MOUNTAIN LIFE - Blue Mountains | Winter 2019

WINTER 2019 ML BLUE 69 words :: Ben Osborne In the early 1920s, Smugglers’ Notch had a purpose—just not in the ski world. This was the Prohibition era in the U.S., and before skiing really took off as a sport, so not even Vermonters were doing a lot of snow sports yet. What is today a winter playland for skiers and riders was likely a system of caves used as caches for illegal Canadian wine, beer and spirits en route from Quebec to the rest of the U.S. The history of lift-accessed skiing in Vermont runs deep, and right at its epicentre is Smugglers’ Notch in the central northern part of the state. While often lost in the mix to larger resorts, Smuggs is revered among locals for many reasons. The resort was founded in 1956 by a group of Vermont skiers and funded by the locals of Jeffersonville. The state of Vermont built a 300-car parking lot and a warming hut at 1,600 feet to split the difference in developing the resort. For years Smuggs was served by two Poma lifts which were said to have travelled 5,300 feet in just over eight minutes, delivering skiers to the top of Sterling Mountain. Run names such as Rum Runner and Hangman’s Noose paid homage to its history as a smuggling route but the resort was quickly falling behind the already established Stowe resort just a few miles away on the other side of the Notch. Then along came Thomas Watson, Jr., whose family started out at Stowe but became frustrated by the crowds and high lift ticket prices. As Watson was skiing one day, he discovered a trail connecting Spruce Peak at Stowe to Sterling Mountain. He followed the trail and saw the potential for development in the area. At the time Watson was CEO of IBM—his father Thomas Watson Sr. had founded the company—which had just opened a new office in Essex Junction, Vermont. Watson Jr. had both financial flexibility and an emotional investment in the area. From the moment Watson saw the terrain, change was destined for the area. Watson and his brother Arthur bought Smugglers’ Notch resort in 1962. By the 1963-64 season, the first double chairlift was built on Madonna Mountain, one of the three peaks that serve the ski area today. The chair was one of the longest in the world at the time and brought the vertical drop of the area up to 2,150 feet. While many changes have come to the ski scene in the past 50 years, one thing you can’t change is vertical relief, and nobody will ever take that away from this Vermont gem. While it is one of the few resorts in New England with over 2,000 feet of vertical (2,610 to be exact), it is the only resort with such impressive relief that has not replaced its original chairlifts, giving it a unique sense of authenticity. Vermont’s Smugglers’ Notch has been hiding major stashes since Prohibition