The 80s—It takes a village
The growth continues
Also added during the 1980s: the third nine to the golf course, making it 27 holes, and seven more courts at the tennis center.
Stratton continued to host world-class events in the 1980s. In 1985, seven-time Grand Slam champion John McEnroe played Ivan Lendl in the Volvo International’s Stratton debut (McEnroe won 7-6, 6-2). Other events that brought A-list celebrities to the resort included the Stratton-Vail Ski Classic in 1987 and the summer concert series, with musicians like Willy Nelson and Pete Seeger on the playbill.
Then there was the young fellow named Jake Burton Carpenter who asked if he could ride his snow-board on Stratton’s trails. In March 1985, Burton brought the U.S. Open to Stratton—known as the National Snowboarding Championships in its previous three renditions, held at Suicide Six and Snow Valley ski areas in Vermont. Little did they know it would become one of the longest-running, biggest and most popular events at Stratton.
For a decade that started out on tenuous footing, Stratton had not only survived but flourished. ◊
Peggy Shinn is a freelance writer who frequently covers skiing.