Mad River Glen Opener Sends Off New Chair

What kind of ski resort would spend more to send less people to the top? Only the kind owned by skiers themselves and that's what you get at Mad River Glen in Vermont. The mountain is owned by a Cooperative of skier investors who have supported replacing the historic single chairlift that has carried skiers to the top of General Stark Mountain since 1948, not with a superfast detachable quad, but, rather, with another historic single chair.

Opening Day, December 6th at 9AM, the new single chair officially began to once more carry skiers up the mountain and the first chair ride went to Leigh Michl - seen here waving as he was launched into history. During the initial fund raising phase to pay for the new chair, Leigh, a former MRG Coop Board member, supported the auctioning off of the single chairs from the original lift, buying up four of the single seat relics. The fundraising campaign, the Single Chair Capital Campaign has passed the $1.35 million mark but still has a way to go meet its goal. Learn how you can help MRG meet this goal or how you can become a member of the Cooperative.

Mother Nature shined on Opening Day, and the inaugeration of the new chairlift, setting up the mountain with 18-24" of fresh, dry powder and presenting it on a beautiful, bluebird morning. Check out the photo gallery.

Oh, and if you're a skier (sorry, no snowboards allowed) I'm sure somewhere along the way you've heard the Mad River Glen slogan - "Mad River Glen-Ski It If You Can." This started as a marketing logo back in the mid 80's and took on a life of itself where skiers would carry it as a bumper sticker and hold it up for photos around the world. I've actually seen a photo of astronaut Cady Coleman, a Glen shareholder, holding up the famous red and white bumper sticker on the space shuttle!

Well, true it is that there is some steep, bumpy and ungroomed terrrain that will test the mettle of any expert, but there is also pretty nice skiing on blues and greens that have great views. So, if you ski, you owe it to yourself to head up RT 100 in Vermont and ride the only single chairlift in the lower US.

_{Photo Copyright Mike Doyle}