Holderness School

The Holderness School operated a ski area for students in Plymouth, NH from around the 1950's thru at least the 1970's. The ski area had one rope tow, two trails, and a jump. The area was private, and was intended only for the school's use.

Jay Pingree, who attended the area in the 1970's, sent us this article on Holderness. It has some great information about the beginning of the area and the school's strong skiing tradition.

Roger Ahlgren: I went to Holderness School in Plymouth, NH and we had a ski slope with a rope tow and jump hill.

Christian DaBica: There was also a private area in Holderness (right next to Plymouth) that had a rope tow, two ski jumps, a couple trails, an a large lodge. I think it was originally associated with the school that's there.

Dan Murphy: I graduated from Holderness School in Plymouth NH in 1972. We had our own small training hill for the ski team and I'm not sure if it's still in service. It was your basic rope tow that could hold no more than 3 skiers on it, or it would start slipping and someone would have to drop off. In addition to a short ski hill, the lift also serviced a 30-meter ski jump.

Jon Sawyer: I attended Holderness from '88-'91 and we actually trained on the ski slope twice when snowstorms prevented us from getting to Waterville Valley for the day. The ski jump was also still used by the jumping team when I was there. With regards to the Terraserver picture, the rope tow actually ran up the side of the left trail and thin middle trail in the picture is the ski jump.

Here's the Terraserver picture of the area today. Trails still look fairly clear. The rope tow traveled up the left side of the two wide slopes.

Brad Richelson: The 2nd photo in the updated Holderness School NH update shows jumpers on the O'Donnell's farm jump. Well I jumped on that hill for 4years while on the ski team for Plymouth High School. Holderness originally used it up until the early to mid'70s then they built their own jumps and rope tow. The jump then became solely used by the Plymouth High School team until Plymouth built their own on school property around 1978.