BRATTLEBORO — If you are looking for an inexpensive day on the slopes without having far to drive - a seemingly impossible combination - visit Living Memorial Park in Brattleboro.
Situated about a mile-and-a-half from the center of town on Guilford Street off Western Avenue (Route 9), the ski slope offers lift tickets for $5 a day, a fraction of what you would pay at a larger mountain.
Granted, the park lacks the challenge and amenities of a Mount Snow (although Mount Snow staff provide free ski and snowboard lessons on the Brattleboro hill through early February). But if you only have a few hours to ski, or don't feel like driving and dealing with crowds, or if the cost limits your trips to a larger slope, Living Memorial Park provides an affordable option.
The hill is especially suited for families with children, and skiers and snowboarders with beginner and intermediate skills.
Living Memorial Park has a 1,700-foot T-bar lift and a grooming tractor to maintain the slope, plus snowmaking. It also offers night skiing Thursdays and Fridays. The ski area has coverage with the U.S. Ski Patrol, and all lift operators are trained in safety.
Crowds are rare. Even this winter, with attendance up because of all the snow, the hill averages about 100 people per day on weekends and 50 to 75 on Thursdays and Fridays. Snowboarders and skiers use the slope in about equal numbers, and there are a few Telemark skiers.
The hill is open from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. During February school vacation week, it will also be open Monday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (with a race that morning as part of the 2011 Brattleboro Winter Carnival), and noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday.
In addition to the $5 daily lift ticket, children five and under are free. Individual and family season passes and other discounted packages are available.
A volunteer effort
That this historic ski slope is open at all is a tribute to the dedicated crew of volunteers who operate it.
Among the first ski areas with a lift (initially a rope tow) east of the Mississippi, the Guilford Street Ski Tow on the Charles Clark Farm, where Living Memorial Park is located, dates back to 1937. The town of Brattleboro operated it from 1957 to 1995.
In 1997, a group of private citizens formed the all-volunteer, nonprofit Living Memorial Park Snow Sports, Inc. (LMPSS) and raised funds to reopen the hill.
Many of today's volunteers are students from Brattleboro Union High School fulfilling their community service requirement for graduation. Typically, these students serve as “loaders” of skiers on the T-bar. Another 20 or so adults help out with chores like snowmaking and selling tickets.
Ray Blow, who has served as president of LMPSS for the past decade, grew up across the street from the park and sees his involvement as a way to give back to his community and keep skiing affordable.
Blow is proud of the slope and hopes more people come out to enjoy it, but he stresses that this community enterprise needs additional volunteers and financial donations.
Revenue from lift tickets, he says, does not cover operating expenses. The snowmaking equipment may seem superfluous to some, especially in a year like this one, but Blow notes that the unreliability of snowfall was one of the factors in the town's decision to discontinue managing the slope in 1995. The used grooming tractor, Blow says, was purchased for a fraction of the price of a new one.