Stowe Mountain Resort

Lift-served skiing at Stowe began on February 7, 1937, when Craig Burt, the Mt. Mansfield Ski Club, and Sepp Ruschp opened a rope tow on the Toll House slope of Mount Mansfield, per New England Ski History's "Stowe" area history page. On November 17, 1940, Mt. Mansfield Lift, Inc. -- led by Sepp Ruschp, Lowell Thomas, and Roland Palmedo -- opened a single chairlift billed at the time as the longest and highest chairlift in the world, at 6,330 feet in length and 2,030 feet of vertical rise; despite breaking down on opening day, it remained in service for nearly 50 years. Mount Mansfield is also where Charles Minot Dole, leader of the Mt. Mansfield Ski Patrol, founded the National Ski Patrol in 1938 after ski-accident experiences on the mountain, according to Wikipedia's "National Ski Patrol" article. Billy Kidd grew up in Stowe and raced with the Mount Mansfield Ski Team before becoming, with teammate Jimmie Heuga, the first American men to win an Olympic alpine skiing medal, taking silver in slalom at the 1964 Innsbruck Games at age 20, according to Wikipedia's "Billy Kidd" article. AIG founder C.V. Starr began financing the ski area around 1946 and by 1950 had consolidated five separate operating companies into the Mount Mansfield Company, establishing majority ownership that continued under AIG-affiliated control for decades, per New England Ski History's "Stowe" area history page. Vail Resorts' acquisition of Stowe -- its first resort on the East Coast of the United States -- is dated to February 21, 2017 in Vail Resorts' own corporate resort listing, per Wikipedia's "Vail Resorts" article. New England Ski History states the Stowe sale to Vail Resorts closed in June 2017 for a reported $41 million, ending roughly 70 years of AIG-affiliated ownership dating back to C.V. Starr. The Sunrise Six detachable chairlift replaced the older Mountain Triple chairlift in the 2022-23 season, per Wikipedia's "Stowe Mountain Resort" article.