Basecamp podcast: The DesLauriers family and Vermont’s Bolton Valley

A bluebird day at Bolton Valley ski area in Vermont. (Bolton Valley Photo)

When Ralph DesLauriers developed Bolton Valley Resort in the 1960s, he did so with the intent of making it a place where blue-collar families and children could afford to learn how to ski. More than 50 years later, the Vermont resort is a beacon of skiing’s independence, a family-owned ski area that thrives because of the passion of the DesLauriers family.

“It’s really about the family and local experience here,” mountain operations director Eric DesLauriers said. “And that’s who comes to Bolton Valley. It’s peaceful. It’s beautiful. It’s calm. It’s quiet at times, and fun. Not so quiet at other times — like when we have music and everybody’s dancing, but it’s a totally wholesome environment that fulfills the recreational needs and desires of the people that come here.” 

Eric, along with his father, Ralph, and sister Lindsay, president and CEO of Bolton Valley, joined Eric Wilbur and Mike Specian on a recent episode of the New England Ski Journal Basecamp podcast to discuss the ski area’s influence on its own community and beyond. 

Watch/listen to the podcast here:

Highlights from this edition of the Basecamp podcast: 

On the importance of school programs at Bolton Valley:

Lindsay DesLauriers: I think one of the things that really makes it unique is when dad built the mountain, he really wanted it to be a place for working people to ski and for Vermonters to ski. As a part of that vision, he put in nightlights in the very first year. And that created the opportunity, not just for people to come up after work and ski up here, which is a part of what’s really unique and fun about Bolton Valley, but also really critically, it allowed for school programs to form and be developed around the night skiing. Even to this day, we’ve got 30 40 schools that bus their kids or carpool them up. We’ve got hundreds of kids on the hill every night.

On the family dynamic the helps define Bolton Valley:

Ralph DesLauriers: I’m the envy of many of my friends my age. Four of my kids live on the same street as I do. And four of my grandchildren and they all have worked here and the grandchildren too —  although the grandchildren’s teenagers are sometimes more enthusiastic than others about being in a family business — but they all do help here out here in the winter, and it’s really a delight. You can imagine. It also gives a different kind of feel to Bolton Valley having three generations here at the same ski area.

Listen

The podcast can be streamed at skijournal.com/podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple, Spotify and Amazon.