For years, the Glen Mountain Ski Hill was an economic force for West Bolton and the Town of Brome Lake, where many people passed through, with bumper to bumper traffic coming from all directions.<\/p>\n
It holds a special spot in the memories of Townshippers and those that visited the area to specifically discover the special gem.<\/p>\n
Development of skiing at the Glen began with Hank Rotherham and his wife Debbie Rotherham in 1960 with the help of famous skier Jackrabbit Johannsen. It was eventually purchased by Rotherham\u2019s nephew Peter White in 1978, who partnered up with Pat C\u00f4t\u00e9, until he decided to sell the mountain in 2004.<\/p>\n
The hill has been closed to the public for the last 18 years, which changed the economic landscape of Knowlton and its surrounding villages. White recently announced that he put in an offer to repurchase the Glen for $6.1 million after being put on the market by current owner Maryo Lamothe. With the help of his former partner C\u00f4t\u00e9, White hopes to recreate the family dynamic, sense of community, and vibrancy that the Glen once spread across the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cOut of the blue, you know the way the rumor mill works in our town, I heard that it might be for sale. I asked Reg Gauthier (local real estate broker) if there is any chance it was and Reg said \u2018no, there is no chance at all,\u2019 recounted White. \u201cHe called me back four days later and said it was for sale. I put in the offer, the offer was accepted, and it closes on the 30th<\/sup> of October.\u201d<\/p>\n White emphasized that once the deal is officially closed, Glen Mountain will be \u201ccommunity based\u201d and family oriented as it was in the past.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to make sure that it\u2019s open to everybody for all sorts of possible recreational activities that one can do on the mountain, so that\u2019s winter, summer, spring and fall,\u201d said White.<\/p>\n These activities include alpine touring and biking activities.<\/p>\n While there won\u2019t be any snow-making machines (it has always depended on natural snow) or chairlifts installed at the mountain this year, White will be seeking the help of C\u00f4t\u00e9 to do \"snow farming\" on the trails to make them usable for some activities this winter.<\/p>\n \u201cWith really intelligent snow farming, which Pat C\u00f4t\u00e9 is good at, we can pretty well guarantee good snow cover a lot of the time. Pat will have a bunch of snow fences on sleds, maybe 50 feet in length, and he will move them around the mountain and place them in strategic places in advance of any big storm that is coming so that the snow will accumulate around these snow fences\u201d explained White. \u201c(\u2026) If the elements cooperate, we should have wonderful skiing this winter.\u201d<\/p>\n Wanting to meet the needs of the community and provide what it is looking for, White noted that \u201cthis is how the Glen always operated.\u201d He ensured locals that there are no plans for development on the mountain.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the type of place where you can take your children and drop them off in the morning and leave them there all day in perfect safety. Everybody knows everybody, everybody is friendly, and there are all sorts of things to do,\u201d he said. \u201c(\u2026) People have all of these wonderful memories.\u201d<\/p>\n With his intention to keep the Glen as a community-based mountain, White explained that there will only be a small number of investors involved in revitalizing it.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I have suggested to a number of people, and I think it\u2019s already happening, is that we have sort of an association, \u201cThe Friends of Glen Mountain,\u201d that can be anyone that wants to join and it will probably be free,\u201d he noted. \u201cThe Friends of Glen Mountain can have projects of their own. For example, one of the ideas that have been is suggested that we need a warming hub at the summit.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, 18 years later, White said that he put in an offer for Glen Mountain after witnessing how its closure impacted the local economy in the winter time.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of the local merchants were suffered very, very, badly and a number of businesses had to close in Knowlton. (\u2026) We\u2019re still suffering from. We\u2019re hoping that with the Glen reopening, that it will give a new impetus to our local economy,\u201d mentioned White.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Listen to the full interview below:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For years, the Glen Mountain Ski Hill was an economic force for West Bolton and the Town of Brome Lake, where many people passed through, with bumper to bumper traffic coming from all directions. It holds a special spot in the memories of Townshippers and those that visited the area to specifically discover the special…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":113537,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[217,57,222,204],"tags":[18247,18250,4353,18245,535,4158,18249,18246,13862,3548,18248,18244],"radio":[246],"origine":[274,259,260],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113515"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113515"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113669,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113515\/revisions\/113669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113515"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=113515"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=113515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}