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Mount Tom Ski Area
Mount Tom Ski Area was a ski resort in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in the Mount Tom Range in the western part of Massachusetts about 10 miles north of Springfield. It opened in 1962 and closed in 1998. The slopes of the former ski area are located off U.S. Route 5 in the Smith's Ferry neighborhood of Holyoke, adjacent to the former Mountain Park, now a music venue.
Mt. Tom was owned by the O'Connell's Sons Construction Company. It was rumored that Mt. Tom was created so that the company could keep seasonal workers working during the winter and keep them available for the summer construction season.[citation needed]
The Mt. Tom Ski School was staffed by Austrians primarily imported directly from Innsbruck to teach skiing in the US. One of its prominent Ski School Directors was Adi Scheidle who along with his brother Heinz Scheidle employed quite a few of the local skiers as Instructors. During the early years of Mt. Tom, Adi spent a lot of time selling local schools and other groups on organized lessons at Mt. Tom. He was very successful and generated a lot of ski lesson business for Mt. Tom as well as increasing the local skier base.
Adi was so successful at sales that he was promoted to Director of Skiing. Heinz Scheidle was promoted to ski school director and Ed Ryan, one of the American Instructors, was promoted to Asst. Ski School Director.
Smith College, Mount Holyoke and the University of Massachusetts all at one time also allowed their students to complete ski school programs as electives. At one time the school also had a special agreement training students of the Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech.
Mt. Tom was a leader in snow making in the United States. It made snow almost from its start with hand crafted snow machines. The snow machines were put together with several pieces of galvanized pipe and were little more that one piece of pipe connected to an air source with another pipe connected directly onto the side of the air pipe that fed water into the air stream. In 1969 for example, its entire 28 acres employed snowmaking, and the budget for this ran at $90,000, equivalent to about $650,000 in 2019. The ski area pursued this strategy to draw patrons from even northern New England in years of below-average snowfall.
In addition, the ski area constructed pipes set permanently on the side of many of the trails that fed water and air up the slopes so that the maximum amount of snow making could take place.
Beginning in the 1967–68 season, Mt. Tom began offering night skiing.
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Mount Tom Ski Area
Mount Tom Ski Area was a ski resort in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in the Mount Tom Range in the western part of Massachusetts about 10 miles north of Springfield. It opened in 1962 and closed in 1998. The slopes of the former ski area are located off U.S. Route 5 in the Smith's Ferry neighborhood of Holyoke, adjacent to the former Mountain Park, now a music venue.
Mt. Tom was owned by the O'Connell's Sons Construction Company. It was rumored that Mt. Tom was created so that the company could keep seasonal workers working during the winter and keep them available for the summer construction season.[citation needed]
The Mt. Tom Ski School was staffed by Austrians primarily imported directly from Innsbruck to teach skiing in the US. One of its prominent Ski School Directors was Adi Scheidle who along with his brother Heinz Scheidle employed quite a few of the local skiers as Instructors. During the early years of Mt. Tom, Adi spent a lot of time selling local schools and other groups on organized lessons at Mt. Tom. He was very successful and generated a lot of ski lesson business for Mt. Tom as well as increasing the local skier base.
Adi was so successful at sales that he was promoted to Director of Skiing. Heinz Scheidle was promoted to ski school director and Ed Ryan, one of the American Instructors, was promoted to Asst. Ski School Director.
Smith College, Mount Holyoke and the University of Massachusetts all at one time also allowed their students to complete ski school programs as electives. At one time the school also had a special agreement training students of the Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech.
Mt. Tom was a leader in snow making in the United States. It made snow almost from its start with hand crafted snow machines. The snow machines were put together with several pieces of galvanized pipe and were little more that one piece of pipe connected to an air source with another pipe connected directly onto the side of the air pipe that fed water into the air stream. In 1969 for example, its entire 28 acres employed snowmaking, and the budget for this ran at $90,000, equivalent to about $650,000 in 2019. The ski area pursued this strategy to draw patrons from even northern New England in years of below-average snowfall.
In addition, the ski area constructed pipes set permanently on the side of many of the trails that fed water and air up the slopes so that the maximum amount of snow making could take place.
Beginning in the 1967–68 season, Mt. Tom began offering night skiing.