Ski it if you can. That has been the slogan for decades and it is not marketing, because this Vermont mountain is deliberately steep, narrow and mostly ungroomed, and it is one of the few places in North America where snowboarding is not permitted.

It is owned by a cooperative of its own skiers, who bought it in 1995 to keep it as it is. The single chair from 1948 was rebuilt rather than replaced, and it is still the only single chairlift running at any ski area in the country.

The terrain is natural, tight and wooded, and it rewards people who like reading a mountain rather than being handed one. There is a beginner area and a ski school, but nobody should pretend this is a gentle hill.

There is no lodging at the base and no development. Waitsfield and the Mad River valley below have inns and places to eat.