Support Brattleboro Ski Hill's Mission

To our beloved Brattleboro Ski Hill community,

Most of you know the benefits the Brattleboro Ski Hill brings to our small corner of Vermont. Our mission is to provide open and equitable opportunities for our community to ski and ride. Last year alone, we issued nearly 5,000 tickets to local residents. At just $5 per ticket, this offers unprecedented access to winter sports! Beyond regular skiing and riding, we also partner with schools and larger mountains to provide access and lessons to more than 70 local children. As a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization run entirely by volunteers, we rely heavily on community support to make all of this possible.

Running a ski area is hard work...running a ski area which charges only $5 tickets is a herculean task. In a given year, all of our revenue only covers roughly 30% of our annual expenses. The remainder of expenses are covered by generous donors to our all-important annual fund and by specific fund drives. While the ski hill is able to cover most expenses, one thing we are challenged to do is build capital reserves.

Our Goals

As you may know, we had some significant unanticipated expenses last winter, with a major repair needed on our 60 year-old lift as well as a catastrophic failure of our 25 year-old groomer toward the end of the season. The hill needs to do some significant upgrades in short order to be operable this year and we are asking for your help.

Here's what is needed (with grooming and snowmaking equally important)…

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Grooming: Our current groomer is inoperable. We have an amazing team of volunteers attempting to get this working, and although we may get it moving - we need to source a new machine. New equipment from the major manufacturers can cost mountains more than $400,000. Similar to snowmaking, we are evaluating any and all options, including partnerships with other mountains, used equipment, etc. We will need to fund a groomer to be operational for the 2025/2026 season! Even with an operable groomer, annual maintenance expenses are high (many thousands of dollars per year).

Snowmaking: Last season we had a great partnership with Stratton Mountain Resort, who generously loaned us two state-of-the-art HKD snowmaking guns. While we expect that assistance to continue this season, it did highlight our need to upgrade our own snowmaking infrastructure to high-efficiency snow guns. As the ski hill runs a "water only" system (i.e. no compressed air), we need to purchase equipment which new can cost in excess of $25k, per gun. We are pursing used, demo, and lease options, however this will still be a major expense. With less and less reliable natural snow, shorter windows of snowmaking weather, and an all-volunteer crew, efficiency is key for us!

Lift Upgrades: While a slightly longer-term goal, we will need to do a significant upgrade to the electronics in our lift (the control system and the low-voltage safety system) in the next few years. This is estimated to be a $70,000 expense. Once again, once we get to the time to do this, we will evaluate all options, including working with organizations like Efficiency Vermont.

What Your Donation Will Do

We are coming our community, partners, and neighbors to ask your help in donating whatever you can. Just like with our annual appeal, every dollar is used directly to support ski hill operations. All funds from this campaign will be used in procuring, repairing, and upgrading equipment directly related to operation of the ski hill. Your donation will not only help us become operational for the coming season, it will help ensure the continued operation of your local ski hill for many years to come!

We appreciate ANYTHING that you can give, and please share this widely amongst your groups, friends and relatives.

With gratitude,

The Ski Hill Board