ski industry was consolidating and becoming homogenized and "corporate." Mad River Glen bucked the trend by remaining independent and preserving a ski experience that exists nowhere else.

Shareholders in the Mad River Glen Cooperative came together to fulfill their mission "… to forever protect the classic Mad River Glen skiing experience by preserving low skier density, natural terrain and forests, varied trail character, and friendly community atmosphere for the benefit of shareholders, area personnel and patrons."

When Mad River Glen was purchased "by the skiers," the future success of the endeavor was certainly not a foergone conclusion. The co-op has achieved remarkable results: paying off the original mortgage, growing the community, creating a shared mission and vision, solidifying the business model and finances and most importantly, reinvesting nearly $5 million in the mountain's infrastructure. These reinvestments include catching up on years of deferred maintenance, replacing key components of the Sunnyside Double, hours upon hours of on-mountain trail work largely cut by hand, and the historic restoration of the iconic Single Chair.

This project represents the embodiment of the Mad River Glen spirit. When faced with the question of what to do with it aging Single Chair more than 80 percent of the co-op shareholders opted to spend a premium to restore the iconic lift and retain the existing uphill capacity rather than build a more modern and less expensive double chair (or, heaven forbid, a quad!). Not only did the co-op make this bold decision but they also embarked on a never-before conceived campaign to raise money for the project. Partnering with the Stark Mountain Foundation and the Preservation Trust of Vermont the Mad River Glen community raised the entire $1.8 million price tag for the project through donations.

While the co-op has certainly been a tremendous success there are environmental and economic challenges that will always require thoughtful consideration. The Mad River Glen Cooperative is an amazing and unique organization that will find a way, the "Mad River Way," to ensure its future.

Today, Mad River Glen is the only ski area in the nation on the National Register of Historic Places. It has more than 1,800 individual skier-owners who have purchased more than 2,200 shares. Unlike other ski areas, Mad River's goal is to maintain and preserve the experience rather than to overhaul or upgrade it. Both the skier-owners and the management understand that skiers come to Mad River for the unique combination of legendary terrain, sense of community, low skier density, and intimate atmosphere. Ski it if you can!

Eric Friedman is marketing manager of Mad River Glen.

Mad River Glen facts

Can you still buy a Co-op Share?

Yes, shares cost $2,000 each and can even be purchased on a payment plan so that everyone can afford to get involved.

Does Mad River Glen make snow?

Yes, but the system is limited to four snow guns that cover about 10 percent of the trails limited to the high traffic, low elevation areas. The rest of the trails rely on snow from the heavens not the hoses.

Does Mad River Glen groom its trails?

Yes, in fact, they groom more than half of its 45 trails, mostly the novice and intermediate trails. The expert trails are rarely, if ever, groomed.

Is it true snowboards are not allowed?

Yes, Mad River Glen is the only ski area in New England and one of only 3 in North America that ban snowboards.

What are the basic mountain stats?

Mad River Glen has 2,036 feet of vertical drop, with 45 trails serviced by five lifts.

For more information about Mad River Glen visit www.madriverglen.com

History Space series

This is the fourth part of the History Space series on Vermont ski areas.

Next week: Bolton Valley