It feels like fall. Which means winter can’t be far behind. (Then again, after last winter, who knows anymore?)
Either way, the folks over at Ski The East recently alerted potential interested parties about a great-sounding documentary in the making, and its corresponding funding-hopeful Kickstarter webpage. The Story of Small Ski Areas aims to “tell the remarkable story of the Northeast’s remaining small, community-based ski areas and the passion that sustains them.”
“While one might picture slopeside hotels and high-speed quads when thinking of skiing in the Northeast, small ski areas were the norm not long ago,” notes their Kickstarter page. “Yet the past 45 years has seen a sharp reversal of that trend; today, there are roughly 116 “lost” ski areas in Vermont alone.”
(For more information on the 599 “lost” ski areas throughout New England, check out Jeremy Davis’ excellent website, the New England Lost Ski Areas Project.)
As ticket prices at infrastructure-heavy mountain resorts continue to rise, despite the dwindling amount of reliable snow, it’s good to see “that despite the high cost of insurance, energy, and taxes, there remain several small ski areas … firmly embedded within their local communities.” And that they have been able to defy “the go-big-or-close logic that has come to dominate the sport. Their stories are ones of resiliency, frugality, and sheer passion for the sport of skiing.”
Sounds like a outdoor recreational cause worthy of support.
Kickstar funding for A Story of Small Ski Areas will continue through the end of this month, ending on October 1.
