History
Entrepreneur Walt Schoenknecht, who ran the Mohawk Mountain Ski Area in Connecticut, visited Vermont in 1946 in search of an area to open a new ski resort. He climbed to the summit of Mount Pisgah, a Southern Vermont peak originally named after the Biblical Mount Pisgah. Despite Schoenknecht's hike being in October, the mountain had over a foot of snow. Schoenknecht, who wanted an area with more snowfall than further south but still accessible to New England's metropolitan areas, and with varying terrain over different faces, saw Mount Pisgah as perfect. In 1953, he purchased land at the foot of Mount Pisgah owned by a farmer named Reuben Snow, who would become the namesake for Schoenknecht's ski area and later the government-recognized name for the peak. [5]
In December 1954, Mount Snow opened to the public with five trails on the lower portion of the mountain, serviced by a rope tow and two double chairlifts. The lifts, named Little Beaver and Exhibition (later renamed to Standard), were chain-driven conveyor lifts built by Ramsey. Their unique design allowed them to carry significantly more skiers uphill than other ski lifts of traditional design. A total of six of these lifts were constructed over Mount Snow's first five seasons. Along with the original two were Summit (1955), Mixing Bowl (1956), Sap Bucket (1957), and South Bowl (1958). The last of these lifts to be removed was Mixing Bowl in 1997. [6]
Complaints over the chain lifts being loud and occasionally dripping grease on riders led to the mountain beginning construction of traditionally designed chairlifts, beginning with the Beaver and Sundance doubles, built by Carlevaro & Savio in 1960. The Sundance chair came along with the opening of the Sundance base lodge. Around this time Mount Snow began advertising itself as "World's Largest, Most Exciting Ski Resort." Walt Shoenknecht, who once said, "a skier won't let you stand still...you must provide something new, something tremendously exciting every year to get him back," designed many unique and expensive features. This led to some referring to him as the "Walt Disney" of Vermont. [7] Extravagant features included a Carlevaro & Savio tram from the nearby Snow Lake Lodge known as the Air Car, an outdoor heated pool, and a large fountain geyser in Snow Lake, which would form a small ski hill that would at times last past the end of the ski season.
For the 1959-1960 season, Mount Snow opened the North Face, an area of the mountain dedicated to expert terrain. The North Face double, a traditionally designed lift, opened in 1963 to service the area. The lift was later upgraded to a triple chair in 1987 and renamed to Outpost in the early 2000s. [8]
In 1965, Mount Snow opened the G1, a Carlevaro & Savio bubble double chair. Closer to a bubble chair than a gondola, it was built as a skis-on gondola due to Walt Schoenknecht not wanting to take his skis off due to back problems. A second gondola of the same design, the G2, was built for the 1969-1970 season.
In 1969, the Sunbrook area opened, a trail complex on the southern side of the mountain. It was serviced by a Carlevaro & Savio double chair named Sunbrook.
Financial struggles began to arise in the early 1970s due to low-snow seasons and increasing expenses. In 1971, Mount Snow merged with the Davos Corporation. Bankruptcy in 1975 led to a 1977 purchase by the Sherburne Corp., ran by the owner of Killington Ski Resort further north in Vermont. It was later rolled into S-K-I Ltd. (Sherburne-Killington-Investments) in 1984.
After the 1977 purchase, many featured deemed unnecessary were removed, including the Air Car, pool, and fountain. By this time, Mount Snow had built only double chairlifts, including the Carlevaro & Savio Snowdance double (1961, later renamed to Standard) and the Canyon (1971) and Ski School (1972, later renamed to Lower Sundance and then Seasons) doubles, both built by Hall Ski-Lift, along with the previously mentioned chairs. In 1978, under new ownership, Mount Snow constructed the Summit Triple (later renamed to Summit Local), its first triple chair, built by Yan Lift. In the 1982-1983 season, Challenger, a Yan triple, was added to the North Face. Two years later, the Sundance, Little Beaver, and Beaver double chairs were replaced by the Sundance and Beaver Yan triple chairs. In 1985, the G2 gondola was replaced by another Yan triple, Ego Alley.
In 1986, Mount Snow purchased Carinthia, a ski area directly next to Mount Snow on the same mountain. The trails were quickly connected. Carinthia had opened in the 1960-1961 season, built by Walter Stugger, who named the area after the Austrian state of Carinthia. Carinthia had numerous land disputes with Mount Snow throughout its time as an independent area. At the time of its sale, Carinthia had two ski lifts and a rope tow. Ski Baba, a Borvig-built double chair, was built in 1979, and Carinthia, another double chair, was installed by Riblet in 1983. [9] In 1987, Mount Snow replaced the rope tow with a Yan double chair named Fairway (later renamed to Old Ironsides for a short time and then to Heavy Metal).
In 1987, Mount Snow joined many of its competitors in installing a high-speed detachable chairlift, the Yankee Clipper quad, which was built by Yan. It replaced the aging G1 gondola lift.
In 1990, the Sunbrook area was greatly expanded. The original Sunbrook double chair, which was renamed to Beartrap a few years before, received minor upgrades. CTEC (now under Doppelmayr USA) installed the Sunbrook quad chair to service the newly expanded terrain.
In 1991, Mount Snow began a three-year lease of the Haystack Mountain Ski Area, a ski area a short distance away. They later purchased the resort entirely in 1994 for $4.35 million. Plans to connect Mount Snow and Haystack with trails and lifts via the Deerfield Ridge never came into fruition. [10] Haystack was sold in 2005 and closed to the public, becoming a private ski area under the name of the Hermitage Club.
Un Blanco Gulch, the first snowboard park in the east, opened in 1992 on Mount Snow's main base. The park featured jumps, a half-pipe, quarter hits, spines, wedges, banked turns, and a buried van. It was built by Tyler Doucette under the supervision of Chris Bluto. In the 2008-2009 season, all terrain parks on the mountain were moved to Carinthia, which became an area servicing only park trails, known as Carinthia Parks at Mount Snow. [11] In 2000, Mount Snow hosted the 4th Annual Winter X-Games. The Games returned to Mount Snow the following year.
In 1996, LBO Resort Enterprises purchased Mount Snow along with numerous other ski areas and was renamed to the American Skiing Company. The same year, Mount Snow installed its second high-speed detachable lift, the Canyon Express quad built by Poma, replacing both the Standard and Canyon fixed-grip double chairs. Along with the new lift, Poma heavily modified the Yankee Clipper lift. Accidents involving Yan detachables had killed three people between Sierra-at-Tahoe and Whistler Blackcomb due to poor grip mechanisms. [12]
In 1997, the Carinthia Riblet double was replaced by another Poma high-speed quad, the Nitro Express. The opening of the Grand Summit Hotel the same year led to the Beaver chair being relocated as Tumbleweed as the Sundance base and the moving of the Ego Alley chair's base terminal to slightly further uphill to make room for the new building. The Yankee Clipper, renamed to Clipper for the 1996-1997 season, was again renamed to its current name of the Grand Summit Express. [13]
Mount Snow's most recently built fixed-grip chair, the Discovery Shuttle, was installed in 1998. The lift, a Yan triple chair, was purchased from another resort, as Yan had gone bankrupt two years earlier after their detachable accidents.
In February 2007, Mount Snow was bought by Peak Resorts.
In 2011, Mount Snow replaced the aging Summit Local fixed-grip triple with the Bluebird Express, New England's first high-speed detachable six-pack bubble. The lift was installed by Leitner-Poma, who also renovated the Grand Summit Express the same year with terminal upgrades and new chairs.
On September 24, 2019, Peak Resorts, along with Mount Snow, was purchased by Vail Resorts, joining Vail's portfolio of 37 resorts and its Epic Pass.
Mount Snow's most recent chairlift changes occurred in 2022. The Sunbrook quad was replaced by a high-speed quad, the Sunbrook Express. The Sundance Express, a high-speed six-pack, replaced both the Tumbleweed and Sundance fixed-grip triples. Both lifts were installed by Doppelmayr. [14] .
Mount Snow's Kelly Clark, bronze medalist of 2014 Olympic Women's half-pipe, [15] won the first American gold medal of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in women's half-pipe. She is a graduate of the Mount Snow Academy and the first athlete from Mount Snow to win an Olympic gold medal. Another Mount Snow Academy graduate, Devin Logan, won the silver medal of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi in the Olympic debut of slopestyle. Eliza Outtrim, who placed 6th in women's moguls, also attended MSA.
In January 2009, Mount Snow hosted the winter Dew Tour. It was the first action sports tour for winter sports and is owned and operated by Alli, the Alliance of Action Sports. Many of the top athletes in action sports from around the world participated in the Winter Dew Tour. Athletes such as Shaun White, Hannah Teter, Tanner Hall, Andreas Wiig, Gretchen Bleiler, Simon Dumont, Sarah Burke, and Travis Rice all vied for the Dew Cup, awarded at season's end. [16]
