America's Most Old-School Ski Resort (Fayston, Vermont)

[@richarddzisiewski7197]

I can really relate to the single chair vibe...when I was a ski instructor in Austria many years ago, the resort I worked in had a single chair which was fantastic to be on for a short time as I was able to just listen to the mountains and switch off especially when it was snowing. It's not often you can hear the world go by!

[@d.jensen5153]

Glad I got to ride a single chair at Sun Valley before it was replaced. I remember it as a tall spidery lift, but I was just a kid and things seemed bigger then. It took three lifts to get to the top of Baldy. The last lift seemed half-way to outer space. :)

[@khatske]

I would love to experience that single chairlift myself. I love the old style lifts from long time ago. It is a vast invention ever lived and made in life.

[@ericwieland1804]

The trail under that chair is a great blend of bumps and drop-offs. I also remember a single chair at Whiteface that got very high off the ground.

[@RobbisTV]

That's a fine piece of equipment! Such a cool piece of history :D

[@sabbottart]

Very cool! Wow. New England ski resorts are my favorite type.

[@patriciarutt1637]

love this place, awesome video

[@HarryHov]

Is the lift as high as killington? I'm not a fan of heights but love the sport now I went for my first time to killington and I loved it

[@nialldoyle8206]

Loved the telemark skier. 😀

[@m.hoffman2889]

I think such old ski lifts have some nostalgia. Sadly here in Europe, in the Alps most are hyper modern ones (not that they are bad but they just feel different)

[@CBF1]

far better built than modern communist pieces of shit ropeways. the modern ones are most likely a force of corporate will from Doppelmayr. they are setting lots of law regulations and standards that have no reason to be there and they are destroying more old ropeways than ever before. There are still some remaining 50+ year old ropeways in Europe but the standardization will destroy them if the modern ropeways are not stopped... we do have the rights to stop them after all, the corporate business bastards are humans, just like we are...

[@IStMl]

they feel industrial

[@CBF1]

@@IStMl they are industrial. They're just mass produced corporate legislation-imposing shit that's good at nothing but making corporate tyrants the money of which they force legislation upon old lifts for. There's still a few old lifts, but oh golly if we don't move them to locations where they can be preserved ASAP, there won't be a single one left. All thanks to those cunts in Wolfurt, Voreppe, Vipiteno/Sterzing and Flums.

[@MacMcCabe2456]

I !like it. Old school, school. Slow things and life down a bit. A single chair ride is peaceful, time to think, reflect and take in God's beautiful creation. Sort of like sitting in a Deer stand for hours, alone thinking, taking in all the Eagles, the silence and beauty of the outdoors. Modern & busy and fast isn't always better. Thank you for sharing. Looking forward to hopefully seeing more of this Ski area.

[@Thomas_Andreas_Bell]

I rally wanna try one of these😍 but I don’t know if I get the opportunity to do it before they are gone...

[@passengerpigeon20]

This chairlift is in no danger of being removed. The ski area in 2008 paid extra to have the single chair rebuilt rather than buying a new double chairlift. (I am sure the fact that this model of lift suffers from derailment problems when snowboarders get off at the top has something to do with it, allowing them to justify their continued no-snowboarding policy...)

[@Thomas_Andreas_Bell]

@@passengerpigeon20 👍

[@CBF1]

@@passengerpigeon20 Should put cable catchers on it then, or modify it in some way. At least it's just before the top station and not on a pylon. All fixed-grip chairlifts can work with cable catchers because there's no additional parts on the inwards side of the grip.

[@volvodude101]

there are a bunch in Japan

[@tfed518]

you ski angry, we'll ride happy

[@stevenstenkamp]

Mt. Eyak in Alaska still runs a single.

[@JoshuaGarges63]

Mad river glen SKI IT IF YOU CAN

[@despizedicon]

and you can sneak thru with a snowboard if you know where to go from Sugarbush

[@asajayunknown6290]

MRG is not particularly difficult. It's challenging. Natural snow. Rocks. Trees. It's old school. Not for people looking for pampering. Bolton Valley is similar, terrain-wise.

[@andrewjones6295]

Good to know

[@tenderpawsm473]

I have heard that MRG is very, VERY difficult.

[@williammcgann2285]

Depends on what trails you ski. Sunnyside double is best bet. Don't let that stop you. It is worth it to ski MRG.

[@jeffjensen27]

Funny how times change. Seeing a single chairlift in Vermont and in On December 15, 2018, at approximately 10:30 a.m., Ramcharger 8, the first eight-seat chairlift in North America and the most technologically-advanced chairlift in the world, debuted at Big Sky Resort. "The upgrades unveiled today at Big Sky Resort mark a new age of lift technology in major zones of the mountain," says Taylor Middleton, president and general manager of Big Sky Resort.

[@tenderpawsm473]

@@williammcgann2285 I was told that it is more difficult than Sugarbush and I found Sugarbush (especially Sugarbush north) to be difficult. I like Okemo, Mt. Snow, Killington, and Stratton. Skiing on ungroomed powder isn't my idea of a good time.

[@williammcgann2285]

@@tenderpawsm473 All of those are great ski areas. You can't go wrong. Only Mad River is once in a lifetime experience.

[@despizedicon]

@ Jumes M , It can be difficult, but less like a typical ski resort. There is no snow making or grooming. its like skiing out of bounds on the east coast, except with cut and cleared trails. When the trails get the snow scraped off, then I think most skiers would agree it does become more difficult and less enjoyable. we all prefer powder over ice. That's why their slogan is... Mad River Glenn Ski It if you Can

[@mmmmcheese4850]

Very cool

[@aidansmith6906]

Too bad they don't allow snowboarders, although I suppose you could consider that a part of the "old-school" thing

[@asphere7162]

fat lift line for the pace god damn

[@ESLinsider]

Friendly vibe until you put a snowboard on.

[@patriotrob7066]

Yup knuckle draggers stay home

[@aaronbrooks7106]

Yes Rob snowboarders the people who kept many ski area’s open through the lean years, obviously not mad river glen, but many others.

[@livefreeordie5534]

@@aaronbrooks7106 Yes, correct, and still keep many open to this day. Btw, I'm a former skier.

[@passengerpigeon20]

Mad River Glen would only be a good place to snowboard after a big powder dump anyway; most of the time, narrow trails and mogul fields are the order of the day. It seems that they actually have a trick-skiing piste now on the Lark Run, making it probably the world's only "snowboarder-free snowboard park".

[@07011221]

2.5m/s ？？

[@POWDER2155]

Mont Cain on Vancouver Island Canada is way more old school then this

[@ArctikMonkee]

That lifgt wait during covid....

[@CBF1]

If this was indeed built in 1948(I heard it was built by the American Steel & Wire Company) it may very well be the world's oldest working chairlift and what is now the only 1940's chairlift still running. In Europe we had a few 1940's chairlifts, one in Branuwald (1947 - 2007), one in Kandersteg(1948 - 2008), one in Pec pod Snezkou CZ(1949 - 2012) and one in Soelden (1948 - 2011) and possibly some more. All except the Soelden one were replaced and the Soelden one was taken down without replacement. It's all thanks to communist standards imposed by Doppelmayr and their apparent lobbyism committed in Brussels to force old ropeways to be scrapped or replaced... at least some people who have been into ropeways for 20 years or more have told me that the remaining 4 global corporate and malicious ropeway manufacturers have been lobbyists in the EU so they can force the replacements of the older ropeways. The oldest chairlift we have in Europe that I know of is the Kranzberglift in Mittenwald, built by Pohlig based in Koeln in 1950. Apparently German constitutional based inventory law protection overrules the standardization to a very large extent but the standardization is, by an incredibly slow rate, making it's way to Germany with the planned replacement of the Kampenwandbahn in Aschau, and the successful replacements of the Eckbauerbahn in Garmisch(1956 - 2018, scrapped due to insane maintenance costs deliberately charged by the manufacturers so they can force it to be replaced) and the Geisskopfbahn in Bischofsmais(1967 - 2020), another single-seat chairlift. Hopefully the ropeway manufacturers don't ever invade Mad River Glen. I'm hoping to stop them from destroying any more mechanically different or historic ropeways in Europe. Old ropeways are works of art and need to be preserved and it's good that Mad River Glen is preserving theirs. The standardization in Europe is getting bad enough to override historical, mechanical and characteristic importance now these days and it needs to stop, NOW, literally, RIGHT now. Hopefully my plan will succeed, it will start soon, and when it does, to hell with the modern shitty ropeways... Edit February 10, 2024, the oldest chairlift in the world is actually the Hemlock chairlift in Boyne Mountain, although that lift has had all of it's pylons replaced as it's original ones were wooden. That lift is one of the first 3 chairlifts ever made, originally from Sun Valley in Idaho. It was made in 1936, and it sold to Boyne in 1948 where it's remained ever since.

[@olliemckay8755]

The single chair at Mad River Glen was replaced in 2007

[@CBF1]

@@olliemckay8755 oh? By what? This video wouldn't have existed had it been replaced then. They have no plans to destroy it for a shit modern ropeway, it's far too historical for that...

[@olliemckay8755]

@@CBF1 I should say rebuilt. The original lift was deteriorating so they replaced it with basically a brand new copy of the original. It was gonna fall apart eventually. The tradition is going nowhere! :)

[@olliemckay8755]

@@CBF1 I was wrong. The original lift was heavily restored and some parts were replaced. My bad

[@CBF1]

@@olliemckay8755 Yes indeed... ropeways do need restoring eventually, but some haven't had even remotely ONE restoration job and still work absolutely perfectly.

[@BJAntonio46]

"Real friendly vibe" - doesn't include everyone (AKA snowboarders) lol

[@holymeto9981]

oof

[@robertreeves6766]

Move Vermont Go Niggaz

[@Pizoo]

first even though im 2 years late

[@Hello_there_obi]

You can romanticise anything and make it look good. All I see is a resort where you could not do a 6 day ski holiday because all the lifts head back to the same spot and there's little in the way of restaurants and bars. Sure, the runs may be good, but you talk about people queueing and having conversations which is nice, and yet they won't be able to have them when they get on that single chair. And there are very few runs. It's not always fun to go round and round and round all day long. And there's nothing much else to do if that get's tiresome. And you say it's not about the money. But it is isn't it? If no one gave you money and you didn't earn any money, you'd close. So it boils down to that question: have you made enough to keep it open for the next season? A compact operation like this is cheaper to run and it gets much better snowfall so you have the luxury of not having to worry as much as other resorts do. Love the look of the views but I don't buy the whole video.

[@Hello_there_obi]

@@kyle-yi9co glad to see that youre as charming and tolerant as the people in this video. Absolutely delightful people who love to talk and welcome people. Not toxic at all. No wonder people are so keen to donate money

[@ianfergerson2884]

Its not for some holiday, its about the skiing.

[@Hello_there_obi]

@@ianfergerson2884 what do you think I do? I wake up and catch the first lift and ski all day. On six abreast lifts where I can chat with friends and strangers because when youre skiing you cant. Id rather chat on my way to the next run then in the queue for a lonely, slow single chair for the sake of nostalgia. Why? Because I want to spend as much of my time skiing as I can because evidently, i want to ski more than you seeing as I opt for less waiting times. And if I do want to have a break and chat with my friends, I can do that on a deckchair with a view and a hot chocolate instead of at the bottom of the mountain constantly having to shuffle forward in a queue. And its not like off piste is unique to this resort. But I get the cosy, local feel that it has cultivated and appreciate how it helps have a unique selling point. Im just saying I dont buy the sugarcoating in the video. Its ironically corporate sounding as a result, which is quite amusing. You say it’s about the skiing? Good. Then go to a resort that maximises your skiing time by having modern lifts and short queues.

[@ianfergerson2884]

@@Hello_there_obi I don't want to keep an argument going, but mad river is about raw, old fashioned VT skiing. If you want what you are describing just got to Stowe or Killington.

[@wyldboyz5063]

@@ianfergerson2884 He's probably a snowboarder