Prospect Mountain

A Woodford ski area that ran alpine skiing for some 55 years from 1939 before its owners gave up the downhill in the mid-1990s to concentrate on the cross-country trails, which still operate.

Region: Vermont
Country: USA
Status: closed
Year opened: 1939
Year closed: 1994
Reason for closure: The owners chose to focus on the cross-country ski area on the same property. Competition from larger resorts with snowmaking had eroded the downhill business over the preceding decades.

History

Prospect Mountain stands at Woodford in southern Vermont, on the Molly Stark Trail east of Bennington, with a base at 2,250 ft and 676 ft of vertical on a north-west facing slope. Skiing started with a single rope tow in 1939; a T-bar to the summit followed in 1960, and through the 1960s and 1970s the area ran two T-bars and a rope tow of 3,200, 1,200 and 800 ft, growing from three slopes and five trails in 1964 to nine trails by 1973 with an uphill capacity of 2,100 an hour. Its runs carried Vermont revolutionary names - Seth Warner for the novices, John Stark for the intermediates, Cannonball and Yankee Courage for the experts, and the Ethan Allen glades. Alpine skiing ended in the mid-1990s, but this was a decision rather than a collapse: the owners wanted to concentrate on the cross-country network on the same land, which continues to operate today, and the base lodge buildings and much of the trail infrastructure survived in serviceable condition. Lift manufacturers are not documented in accessible sources.

Lifts

Name	Type	Notes
Unnamed lift	T-Bar	The main T-bar to the summit, installed 1960; 3,200 ft
Unnamed lift	T-Bar	A second T-bar of 1,200 ft, part of the fleet recorded between 1964 and 1973
Unnamed lift	Surface lift	An 800 ft rope tow; the area first opened in 1939 with a single rope tow

Runs

Seth Warner (Beginner)
John Stark (Intermediate)
Cannonball (Advanced)
Yankee Courage (Advanced)
Ethan Allen

Sources and further reading

Location

42.8745, -73.0670