Issues → January/February 2012 → Features → 43 Reasons to Love Winter in New England →

26. Cochran Ski Area Champions

by Mel Allen

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A Tiny Hill Can Grow Champions

A hillside farm sits alongside the Winooski River in Richmond, Vermont. The year is 1961, and Mickey and Ginny Cochran, a young couple from Massachusetts, see endless possibilities that generations before them would never have imagined. Mickey knew how to build anything, and soon a rope tow was running up a dimple of a hill. On that rope tow he placed the hands of his children, and when they reached the top, he watched them fly down, over and over. They didn't stop until, in time, the U.S. Ski Team was bursting with Cochran kids--and then, in time, they, too, had kids, and they, too, were riding surface lifts on the most modestly endowed hill in the state, and more of them were wearing the U.S. Ski Team jacket. Today Mickey and Ginny's descendants still teach anyone who finds them the "Cochran Way"; daughter Barbara Ann, a former Olympic gold medalist, runs a special program teaching parents how to teach their own young ones. You can fit more than 20 Cochran Ski Areas into one Killington--so don't go expecting a big-mountain experience. But if you want to ride up and ski down time after time, and watch your kids get better with each run under the guidance of champions, there's a 500-foot vertical hill with a lot of spunk and history awaiting you.

Cochran's Ski Area
910 Cochran Road, Richmond, VT
802-434-2479; cochranskiarea.org