Judgment Ridge
Vershire School
Vershire, VT
Before 1970-1987

Thanks to VT Tramway reports, we know that this area was built before 1970, and closed in 1987. This ski area had a 980' rope tow. The area was renamed the Vershire School ski area during its last year in operation. Betsy McDonough and I tried to find the area in spring 2000, but no luck. No trace of the area can be found on Terraserver.

NELSAP recently heard from Margo Miller Racine who shared some great information and photographs with NELSAP.  Margo visited Judgement Ridge in the summer of 2001. Here's what she found:
 
"All that was left of that great ski tow was the wheel on the top of the hill, attached to this building called "The Lodge" . At the  bottom of the hill from this wheel,  was the rope tow house ( which was completely gone in summer 2001)  that used to house a huge diesel bus engine  that powered that rope tow."

Memories:

James Lockey: The area ran from the fifties until 1968 when the owner of the land (Dick and Peg Wright )founded The Vershire School which operated the rope tow for the school until the school was shut down by the State of Vermont in 1988.The original ski lodge is still standing at the top of Judgment Ridge and was the site of a Vershire School Reunion in July of 2001.The original trail is still visible from route 113 about a quarter of a mile east of Ward's Garage. The Lodge had a passive solar collector added to the front in 1982 . The building served as the dining hall , housing and general social center for the school. The building had a beautiful stone fireplace and cobblestone floors and excellent views of the surrounding territory. The Vershire School was a great place to go to school if one wanted to ski all day. You could even downhill ski to your dorm after a day of school! Views of the Lodge (still called the Lodge even after the school was founded) can be seen at the Vershire School Alumni Association site: vershireschool.org

Paul Gray: I skied on Judgment Ridge while a student at Vershire School from late1969-1972.  The greatest challenge was not on the slope, but getting the old bus engine running and keeping the rope on the pulleys!  That tow rope would eat through a pair of gloves in an afternoon so we all put layers of duct tape over the palms to give them a bit more life."

Jeff Luckett: I was a student at that the Vershire School from '86 until it closed inscandal back in 1989, and have spent MANY days skiing that rope tow hill. It wasn't much, but it was on-campus, didn't have grouchy ski patrollerstearing down our hay bale jumps, always had pow, and there were never lines. The down-side was that it wasn't very challenging (unless you count our large jumps as challenging), and everybody had to take turns pulling duty running the tow.

It should still be there, but I'm certain the rope-tow is no longer.  If you drive down 113 off of 91 toward Chelsea (approximately 16 miles), you'll come across Ward's Garage ... take a right onto Corinth Corners Road (heading North) and look for a dirt road on your right.  Head up this dirt road until you see a collapsed building on your right.  This used to be the main eating hall of the school and a dormitory formerly known as "TheLodge".  Now, if you get our of your car and walk around that building, you will see a large open hill-side.  This is the "Judgement Ridge Ski Area".  If you walk up the trail a bit, towards the woods, there is one steeper trail cut through the woods, and I think we used to call that G's Cut.  Named after the former student and Teacher named Granville (Gee) Ganter. The rope tow was built as a project by a student and former teacher and consisted of a Chevy Truck V-8 and manual transmission and a rather elaborate system of tensioning wheels inside a shed and an approximately 1500' tow area.  The poles were telephone poles with car rims mounted on them on the down-hill leg, and the up-hill rope just rested in the snow.

Do you remember this area? If so let us know.

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