On Monday, January 12, 2015 at 7:26:48 AM UTC-8, lal_truckee wrote:
On 1/11/15 9:15 PM, Richard Henry wrote:
I just stumbled onto this ski history article about Jay Peak.

http://www.vermonter.com/northlandjo...ay-peak-vt.php

It's good to see that the old timers (of which I suppose we are fringe
members) are recording their memoirs.

My (very) peripheral connections to ski history -

An older cousin (mother's mother's brother's son) skied at Dartmouth in the 30's with Dick Durrance.

I received a standard race medal from Walter Foeger at Jay Peak early 60's.

Dave Derick, for whom the Derick Hotshot trail at Jay is named, was in our high school ski mob. One year he had an ankle in a cast, so he learned to ski on one foot. He skied way beyond our ability, and was a rising star in the Eastern Amateur junior racing world until he died in an auto accident on his way to a day of skiing at Jay.

In my high school class at Littleton HS was a member of the third generation of the Peabody family who had developed the recreation slopes at Cannon Mountain. He won the skimeister competition at the NH State High meet (best combined places in slalom, GS, jumping and cross country), and was already a member of the Cannon Ski Patrol while in high school.

My mother's brother and his wife ran the little grocery store in Irasvile, at the junction of the roads going to Sugarbush, Glen Ellen, and Mad River Glen (17 and 100). The place was packed every Saturday night. Their son worked a year at Sugarbush as a lift operator after he got out of the Navy.

My father's brother worked as a truck driver in 1958 on the final completion of the McCullough Turnpike (Route 17) over Appalachian Gap, which gives direct access to Mad River Glen from the east and then down to Route 100 (when it is not closed by winter weather).

I once rode Chair 5 at Mammoth with Dave McCoy, but I didn't know it was him until the workers at the top of the lift greeted him. He had skied up to join me at the last minute while loading, and we had a pleasant conversation about the weather and ski conditions on the way up. By the time I got my pole straps on, he was gone down the mountain in a cloud of snow.