Grandview
Slope
North
Woodstock, NH
Before 1949-Around 1955
Grandview Slope operated in North Woodstock during the 1940's and perhaps 1950's. It was also called the North Woodstock tow at some times. We have one reference from 1949 in a guidebook.
Johnathan Gillen recently visited the area and found out some great info:
My name is John and I live in NO. Woodstock N.H. I've been to the Woodstock tow a number of times and the lift shack at the top is still standing. The rope tow line has been trimmed out as a ski run to about 2/3rds its length. I also have an old manila oak tag ski lift pass that I found under the floor boards. Its in pretty good shape. Info on the ticket states, Grandview Mt. ski tow Inc., length 1200 ft., vertical drop 300 ft. exposure north, altitude 1100 ft., heated ski hut, good parking space, this ticket non-transferable, good only on day purchased, ski at your own risk. There is no date on the ticket. Actually there was 3 of these tickets and 1 from Temple Mt. All were on the oak tag stock. The cool thing is that they were all preserved by being saturated in motor oil that dripped from the engine through floor boards. The Temple ticket has the same sort of info. There are some great pics at the Kancamagus Ski Area in Lincoln in the base lodge there.
John
Currier has some terrific info as well: I
grew up in North Woodstock, and after learning how to ski in a field, moved on
to Grandview Mountain before graduating to Cannon Mountain. Grandview was
visible from our house on Lost River Road, and accessible from there on skis
through the woods.
Grandview operated until about 1955; I would
have been 11 years old. Once a week, those of us that skied were taken out
of school for an afternoon of ski lessons at Grandview. We walked from the
grammar school to the ski area carrying our skis and poles and wearing our boots
- a distance of about a half mile. After the lessons, I and a couple
others would take a shortcut home through the woods and across the frozen-over
river arriving sometimes after dark!. I remember that our last year of
lessons required walking up the hill, as the area had shut down. This did
not deter our grammar school principal, who insisted that the lesson program go
on until the brush overtook the hill.
Our instructors were the famous Paul and Paula
Valar who operated the Mittersill Ski School on Cannon Mountain at that time.
I guess they visited various towns during the week giving ski lessons.
The tow operator was Roy "Tiger" Andrews, a mechanic and snow-plow
operator. He would trudge to the top of the hill on foot and get the old
engine running before we'd arrive.
The tow was rather long, as rope tows go.
I remember that folks would gather at the bottom waiting for some
"strong" individual to come along and hold up the rope by going first.
As kids, we would come along, grab the rope and a whole bunch of people would
get on behind us. We would only go up the hill a short distance, jump off,
ski back down, and then jump on behind those who now had to hold the rope all
the way to the top! There was a small warm-up hut (base lodge?) where Mrs.
Stevens served up the required hot chocolate and sold tickets. I remember
50 cents per day for kids, and we were issued a colored tag to tie onto our coat
or ski pole.
Does anybody else remember this area?