BOSTON GLOBE - MARCH 8, 2006
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 2006 T H E B O S T O N G L O B E
Ascutney Mountain Resort regains stature as it turns 60
By Marty Basch
globe correspondent
BROWNSVILLE, Vt. -- By geography and definition, Mount Ascutney stands alone. A classic monadnock -- an isolated mountain -- the more than 3,000-foot peak reaches above the Connecticut River Valley and is a landmark seen for miles in Vermont and New Hampshire.
A toll road graces its shoulder. Hikers scale its summit. Hang gliders jump off its top to catch the thermals.
And in winter, skiers and snowboarders take to the narrow, winding trails and 1,800-foot vertical drop at Ascutney Mountain Resort. Often on the edge of New England skiers’ periphery, Ascutney is returning to the radar.
Since 2000, improvements have included a new quad lift, five trails, a terrain park, and cross-country ski and snowshoe trails. For this season, the resort’s 60th anniversary, owners Steve (a former Boston College ski racer) and Susan Plausteiner invested $2.5 million in snowmaking, grooming, and hotel and health club upgrades.
Seven owners in 60 years have brought many and varied imprints to the northwest-facing mountain. Even before two rope tows were installed during the first year of operation in 1946 by owner Kip Cushman, Mount Ascutney was hosting skiers from the Mount Ascutney Ski Club, who cut a trail down the mountain in 1938. That slope is still used, though its name has changed over the years -- Cushman Slope, Main Slope, Screaming Eagle.
Former owners John Howland and Bob Ely brought snowmaking to Vermont via Ascutney in the mid-1950s. Though there is much history to herald, there are also the dark days. For three years, Ascutney lay dormant until the Plausteiners bought it at auction in 1993. The husband and wife team are joined by Steve’s parents. Father John is the general manager, instrumental in the creation of southern Vermont’s Mount Snow in 1956 and in organizing the Lake Placid, N.Y., Olympics in 1980. Mother Lucille, who oversees the 215-room resort hotel, was the first woman ski patrol director in the country.
Ascutney’s 57 trails are serviced by six lifts. Gateway to Cloudspin is the nearly 3-mile-long, twisting tour from the top. Though Gateway is an intermediate run before handing off to gentle Cloudspin, a new green circle opened this winter for beginners.
Strong skiers are at home on the Sunrise section of the ski area, with its fingers of trails like Lower Sundance. The Plunge is a rollicking steep. It just wouldn’t be Vermont without tree skiing, and Ascutney has its diamond and double diamond challenges such as tight Cabin Chutes -- by a historic cabin -- and The Darkside. Heart-stoppers include Gun Barrel and Freefall.
Ascutney’s trails look down upon the sleepy village of Brownsville in the village of West Windsor. Rolling hills and meadows are like patchwork with forest, church, and farms. In a testament to lineage, a descendant of the original settlers of the 1810 village works at the mountain.
The base lodge, built in the early 1960s, is a throwback to that era, with cafeteria-style tables and a groovy high school feel. But the self-contained beginners area has caught up to today. With the hotel as its base, the surroundings are fit for children and families. Skiers in the 7-to-12-year-old Young Olympians program learn their turns while wearing racing vests. Don’t call them bibs -- the youngsters don’t like it. The brightly colored Discovery Center is home base for children, not far from cutouts of moose, bear, and rabbits or the Mouse House Lodge meeting area. Watch out for ‘’Flying DUCKS," as participants in another children’s program are called.
The tubing hill outside the center has free sliding fun, and Saturday nights Cheddar (the mountain mascot) hosts a fun-filled happy hour for children. Inside the hotel are a pair of arcades, a teen center, a new cinema with DVD projection system, and the breakfast and lunch nook Biscotti’s Cafe.
When the sun goes down, there’s not much going on around Brownsville, which sports a general store with counter service and a historical society open for two hours a week.
Night life is perking up a bit. The 300-seat Mountainside Lounge upstairs in the base lodge features live music on weekends, the stage in front of a wooden silhouetted moose with red ribbon around its neck. Brown’s Tavern in the hotel is adorned with antique skis and toboggans on the wall. It is a comfortable spot from which to watch the action on the tubing hill while sampling continental fare from veal chops to lemongrass tuna or the pub menu of burgers and sandwiches. A few musicians with heralded credentials have made their way to play there or are slated to perform, including Jon Pousette Dart, former Orleans guitarist Jon Hall, James Montgomery, and Barry Goudreau from the band Boston.
With the tubing hill right outside, the temptation is strong to do a little apres ski tubing, by a resilient monadnock.