Women Played Integral Role at One of Nation’s Oldest Ski Areas

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Janet Davis Mead, June Aker, Verlene Belden All Kept Pico Going And Growing, Despite Obstacles and Challenges.

Vermont’s Pico Mountain survived a war, two owners’ deaths, and a neighbor called Killington to become one of the 30 oldest continually operating ski areas in the country.

It’s a feat that was largely driven by women in its first 30 years, a time when the ski industry was known to be “a man’s world.”

Women also played major roles in Pico operations since that time, continuing the strong family influence that began with co-founder Janet Davis Mead.

A feisty woman given to exaggeration, Janet Davis told Brad Mead she had skied at the Lake Placid Club, so he invited her to go skiing.

“I had to follow him down what looked to me then like Mount Everest. I made it, but without poles,” she would write years later, explaining she had thrown them in the bushes, not knowing what they were for.

Her bravado paid off; they married and researched building a ski area.

Envisioning a year-round resort with mountainside homes, aerial tram, swimming pools, ice rinks, and tennis courts, the Meads leased Pico Mountain and opened Thanksgiving Day 1937 on Little Pico with a 1,200-foot rope tow and a rough-cut, 2.5-mile Sunset Schuss skiers could ‘skin up’ to the summit.

The Meads hired Swiss racer Karl Acker to run the ski school, added two tows, widened Sunset Schuss — renowned for downhill racing and the Pico Derby — and installed the first U.S. Constam T-Bar to the top of Little Pico.

After Brad died in a boating accident in 1942, Janet carried on with support from skiers, the Otter Ski Club, and Otter Patrol. When workers including Acker left for World War II, she kept Pico open despite hardships of rationing and shortages that caused many areas to close. Using her marketing skills, charisma, and tenacity, she gave special rates to schoolchildren and servicemen who visited on furlough weekends.

Having survived wartime, Janet bought the mountain (1947) as Acker returned to teach and help operate Pico. (He coached daughter Andrea Mead, first American to win two Golds in the 1952 Olympics, bringing acclaim to Pico’s strong racing tradition.) As the first woman to own and run a U.S. ski area still operating, Janet survived four lean snow years, weak finances, and growing competition by lowering ticket rates and offering summer rides on chairs hung on the T- Bar (1950). With the ski boom on and her children not interested in running Pico, she sold to Karl and June Acker in 1954.

Karl added trails, a T-Bar, and a J-Bar. “The lack of access to funding caused him to do too much of the work himself; the long hours and the stress of the new J-Bar which he couldn’t get to work quite right contributed to his fatal heart attack” in May 1958, June told me in 2007.

“The three banks that had lent us money to purchase Pico had insisted on a life insurance policy on Karl. Because I was a woman they needed to know I could repay the loan if he died,” June said of becoming Pico’s owner at age 30.

She added trails, replaced a lift, and obtained financing for Pico’s first chairlift, a Stadeli double that went halfway to the top ($110,000 in 1962).

“Pico needed lift service to the summit to compete and survive.  Being a woman contributed to the banks’ reluctance to provide more loans,” June said, of her decision to sell to Bruce and Verlene Belden (1964) in hopes they would carry on a family-oriented mountain.

Bruce had helped build Mount Snow (1955-1964), while Verlene ran their 30-guest ski lodge and raised four children. With former guests investing, they became majority owners with Verlene as office manager. Her business acumen coupled with their strong family orientation and expansion of the mountain enabled Pico to survive the trying 1970s when all but five major Vermont ski areas changed owners, and most surface lift areas closed. Vermont had 81 areas in 1966 but just 39 by 1988.

When they retired in 1987, Pico had a reputation as the “friendly mountain” with strong racing and instruction programs and new base village engendering a loyal following.

Women played significant roles in achieving that reputation. “They taught youngsters to ski and race and were instrumental in the Pico Ski Club. They also ran various departments from ski shop to ski school, tickets to childcare. They contributed to the skier loyalty that saw kids who grew up at Pico return as instructors or coaches and bring their own families to the mountain,” noted former GM Frank Heald.

Current Pico Director of Operations Rich McCoy added, “Pico staff make people feel at home and welcome. That’s a legacy that women through their leadership roles have contributed to throughout Pico’s long history and still do today.”