Clancy
Mountain
Cardigan Mountain School
Canaan, NH
?-Still in operation
According to Larry Rodman, this is a rope tow area run by the Cardigan Mountain School near campus. It has just a few trails and was primarily for beginners. It is operational as of 2009 - more information can be gleaned by visiting the school website here and viewing recent photos in the galleries on this page.
O. Bradford Edwards tell us that the area is called Clancy Mountain, and is used by the school students and staff only, so its a private area. It's a small hill and is used primarily for sledding.
M. Clancy:"Clancy
Mountain was named after Richard J. Clancy who was the first chef at Cardigan
Mountain School. He and Donald Stowe, a teacher at Cardigan, along with other
staff members and students cleared the area to make the ski hill.
The Clancy House was at the base of the hill and slightly south of it.
To the north of the hill also at the base was the schools rifle range.
I grew up in that house being I am one of the Clancy children.
The back yard had the ski hill and rifle range and in front of the house,
across the road was the schools 12 meter ski jump.
The cross country ski trails also ran across the top of the ski hill and
then across the base and through the side yard of my house.
On some winter days looking out the windows of the house was like
watching The Wide World of Sports. The
jump is gone now and I don’t know if Clancy Mountain is still being used by
the school.
The original lift was a rope tow powered by a Model A or T
Ford pickup (I can’t remember which) up on blocks with the left rear wheel
being the “drive pulley” that ran the tow.
This required that the students take turns operating the lift.
This arrangement and kids being kids led to a few pranks.
When you were the operator and no one else was on the rope save for your
“buddy” you could mash down on the accelerator and whip him up the hill then
slam on the break to stop him too quickly.
All in good fun of course. I
want to say it was in the 60’s that a student’s parents donated an all
electric rope tow complete with lights for night skiing.
The ‘mountain” was basically a wide open slope that ended
suddenly in the woods. A lot of
people learned to ski on Clancy Mountain as part of the schools ski school.
It acted as the intermediate hill prior to graduating to the Pinnacle
for the more advanced lessons.
If you remember this ski area and have more info, just let us know.
Last updated: Feb 10, 2009