Hiking High Pond. Insert sound of silence here.

Searching for snowboarding at New England's lost ski areas.

May 17, 2010, 7:32 PM

By: Jesse Huffman

From the top of the High Pond Mountain ski area, green hills and the silhouette of mountains anchor the horizon. A winding run of ungroomed slush lies before us, with no sound, save the windy rustling of branches breaking the silence. No clatter of lifts, no chatter of skiers and boarders getting ready for another run, not even the schush of other people making their way down the slope.

Jesse Loomis, photographer Shem Roose, area local Ryan Grace and I are at High Pond for a late-spring session. Only thing is we're here 25 years after the small area closed up shop. One of 114 abandoned or closed ski areas in Vermont that the New England Lost Ski Areas Project has catalogued, High Pond is part of a history that includes 593 areas in New England alone. NELSAP is an online archive of lost ski resorts, the aggregation of historical data, photos and interviews about areas that have gone out of business, burned down, been abandoned or otherwise left to the wayside.

According to NELSAP interviews with High Pond locals, this area, tucked into the hills down several dirt roads outside of Brandon VT, was founded by the patronage of wealthy backer W. Douglas Burden, who according to Bill Jenkins, head of the High Pond ski school, "purchased this 900-acre property to have a private ski resort for his wealthy New York City friends."