'Ski It If You Can'- Mad River Kicks Off 75th Season
It looks like kids got the first chair of the season this year at Mad River Glen. Obviously not the single chair, which is Mad River Glen's icon, because they were all riding together.
MRG posted a group of stoked skiers to their Instagram with the caption, "It’s opening day of our 75th year and we’re kicking off our diamond anniversary season with the Single and Birdland Double skiing on 40 out of 60 trails!"
The Single Chair at Mad River Glen is "the only Single Chair in the lower 48 states and one of only two in North America (the other one is at Mount Eyak in Cordova, Alaska)."
The Single Chair has even been featured as an episode of "Iconic Lifts" from POWDER.
Watch below to see the Single Chair in action.
There are only 5 total lifts at MRG, but skiers don't go to Mad River Glen for the lifts. They go for the terrain and the old-school vibe, which MRG has managed to uphold for 75 years now.
The beginnings of Mad River Glen came about because Roland Palmedo, the mountain’s founder, had built the Single Chair at Stowe in the 1930s.
However, not too long into working with Stowe, 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."
MRG is cooperatively owned, a very unique business model for ski resorts today. Funnily enough, Gwyneth Paltrow is a shareholder!
However, other mountains have shifted their priorities towards people enjoying the outdoors instead of making a profit, such as Hankin Evelyn in BC.
Related: Is Skiing Without Chairlifts The Future Of The Sport?
Sport is definitely the objective of Mad River Glen. Catering to a niche audience (skiers only!), natural snow is in the spotlight. MRG even limits grooming to preserve the quality of the natural snow.
This year, the natural snow has been exceptional. It's only early December, and Mad River Glen confirms they have already received over 28 inches of snow.
Last year, MRG was having a little trouble finding enough natural snow to fill in its wild terrain. See the photo below for what MRG looked like last December.
There's a stark difference to this season, where Vermont is getting more snow than they know what to do with!
Mad River Glen, ski it if you can. And this year, you can.
Related: Storm Dispatch: Mad River Glen, Vermont
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