“Throughout the history of Burke, there are moments of robust optimism running headfirst into the harshness of fiscal reality…Bankruptcies and various ownership changes have scarred the area’s history since it opened in 1955 – the most recent investment scandal only the most high profile of them all.” – Vermont Life Vol. 72 Iss. 2, “Restart”

As Vermont Life magazine entered its final decade in the 2010’s, they continued their coverage of skiing and the ski industry throughout the state, albeit at a slower pace than in the past. Although the Winter issues of the magazine continued to feature articles about the ski industry, there were less overall articles published this decade. There was a running theme throughout the decade about the commercialized and corporate nature of ski resorts throughout the state. Even if Vermont Life chose to not make this theme the main focus of their pieces, it was still an important aspect in all of them.

In one of Vermont Life’s last issues, the magazine published an article, “Restart,” about two different yet very important stories about Burke Mountain Resort in the Northeast Kingdom. Several months earlier, the owners of Burke were charged with securities fraud and were supposedly operating a Ponzi scheme. Apparently the $200 million the owners had collected to fund a new hotel, tennis facility, aquatic center, along with general on-mountain improvements, had been mishandled and the new infrastructure was still missing.

On the other hand, Burke Mountain Academy, which is just down the road from the mountain, raised $3 million to build a state-of-the-art indoor training facility and gym for the 65 students there. The amount of money flowing into and out of the Burke Mountain Resort area shows just how commercialized skiing has become. Skiing has been put in the center of financial scandals, and also has academies dedicated to the sport that have no problem raising several million dollars quickly. Although Vermont Life doesn’t focus on the financial aspect of these stories, both of them ultimately revolve around it. This goes to show just how important commercialism is to the ski industry in the present day.

“‘We felt it was important for the business, Powdr, to succeed and to have a good ski area,’ says Fred Coriell, owner of Peak Performance ski shop, who had to buy his first pass last season. ‘We were not happy, but we were willing to buy a ski pass. In the end [Killington] delivered a good product all year.’” – Vermont Life Vol. 62 Iss. 2, “Killington at a Crossroads”

As Vermont Life Magazine ushers in the 2000s, they enter a similar yet different era of coverage on skiing in Vermont. While the 1990s focused on the more traditional, classic ski culture with pieces about Mad River Glen and telemarking, the 2000s offer a glimpse into how this traditional ski culture is surviving in what has become a heavily commercialized industry. At times, Vermont Life even seems to offer its own opinion and perspective on the commercialization of skiing, which can be seen in its coverage of Killington Resort’s buyout by Powdr Corporation.

Despite Corporate America setting up shop in the Green Mountains, Vermont’s ski resorts are still home to many skiers who remember when skiing was much simpler and less commercialized. Vermont Life illustrates this in its article “Slalom Back in Time at Ascutney’s Antique Ski Race,” where many of these skiers, including some who learned on wooden skis, meet up every year at Ascutney Mountain Resort in Brownsville for the Antique Ski Race. In this competition, skiers from all walks of life are challenged to ski down a slalom course at Ascutney using skis that are at least 30 years old. While former Olympians and World Cup skiers partook in the race, there were also less experienced skiers, such as electrician Red Lussier, who gave the course their best shot. For most participants, it was less about winning, and more about having fun and enjoying a good laugh or two at skiing on wooden slats. In this article, Vermont Life delves into the stories of a handful of participants, many of whom skied at Ascutney back when a lift ticket cost a quarter. Vermont Life’s coverage of this event illustrates the fact that there are many elements of traditional skiing that are still alive and well in Vermont, and the magazine really wants to show this off to its readers.

While Vermont Life likes to emphasize the importance of tradition in its coverage of skiing, it doesn’t shy away from the reality that Corporate America has its hand in the majority of ski resorts throughout the state. The magazine dives into the issues that this can bring in its article “Killington at a Crossroads,” a piece about the change in ownership of Killington/Pico Resort. After Powdr Corporation had purchased the resort from soon-to-be defunct American Skiing Company, they implemented sweeping changes to turn Killington into a money-making operation. Many things they did, such as severely cutting back on free lift tickets, shutting down lifts and all of Pico during slower midweek times, cutting jobs, and ending the tradition of being the first to open and last to close for the season angered many longtime skiers. The magazine does note, however, that ownership under Powdr isn’t entirely bad. The new President and General Manager at Killington, Chris Nyberg, was known to personally check lift tickets and do other manual labor when needed, something that the top brass of American Skiing would never do. Nyberg and Powdr were also pleased to report that Killington had finally started making money, and that they were getting plans together to replace some of the aging lifts.

It’s certainly worth noting that this feature article was split up in the magazine, with pretty much all of the positive things that Powdr was doing being mentioned in the second section 20 pages later. Although one could argue that this is simply a coincidence, it seems that that Vermont Life is choosing to emphasize the negatives of corporate skiing to its readers, as the featured part of the article focuses on these negatives. Regardless of where the magazine stands on Killington, it still deems Corporate America’s involvement with the ski industry important enough to merit an entire feature article.

“‘I want to preserve the mountain,’ she says. ‘It’s the mountain that brings us together, not the sport. Fifty or 100 years from now there will be new ways to enjoy the mountain, ways we haven’t yet dreamed of. I want the mountain to be there for those generations.’” – Vermont Life Vol. 45 Iss. 2, “An Old-Fashioned Mountain”

The 1990’s was a great time to be in Vermont according to Vermont Life. Although the ski industry was quickly advancing, it still held on to many of its traditional roots throughout the state. Vermont Life Magazine showcases this in several articles throughout the 90’s.

One of these, “An Old Fashioned Mountain,” was about one particular ski mountain in Vermont, something that it would claim is not at all a resort and has no desire to be one. This mountain is Mad River Glen, nestled in the heart of Mad River Valley in the center of the state. Mad River Glen is a unique mountain because it makes a point to maintain the traditional way of skiing in Vermont while also maintaining a loyal fan base and being very popular among both residents and skiers from out of state. Mad River Glen is a ski-only mountain (no snowboarding is allowed) with minimally cut trails, almost no snowmaking and grooming, and a single chair lift right up the center of the mountain. One thing that draws its crowd in is the fact that it’s not a resort, and the people who ski there don’t want it to become one.

The magazine describes a scene at Mad River where a “young warrior” that’s skiing through the woods and takes a digger after catching his tip on a hidden branch who “gets up smiling, and as soon as he’s cleared his mouth of snow, exclaims ‘Awesome!’” This is a great example of the type of skier you’d see at Mad River, and something Vermont Life would love to illustrate about the state of Vermont.

“The new skier, we are told, comes for four or five days, even a week, and wants a wide choice of ski trails, accommodations, and activities for his off-the-slope hours. The ‘destination’ ski resort being designed by Sugarbush is a resort for this new skier.” – Vermont Life Vol. 35 Iss. 2, “The Mad River Valley: Facing the Question of ‘Acceptable’ Growth”

In the 1980’s, Vermont’s ski industry was at a crossroads between traditional values, technological advancement, and economic development. The ski industry was growing rapidly and had changed much since its inception at the beginning of the century, but much of the rest of Vermont was struggling to keep up with these changes. Vermont Life Magazine offers a look at both sides of this issue through several articles about the ski industry in this decade.

One such article, “Closing an Open Winter,” talks about the multitude of benefits that come from machine-made snow. In the piece, writer Paul Robbins mentions how if it weren’t for snowmaking, ski mountains would have suffered greatly the year before due to the lack of natural snow. Although snowmaking wasn’t a new invention in the 1980’s, it was being adopted at a fast pace by mountains big and small. Resort executives such as Foster Chandler, Vice President and Director of Marketing at Killington and Mt. Snow, realized that “Snowmaking has become a ski area’s insurance policy…The snowmaking which we’ve installed in the last couple of years is our guarantee that we’ll have snow for our skiers.” (Closing an Open Winter, pg. 8) The fact that ski resorts were finding ways to beat Mother Nature at her own game is pretty impressive, but not everyone in Vermont was thrilled about it.

Around this time, Sugarbush was looking to make some major infrastructural improvements, and not everyone in the area was happy about it. Many residents in Mad River Valley had gotten tired with the crazy development going on in the region, and yearned for the days when it was a quaint Vermont community. As detailed in “The Mad River Valley: Facing the Question of ‘Acceptable’ Growth,” there’s a constant back and forth between Mad River Valley Residents who believe that the increase in skiing and tourism is ruining the traditional way of life and those who say that it’s good for the economy and wellbeing of the community as a whole. Vermont Life does a good job at showcasing different perspectives without leaning one way or another, which makes sense given that their readers are both Vermont locals and tourists.

Sugarbush Resort’s proposal describes the difference between skiers in the early days and at the time the article was written well. The old fashioned skier “drove up the valley from New York or Boston every Friday night and headed home Sunday afternoon after hitting the slopes, a few bars, and a cheap pillow.” On the flip side, the 1980’s skier “comes for four or five days, even a week, and wants a wide choice of ski trails, accommodations, and activities for his off-the-slope hours.” (The Mad River Valley, pg. 13) This contrast between the ski industries in these different eras shows just how much skiing had changed and how much skiing had subsequently changed Vermont over the course of the century so far.