Support our ski hill

We must support our ski hill.

A year after the end of the Second World War, a group of mainly Londoners gathered at the top of Reservoir Hill to enjoy a new sport they had learned while serving overseas: downhill skiing.

By 1949 the group was large enough to incorporate as the London Ski Club, a not for profit organization. They found a good-sized hill near Byron, purchased it, and carved a variety of trails into the hill to accommodate skiiers from beginner to advanced.

Governed by a volunteer board of directors and operated by a combination of volunteers and paid employees, the annual surplus income was plowed back into the operation to maintain and expand the ski hill.

At first skiers used rope tows to get to the summit. These were replaced by T-bars in 1968 and 1970. Then in 2003 the T-bars were replaced by a Quad chair lift. Today there are three quad lifts, a moving carpet on the beginners' hill and another moving carpet serves the tubing area.

In the '60s Thames Valley Childrens’ Centre worked with volunteers from the London Ski Club to provide skiing opportunities for the blind and disabled. Today there 250 volunteer instructors serving over 120 disabled skiers each season.

The little hill just keeps expanding. It spends its limited money very wisely. Boler Mountain is a big plus for the city. Now, after some seventy some years of operation, covid-19 threatens the survival of the hill. I'm trying to start a movement to allow the ski operation to keep all the money paid for lessons that were not supplied because of the virus. The hill needs the  money more than I do. It's loss was in my budget.

We must support our ski hill. (Originally I wrote "save" but that may overstate the situation.)