Nashoba Valley Ski Area

Nashoba Valley "was first opened for the 1964-65 season by Alan Fletcher Sr. as a rope tow served ski area," per New England Ski History; "due to poor weather, the ski area only operated for 14 days during its freshman season." Early staff who helped Fletcher grow the operation, serving school groups and local skiers, included Peter Whitcomb, Midge Zaher, and David McPhee. After operating for nearly a decade with only rope tows, Nashoba Valley installed its first non-rope-tow lift, a T-Bar, in 1972, and "a new snowmaking system was reportedly installed circa 1975, helping Nashoba to avoid the fate of so many other small ski areas in the eastern side of the state." "Nashoba entered the chairlift age in 1977 when it installed a used double chairlift"; a triple chairlift followed the next year, in 1978. Nashoba was one of the earliest ski areas to permit snowboarding, officially inviting snowboarders for the 1985-86 season, and in 1979-80 the area reportedly became the first ski area in New England to have a power tiller in its grooming fleet. A third chairlift, a CTEC triple, was installed for the 1986-87 season, and Nashoba added a fourth chairlift, the Sundance Triple, in 1994. Nashoba opened a snowtubing park nearby in 2001, which has grown to "reportedly become the largest facility of its type in New England." Pam Fletcher, daughter of founder Alan Fletcher Sr., "was a member of the US Ski Team throughout the 1980s" and competed for the United States at the 1988 Winter Olympics; her brother Alan became General Manager of the ski area in 1998 and was later promoted to President, while Pam took over Events Marketing and Sales -- a multi-generational family operation, per New England Ski History.