Here you can find some history about the Otters, PICO ski area, and skiing in general. Most of this is in some history book somewhere, and the rest has been passed down from generation to generation. We hope you will find it interesting, and if you think you know better about some of the "facts", please let us know. We would be interested in any factual information that supports or disputes what is written here.
Enjoy!

 

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Otter (and ski) History

1928 - Steel edge developed in Austria
1930
’s - Bear Trap bindings, cable bindings, and stiff soles added to ski boots
1932 - Winter Olympics, Lake Placid, and first rope tow in North America, in Quebec
1934 - Rope tow at Gilberts Hill in Woodstock, VT (approx. 1000
’)
1935 - Patrol started at Rope tow at Shrewsbury Mtn., by some American Red Cross volunteers who skied, later to become the Otter Ski Patrol.
1936 -Brad and Janet Mead lease a field on Cream Hill Road, and install rope tow and warming hut. Having studied Pico Mountain, developed a plan, they then lease Pico Mountain from Mortimer Proctor.
1937 - PICO opens with a 1200
’ rope tow, and a base hut on Little Pico.
1938 - Karl Acher brought in as instructor to PICO.
1939 - Minnie Dole, with Otter Ski Patrol member Abe Porter, and others, organize the National Ski Patrol System.
1940 - T-Bar installed at PICO, 1st alpine lift in America, highest uphill capacity in the world
1941
- Mt. Mansfield puts up the third chair in North America
1942 - Brad Mead drowns at age 37, and is buried on Sunset Schuss trail at PICO. Otter Ski Patrol has 12 Seniors and 12 Juniors. PICO consists of
“A”, “B”, and “C” slopes with Sunset Schuss
1946 - Customer of Bill Robichaud and Mike Coates, Otter members, Allan Beck, installs T-bar at Mansfield
1948 - Mad River Glen opens, and Andrea Mead wins in the Olympics. Janet Mead sells PICO to Karl and June Acher.
1954 - Mount Snow opens for business
1956 - PICO installs J-bar on the Triple Slope
1957 - Pres Smith speaks at several Rutland Service Clubs about need for investors for Killington Basin Ski Area. (Supposedly hair-brained idea)
1958 - PICO replaces two rope tows with J-Bar on lower
“A” slope, and Killington Basin Ski Area opens for business, with the Otter Ski Patrol, on the job. Karl Acher dies at age 42, and June Acher takes over PICO.
1962 - PICO installs a double chair, that goes halfway up the Pike trail.
1960
’s - Roy Chase, Patrol Leader had Otters fall out for noon inspection of uniform, clean belts, and a general “chewing out”. OSP uniform consisted of black or dark blue jackets and pants with a white belt with small blue packs for supplies and white crossed chest belts. (kind of sounds like the Italian Carabinieri, ed.)
1964 - Beldens group purchases the PICO Ski Area
1965 - PICO adds a 5000
’ double chair as the upper lift, and builds what is now the main lodge.

The "PIKE" freshly groomed with the new quad


1966-67
- The Admin. building is built, and the OSP is moved to a room downstairs, now the patrol room. Prior, the Otters had been in their own building, which is now where the ski club is.
1966
- The "headwall" at Bonanza is finally accessed by a double chair
1969 - The Outpost Double chair goes in, and more new territory is opened.
1971 - The first triple chair in Vermont goes in at PICO, and Triple Slope opens to the public
1971
- Phil Fowler takes over as Patrol Director, and the NSP uniform is adopted. The OSP later bought 3 citizen band radios, the only radios on the mountain
1974 - HEDCO snow machine installed at PICO, made from Volkswagen engine and fan for making snow
1974/75
- PICO installs snow making system on the mountain
1977 - PICO installs Birch Glade chair on the upper mountain

The Birch Glades at Pico


1978 - PICO installs Poma lift on the upper mountain
1980 - PICO installs Little Pico Triple Chair, which replaces the 40 year old T-Bar
1981 - Alpine Slide is installed as an attraction next to B-Slope
1987 - The Golden Express goes in, the first high speed detachable at the area, it
’s 5000’ feet long.
1988 - The Summit Express goes in, another High Speed (?) Quad from the venerable manufacturer YAN, and there is now high speed access from the bottom to the top of the mountain. Equipment wise, not a lot had happened since then, until American Ski Company bought the mountain in 1996. They decided to change the summit chair to a POMA brand, and lower the towers to get out of the wind. And by george, it seems to be working. This year, they are changing the Golden Express to a POMA brand lift, as well.

The Otters have only had a few Patrol Directors since their inception, as they tend to hang on to the position for a while. In fact there have only been 8, in the last 61 years. They were as follows- George Peck started the order as the first Patrol director, and was followed by Henry Colling. Then came Roy Chase, Phil Fowler, who directed until 1981. He was then succeeded by Bart Eaton, Tom Aicher, and the venerable Eugene Rakow. Gene was elected during some controversial years as PICO strived to stay afloat. Each fall that came by, the Otters were greeted with newspaper stories about Pico's impending doom, and speculation used to run high as to whether or not the area would even open. Always finding a last minute savior for the mountain, the annual fall refresher was invariably run amidst speculation of how long they would stay open. Our next director, Bill Canfield, was elected for ski season 1994, and has helped us make the change to being a part of American Ski Company's Killington Ski Patrol. We have to give a lot of credit to Bill, the challenges have been numerous, and are not all resolved yet, but he kept on working tirelessly to make things better for the Otters.
Talking about history, how about that Clayt Smight(40 years with NSP) and George Wright. Two guys who have given so much to the Otters, that we would have to write another whole page just to scratch the surface. Clayt, who comes to us straight from Monte Casino with the 10th Mountain Division, had been the Asst: Patrol Director for longer than anyone can remember. Clayt has since passed away, and an award has been created in his name. George, who directed the OEC portion of our training for many years, has been recently working with Capt. Caffeine on the Student Program. Talking about Capt.Caffeine,...................

Capt. Caffeine "Joe LeFrancois" and Doug Carey,
selling candy bars for the student patrol

I was elected at the spring banquet and annual meeting in May of 1998, and am determined to help carry on the proud traditions of the patrol. Needless to say, there were a lot of changes that we have had to make as a result of our new home, but we are adjusting, and learning to embrace change. We now have the makings of a great working relationship with management. There have been many positive changes and agreements forged between the Otters and Killington, and we are looking forward to a long and enjoyable relationship.

Well, that brings us up to date, somewhat, but as you can see, there are a lot of holes, which we will continue to try and fill in.
Stay tuned in coming issues for some more history, in the form of,
“Little known facts about the Otters”, “Wish I wasn’t there!”, and one of the editors personal favorites, “Where the hell am I?”

Last updated: 4/28/06