Black Mountain, New Hampshire: a 1935 Jackson hill's co-op that wasn't

On October 13, 2023, the Fichera family announced Black Mountain would not open for the 2023-2024 season, citing "soaring energy costs, unpredictable weather, extreme staffing shortages throughout the region, and many other challenges," according to Boston.com. About a week later, on October 20, 2023, Indy Pass announced it would provide resources for the Fichera family to operate for one more season while a buyer was sought; Erik Mogensen -- founder of Indy Pass's parent company, Entabeni Systems -- said at the time, "We are not interested in owning ski resorts but are firmly committed to supporting independent operators like Black Mountain." On October 4, 2024, Entabeni Systems announced it had purchased Black Mountain's operating entity, calling itself the "temporary owner" for the upcoming season, per NH Business Review. Doug Fichera, who "grew up on the mountain since 1995," stayed on as director of mountain operations, and Andy Shepard was named director of community engagement under the new ownership.

At the October 2024 sale announcement, Mogensen stated his goal was to "transfer the area to a cooperative model," and Boston.com reported the plan was for Black Mountain to become a community co-op by the start of the 2025-26 season, quoting him: "This place needs to be owned by the people that are in this room. Period." Looking back on that fundraising effort in his March 12, 2026 letter on Black Mountain's own site, Mogensen wrote that the planned community corporation had sold all 15 of its $250,000 Class A shares plus over one-third of its $25,000 Class B shares, with more than 2,600 people expressing interest in $5,000 Class C shares. In that same letter, Mogensen announced the co-op conversion was being abandoned: Entabeni Systems would instead remain "the long-term custodian and again 100% owner of Black Mountain," buying back all shareholder stock "at par to their original purchase price," and relocating operations to "New Hampshire and the Mount Washington Valley." On March 17, 2026, Boston.com reported that Entabeni's and Indy Pass's headquarters would move from Colorado to Jackson, N.H., and that Mogensen had purchased Black Mountain outright for a second time, intending to make it "a laboratory for solving the challenges facing independent ski areas." As of these March 2026 announcements, Black Mountain is owned outright by Mogensen through Entabeni Systems, the parent company of Indy Pass, not by a community co-op.

Honeymoon Bridge, a wooden Paddleford Burr Truss covered bridge over the Ellis River, was built in 1876 and designed by Charles Austin Broughton and his son Frank, per Wikipedia. The Jackson Ski Touring Foundation (Jackson XC) operates a cross-country ski and snowshoe touring center offering instruction from PSIA-certified instructors and equipment rentals, and offers free season passes to children age 9 and younger, per its own website. The Wentworth, a Jackson Village hotel, traces to a property originally built by Trickey in 1869 as the Thorn Mountain House, which evolved during the 1880s into Wentworth Hall, per Wikipedia's "Jackson, New Hampshire" article.