Jericho Hill Ski Area

Jericho Hill
Marlborough,MA
1939-1996

History

Jericho Hill was a classic community type ski area that operated in the town of Marlborough. According to Annette (Carbone) O'Brien, the area was founded by her father E. Frank Carbone and Norman LeDuc in 1939. Her father cleared the property with his bulldozers, he was in excavation at the time and owned his own business. Together they built the ski lodge and at that time you had to walk a ways to get to the "out houses".

Jericho operated until 1996,and surely introduced countless people to the sport. According to Michael Cole, the area may have been one of the first ski areas to add snowmaking, in the late 1940's.

Here's a picture of Frank Carbone, in 1982, at Jericho.

The topographic map of Jericho Hill. It has a relatively high elevation for its geographic location. Map provided by Steve Bongiorno, who worked at Jericho for 8 years.

Jericho had 3 main slopes and two trails. One trail was very narrow and twisty and provided expert skiing. Other slopes provided intermediate and beginner level trails. A T-bar, installed from Boxboro Hills (thanks to info from Steve Bongiorno) was put in around 1990. Several other rope tows served the open slopes and trails. The area closed in 1996.

The view of the slopes, 1999. T-bar is on the left, rope tow to the right. Photo provided by Brian O'Malley.

Here's the Terraserver pic of the area, with some trails and lifts marked on it. What is so interesting about this pic is the piles of snow on the trails...the last reminder of the areas operation, as this was taken during their last year. You can also tell what trails had snowmaking, and which did not.

Here's the trail map during their last season, in 1995, from a Marlborough Calendar. A decent amount of skiing for a small area. Rim Run and Glades provided intermediate level skiing, while East and West Slope gave beginners a chance to ski from the top. Frank's Run (named after cofounder Frank Carbone) was an original New England Ski Club trail, and was quite narrow, giving expert skiers a challenge. Rim Run and Frank's did not have snowmaking.

Here are some skiers enjoying the old Boxboro Hills T-bar at Jericho in the 1993/1994 season.

(Visit by Betsy McDonough)

Here's the T-bar (above) as it looked in early 2000. Betsy reports that the ski area looks like some skiers and others have been using it.

Chris Lundquist visited the area during the summer of 2001. Here's a picture of the top of the bullwheel. Apparently, there's lots of poison ivy at this area, so be careful if you explore it.

Looking down the slope, summer 2001. From Chris.

Listings by the Year

Year	Lifts	Trails	Other Info	Source
1982	2 tows	Not listed	Open weekends, holidays, ever night during the week. Open Dec - Mar, 30 miles from Boston, Vertical: 170 feet	Billy Kiddy's Ski Guide
1987	T-bar, 2 tows, 2040 skiers/hour	Not listed	Rental shop with 200 sets of skis, complete services. Open weekends, holidays, ever night. $7.00 weekend/adult, $5.00 halfday	White Book of Ski Areas
1995-1996	T-bar, rope tow	1 novice slope, 2 beginner slopes, one intermediate slope, one expert trail	Last year it operated	Marlborough Calendar

Memories

Aaron Kellogg: Although I did not learn to ski at Jericho, it was a great place to make some turns on a sunny Saturday afternoon with my Dad. When we skied there during the early-1990s, lift tickets went for five bucks for the day. I’ll never forget skiing there with my sister and her friend around 1993 during a blizzard that dumped 30 inches of snow on Eastern Massachusetts. We were the only ones there and did half-way runs on the rope tow until the manager told us we had to go home. That rope tow was a tough ride for a 10-year-old especially at the top. Jericho may not look like much in these pictures, but it was always a great place to head out to with Dad.

Last updated: Jan 19, 2006

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