“The tougher the battle for the skier’s dollar becomes, the further the sport will move from its simple origins… Divested of its frills, skiing is fresh air and snow and the good feeling you have after the last run and, above all, the intangible that there is between a mountain and yourself. This is still around. You just have to look for it.”- Vermont Life Vol. 24 Iss.2, “Skiing in Vermont Needn’t Cost all Outdoors”

In the 1960s, Vermont Life magazine begins to slow down its coverage of the ski industry in the state. Tourist promotion and ski area profiles flooded the pages of the magazine’s winter issues during the meteoric rise in the sport’s popularity during the 1940s and 1950s. However, the 1960s see a steep drop in both quantity and depth of articles about ski areas, tourism, and accommodations. Early in the decade, articles like “Sugarbush” and “Ski 100” provide barebones informational tourist promotion, and are the only articles to cover skiing between 1960 and 1963. Regardless of this reduced frequency of articles concerning the ski industry, there are some important shifts in promotional strategy and attitude that take place in coverage during the decade.

One such key shift in the magazine’s tone is increased references to skiing’s past and the history of the industry’s development in Vermont. Where articles in the 1940s and 1950s dealt with technological and economic progress as new and exciting phenomena that were sweeping the state, a variety of articles during the 1960s take a look back at the rapid changes of the three prior decades with nostalgia. Clear examples of this are “Fifty Years of Skiing” and “Came the Revolution”, which both celebrate the history of skiing in Vermont and the vast technological advances achieved in the preceding decades. Further articles, like “Brattleboro’s Winter Carnival” and “Young Vermont Racing Skiers” harken back to the days when the magazine embraced the youthful vigor and camaraderie at the core of the sport. These articles all have a tone of nostalgia and a historical perspective that is unique in Vermont Life to this point.

Another key change comes in 1969, when the magazine runs its first piece to directly criticize the ski industry in any way. “Skiing in Vermont Needn’t Cost all Outdoors” is the first article in the magazine to characterize ski areas as too expensive for many to enjoy. The article claims that a family of four could rack up a bill of over $400 for a weekend ski trip, and that this cost is simply too steep. It then details some smaller ski areas that are more affordable for those who cannot afford the Mansfields and Stowes of the world. For the 23 preceding years, the magazine had only praised skiing’s accessibility, approachability, and development, emphasizing how it was being pursued “by skiers, for skiers.” This 1969 article is the first to contradict that sentiment.

It is important to note that while changes in the coverage of skiing occur during the 1960s, there remain some typical examples of promotional tourist material. “Two Days of Sun and Snow” gives a full description of the out-of-towner lifestyle, that by which working men from New York City or Boston can travel up to Vermont to escape daily life on the weekends. One other promotional piece, the “Official 1968 Vermont Skiing Guide”, is an entire packet of information bound in Volume 22, Issue 2 that gives basic details on all of the ski areas, lodges, restaurants, accommodations, transportation, and ski shops available to the ski tourist. The roughly fifteen-page packet demonstrates that Vermont Life had not abandoned it’s promotional strategies or capacities altogether during the 1960s.