Cochran's Ski Area

In 1961, Mickey and Ginny Cochran began operating a backyard rope-tow ski area on their hillside property in Richmond, Vermont, with support from the community, per Cochran's Ski Area's own mission page. The 1961 start was a roughly 500-foot rope tow serving two slopes. By 1966 an 1,100-foot rope tow had been added; a handle tow for beginners was built above the lodge in 1975; and a Hall T-bar relocated from Bristol Mountain in western New York was installed in 1979. In 1998 Cochran's Ski Area became a non-profit, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt ski area. Its stated mission is that "no child will be denied the opportunity to ski or ride," providing area youth and families with affordable skiing, snowboarding, lessons, and race training "in the Cochran tradition." Barbara Ann Cochran, of Richmond's "Skiing Cochrans" family, won the gold medal in slalom at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan, by 0.02 seconds, per Wikipedia's Barbara Ann Cochran article, and now works at Cochran's Ski Area, in the backyard of her childhood home. Her son, Ryan Cochran-Siegle, won silver medals in the super-G at both the 2022 Beijing and 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.