Overview
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Apple Hill was the downhill slope at the Mountain Top Inn in Chittenden. The Colorado Skier's lost-area newsletter placed it 8 miles north of Rutland, just north of Chittenden village, at the inn, and gave it one T-bar; NELSAP's list of closed Vermont areas also names Apple Hill in Chittenden.1,4,5
Read the whole historyTodayThe Mountain Top Inn runs a cross-country ski center with 60 km of trails.3
Timeline
7 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Apple Hill Ski Area, or worked there?
Tell us what you remember, or what this page has wrong. Memories show here, credited to you, after we read them; facts are checked against a source before they change a figure.
Lost near Apple Hill Ski Area
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- Closed 1950 · 5.7 mi away · VermontA one-tow ski hill and lodge above Route 100 in North Sherburne, now Killington, run by the Bartenstein family from 1946 or 1947 until 1950.
- Opened 1962 · 13 mi away · VermontA small ski area on Birdseye Mountain, on the Castleton–Ira town line, that ran disc lifts and a T-bar from 1962 until the late 1960s.
- 1936–1966 · 19.5 mi away · VermontA free rope tow on Harold Farr's farm on Elm Street in Randolph village, run from the 1930s until 1966 and the subject of a community revival since 2018.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 6 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Apple Hill was the downhill slope at the Mountain Top Inn in Chittenden. The Colorado Skier's lost-area newsletter placed it 8 miles north of Rutland, just north of Chittenden village, at the inn, and gave it one T-bar; NELSAP's list of closed Vermont areas also names Apple Hill in Chittenden. Skimap.org puts its point about 0.1 km from the inn's cross-country center and holds a trail map it dates to 1960, drawn with the Apple Hill name and the inn beside the slopes.1,4,5
NELSAP, which files the hill under the inn's name, says skiing there began with a rope tow before 1948, and that by 1971 a 950-foot T-bar served it, with a capacity of only 100 skiers an hour. A 2022 Mountain Times history likewise names a rope tow in the Mountain Top Inn area among the early Rutland-region tows that later disappeared.2,6
The end dates differ. The Colorado Skier gives about 1966 to 1979, after which skiing there was cross-country only; NELSAP's dates also end in 1979, though its text says the area had closed by 1971. The inn had started a cross-country ski center in 1964, which it calls the oldest in the country.1,2,3
TodayThe Mountain Top Inn runs a cross-country ski center with 60 km of trails.3
Timeline
- c. 1948A rope tow is running at the Mountain Top Inn by this year2
- 1960Trail map of the Apple Hill Ski Area, as Skimap.org dates it5
- 1964The inn starts its cross-country ski center3
- c. 1966Start of Apple Hill's run in The Colorado Skier's dates1
- 1971A 950-foot T-bar carrying 100 skiers an hour serves the hill2
- 1977Fire claims much of the original inn, later rebuilt3
- 1979Downhill skiing ends; the property is cross-country only1,2
Sources for this history (6)
- 1The Colorado Skier (Colorado Ski History) · The Colorado Skier Newsletters: Lost Areas #22 (5 September 1996)
- 2New England Lost Ski Areas Project · Mountain Top Inn
- 3Mountain Top Resort · About
- 4New England Lost Ski Areas Project · History of Vermont Skiing
- 5Skimap.org · Apple Hill Ski Area
- 6The Mountain Times · Gone But Not Forgotten: Early Rutland Region Ski Areas (Karen D. Lorentz, December 22, 2022)
Photos
No photographs of Apple Hill Ski Area we may republish yet
Its old photos and trail maps live on the sites that collected them, and Google finds the rest.
Memories
What skiers remember of Apple Hill Ski Area, in their own words.
Facts
Location
43.7307° N · 72.9381° W · Vermont · Green Mountains
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
until 1979 · the year it opened is not yet collected
Closed after the 1979 season. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
Its numbers
all 1all 1, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain