By Karen D. Lorentz
As a grandparent who is part of a four-generation skiing bond, I always enjoy hearing from other families who have enjoyed recreational skiing, especially when the connection of loving the sport engenders stories with lots of coincidences that resonate. Or make me see how small the world really is!
My dad taught me to ski on the Buena Vista Golf Course (no lifts or tows) in West Hartford, Connecticut, before we skied at western Connecticut and Massachusetts and Vermont ski areas. In a funny coincidence, he worked at a company called Liama and his boss was Walter “Wally” Morrison’s father. Wally was a Killington co-founder whom co-founder Joe Sargent knew from Yale and got interested in the Killington project. When I met him, Morrison was eager to know more about his father from my father’s stories.
Wally’s mother taught Sunday school at the South Quaker Lane Quaker Church where Killington founder Pres Smith was in one of her classes. We had lived across from that church and I cut through the parking lot to get to elementary school before moving to a house a couple of blocks from the Sargents, whom I was to meet some 40 years later while working on a history of the Killington Ski Area. We all grew up in Connecticut, loved skiing and ended up enjoying Killington.
Eventually my dad took us to Killington one Christmas holiday in the ‘60s and later, I took the Scotch Plains Fanwood High School (New Jersey) ski club I advised at to Killington and Pico. Eight years later, moved to Vermont. My boys skied in the Killington Jr. Program, and now two grand kids are the fourth generation to enjoy recreational skiing.
Coincidences and generations
Doug Mahar grew up in Canton in the Farmington Valley of Connecticut and graduated from Canton High School in 1986. His mother worked as an office assistant at Conning and Company where she met Joe Sargent, who had started his career there as an investment analyst and soon turned partner and later CEO.
“He told my mother you’re a skier and when she said we skied locally at Sundown and also western Massachusetts areas, he said, ‘now you’re going to be a Vermont skier.’ He gave her a season pass and an opportunity to be in fashion shows to help promote Killington in Connecticut, and then she became a Killington ambassador,” Mahar recalls, adding his “dad became an ambassador as well.”
Doug Mahar started skiing while in grade school, explaining that he took “the ski bus every Wednesday night to Sundown” where he had a few lessons.
His dad brought him to Killington when he was 10 years old. “I’ll never forget it. You go up the Access Road and when you round that corner, you see that big panoramic view of Killington Peak!” he said, noting how the spectacular sight had impressed him. “When my son was 10 and I took him to Killington for his first time, he had the same reaction!” he added.
Mahar’s enjoyment of skiing had previously led him to attend (the former) Green Mountain College where he climbed up the hill behind the school to ski down. (The hill had been built and tows installed to teach students to ski there before the program was discontinued.)
“Pico was our home mountain,” and as an avid skier, Mahar noted that he was one of many students who had season passes and scheduled classes to be done by noon so he could ski Pico every afternoon.
Mahar graduated midyear in December 1991 and continued to live in an off-campus farmhouse with his college roommates so he could ski Killington.
He got a job working on loading the original gondola at the base and also worked up top where they took the cabins offline every night. “I had to get up early and ride the old double chair to the peak and then put the cabins online. Half the cabins were on tracks in a storage area at the original peak lodge and others were at the base, and some might have been stored at Needles Eye, too,” Mahar recalls.
He skied weekdays when not working, and when the season ended, he moved to Maryland. I was a bar tender in Ocean City and a ski bum winters. I made enough to go ski Lake Tahoe, Breckenridge, and other places [often made possible by couch surfing] and went back to work in the spring to make money.”
From ski bum to weekend warrior
In 1995, Mahar “got a real job” working for Turner Motorsport company which is based in Newton, New Hamphsire. The company races BMWs all over the country.
“We provide for professional and amateur races on our team and provide the race cars and transporters — we supply everything so the drivers just have to race. We’re one of most successful race teams in the country and have won 10 championships,” he said.
When he worked on the race team for several seasons, Mahar travelled with them and now works as senior sales rep.
Mahar skis most weekends with his son who he taught to ski and who also had a few lessons at Killington. Having an Indy Pass, Mahar and Charlie, 14, take the February school vacation week to ski Jay and work their way down the state skiing Bolton Valley and Magic. They also ski Killington at least four to six times a year and areas in their home state of New Hampshire for some 20 to 25 days a year.
“We go to the World Cup every year. The spectating is so much fun with the cow bells ringing, and the party vibe and music are great,” Mahar said of a season highlight.
Asked about changes he’s seen, Mahar mentions the technology of the skis themselves and how they engender carving. Faster lifts, six packs, and snowmaking are also changes he’s witnessed.
But for all the advances, he added, “One of my favorite things about skiing is sitting on a chairlift and talking with my boy and being in nature. The skiing is great, too, but I almost prefer the lift ride — no distractions, no electronics,” he noteed, implying how great skiing is for creating connections and bonding. I couldn’t agree more!
