Small Ski Areas Closing, Victims of Economics

The Maple Valley ski area in West Dummerston has all the ingredients it needs: trimmed trails, working chairlifts, an inventory of rental skis and a spruced-up base lodge.

“All you need to do is press a button and it could go,” said Terry Tyler, who founded the modest ski resort 35 years ago.

But no one is pressing the button this year. Like dozens of other small ski areas, Maple Valley stayed closed this past winter. It was the first season in 30 that the ski area hadn’t opened.

Like many other small ski areas, Maple Valley is the victim of a changing economic climate. A few decades ago, Vermont had about 80 ski areas, said Bill Scheer, a spokesman for the Vermont Ski Areas Assn. In the season now ending the number was down to 18, according to an industry guidebook.

Nationwide, ski areas are going out of business or consolidating all over the United States. Their numbers have shrunk from about 745 in the mid-1970s to about 520 now, said Michael Berry, president of the National Ski Areas Assn. in Lakewood, Colo.

“It’s almost like regional malls, if you will,” Berry said. “The mom-and-pop stores are gone, and regional malls have replaced them.”

Industry analysts say the small ski areas are dying out largely because they can’t afford the snow-making equipment, high-speed chairlifts and other amenities that most skiers want.

“It’s economies of scale more than anything,” said Alphonse Gilbert, a professor of ski area management at the University of Vermont’s School of Natural Resources. The big areas, Gilbert said, also offer better rental equipment, accommodations and instruction.

“These big areas get a name that helps attract people, also,” Gilbert added. “That’s part of skiing: where you ski. All of those things play a role.”

Skiers these days expect more than they did 20 years ago.

“When people go skiing today, they don’t expect to hit a rock, and they’re surprised when they do,” Berry said.