United We Ski: T-Bar Films and the Legacy of New England's Community Hills

Brothers Tyler and Elliot Wilkinson-Ray founded T-Bar Films in 2012 to "document the human side of ski culture". Since then, they've been recognized by the Banff Mountain Film Festival, Telluride Mountain Film Festival, Cold Smoke Winter Film Tour and others for their work. We're big fans of theirs, especially United We Ski, a film that examines the importance of small, community ski hills to the sport of skiing and New England life. 

"There was a time where the state of Vermont, and probably most states in New England, that most communities had a local ski hill. Most of them have died and haven't survived. So out of 700 total, 620 have been closed, which is just amazing."- United We Ski

United We Ski tells the stories of three surviving community ski hills, Cochran's, Hard'Ack, and Northeast Slopes. We love this clip featuring a few family-owned Vermont farm tows, funded by guys night card games and empties, and maintained by friends and neighbors. In the days of high speed six pack lifts, and $100+ lift tickets, it's refreshing to see that in some places, the community tradition of skiing still exists. 

There are "unofficial" ski hills all over the world, and Vermont has some of the coolest. Farmers in Quebec and New England started the continents first ski lifts as a way to entertain themselves during the dark days of winter. You can't pay to ski at either of the hills in this video, and I wouldn't recommend trying to unless, as you heard in the video, you're family or a neighbor. But luckily it doesn't take much to build one yourself and there are plenty of great public community ski hills, which the rest of our film demonstrates. This is a 4-minute excerpt from a 35 minute long documentary that was screened at a handful of venues this past fall and winter. None of the film has been available online until now. You can purchase a DVD here: http://www.t-barfilms.com/store/ Like T-Bar Films on FB to stay connected: https://www.facebook.com/TBarFilms

“If kids don’t have a place to get outdoors and recreate, and the community doesn’t have a place to be outside, together, then people just tend to stay in their homes and get pretty isolated...and life’s just not as good.””

— United We Ski

Purchase United We Ski on the T-Bar Films site and be sure to check out Out on a Limb. Backcountry enthusiast and expert skier Vasu Sojitra lost his right leg to a blood infection when he was 9 months old. Contrary to popular terminology, Vasu's lacking limb is not a disability, just another hurdle to overcome on his way to the summit. Watch Vasu in Out on a Limb here.