King Ridge Ski Area
New London, New Hampshire1961-1995
Order King Ridge Ski Area tees, long sleeve tees, hoodies and crewnecks. King Ridge opened on December 23, 1961, with an upside-down layout: the lodge and parking lot sat at the summit, so skiers drove to the top and skied down. Crowds grew so large that the area required weekend reservations, and its last seasons advertised a 775-foot vertical drop. Browse the styles below, and the full King Ridge history is further down. Down Home Apparel is an American small business remembering the best places and teams of yesteryear, and every shirt is printed to order in the USA.
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King Ridge Ski Area History
King Ridge Ski Area in Sutton, New Hampshire, advertised a New London address and sat just west of Interstate 89. It grew out of the New London Outing Club, which had run a rope tow for local children since 1947. In spring 1961 the club's president announced that a 400-acre tract in Sutton would be developed as King Ridge, and the ski area was spun off as its own company. The project was priced at $200,000, including a $45,000 lodge. It opened on December 23, 1961, with about 500 feet of vertical, a T-bar and a rope tow.
The layout was upside down. The lodge and the parking lot sat at the summit, so skiers drove to the top and skied down. Its trails carried Alice in Wonderland names, a scheme credited to general manager Bill Bardsley. A Northside T-bar followed in 1962-63, and a double chairlift and a J-bar opened the Southside in 1967-68. Crowds grew so large that from about 1969-70 the area required reservations for weekend skiing and turned skiers away by 9:30 in the morning. In 1972 it built New Hampshire's first triple chairlift on King Hill, part of a $670,000 expansion that included a new $300,000 lodge.
King Ridge had no snowmaking until the 1981-82 season, and a string of poor winters piled up losses. A 1986 expansion added snowmaking, three trails and a triple chairlift to replace the original T-bar, with eleven towers set by helicopter in under two hours. The area offered free skiing on its 10th and 25th anniversaries. By its last seasons it advertised a 775-foot vertical drop and sold itself as a family mountain, with a nursery, a business center and costumed Alice, White Rabbit and Mad Hatter characters.
Millions of dollars of debt led banks to foreclose after the 1992-93 season. A bankruptcy plan kept the area running for 1993-94 and 1994-95, but a winter with only 32 inches of snow cut business by 28 percent. New London Trust took the property in April 1995, and it sold at auction on June 28, 1995, for $785,000. The triple chairlifts went to two other New Hampshire ski areas. The summit became home lots, and 441 acres were deeded to the Town of Sutton as the King Hill Reservation.