Lost ski areaMassachusettsNortheast
Pine Ridge Snow Park
Closed after the 2006 season. A small ski area between Barre and South Barre, first called the Barre Ski Tow, that ran on and off for half a century until a T-bar fire in 2006.
Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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Pine Ridge began as the Barre Ski Tow. New England Ski History traces it to at least 1950, when Bob Anderson bought it, probably with a rope tow of about 880 feet; NELSAP dates its opening to the mid-1950s.1,2
Read the whole historyTodayA solar power plant stands on the former upper slopes. (2014)1
Timeline
8 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Pine Ridge Snow Park, 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 Pine Ridge Snow Park
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- Years not yet collected · 18.5 mi away · MassachusettsA small ski area on Sheldon Hill in Leominster that grew from two rope tows around 1940 to two T-bars, and had probably closed by 1980.
- Years not yet collected · 21.2 mi away · MassachusettsA small rope-tow hill on the Amherst College campus that the college ran from the 1950s until about 1973.
- Closed 1984 · 23.6 mi away · MassachusettsA family ski area on Mount Watatic in Ashby that grew from a rope tow to T-bars and two chairlifts, closing in the mid-1980s.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 2 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Pine Ridge began as the Barre Ski Tow. New England Ski History traces it to at least 1950, when Bob Anderson bought it, probably with a rope tow of about 880 feet; NELSAP dates its opening to the mid-1950s. In the mid to late 1960s a T-bar took over from the rope tow, night skiing began and the vertical reached 224 feet. A second T-bar followed in the early 1970s.1,2
The area shut around 1982 when its owner fell ill. The O'Connor family reopened it in 1990 and ran it through the decade, with six trails and two slopes on a T-bar and a rope tow. It closed again in 2001. A local developer bought it in 2002 and, after people who had learned to ski there asked him to keep it a ski hill, it reopened for 2003–04.1,2
In March 2006 the T-bar caught fire and was damaged beyond repair, and Pine Ridge never ran again. A solar power plant opened on the upper slopes in May 2014.1,2
TodayA solar power plant stands on the former upper slopes. (2014)1
Timeline
- 1950Bob Anderson buys the Barre Ski Tow1
- 1965Pine Ridge Ski Area, Inc. is formed in December1
- 1982The area closes after its owner falls ill1,2
- 1990The O'Connor family reopens the area1,2
- 2001Pine Ridge closes again1,2
- 2003Reopens for the 2003–04 season under a local developer1,2
- 2006A March fire ruins the T-bar and skiing ends for good1,2
- 2014A 2.4-megawatt solar plant opens on the upper slopes in May1
Sources for this history (2)
- 1New England Ski History · Pine Ridge History
- 2New England Lost Ski Areas Project · Pine Ridge Ski Area (Barre Ski Tow)
Photos
No photographs of Pine Ridge Snow Park 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 Pine Ridge Snow Park, in their own words.
Facts
Location
42.3999° N · 72.1029° W · Massachusetts
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
until 2006 · the year it opened is not yet collected
Closed after the 2006 season. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
Its numbers
all 3all 3, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain