Rangeley Saddleback Chairlift Patch — c. 1980s

A vintage Saddleback ski patch from Rangeley, Maine, estimated to date from the 1970s or 80s, featuring a black lattice lift tower rising right through the middle of the face, cables running off to both edges with a chair hanging from one of them, a red and a blue peak behind. Tall oval, white ground, gold merrowed border, RANGELEY arched in red above and SADDLEBACK below.

Lift towers almost never make it onto patches. Mountains sold you a peak, a snowflake or a skier; the machinery that made the whole thing possible stayed off the merchandise because it is ugly and industrial and nobody drives four hours to look at steel. Which is exactly why this one is worth having. Somebody decided the lift was the thing worth drawing, and they were right.

Somebody chose to put the lift tower on the patch instead of the mountain. That is a person who understood what people actually remember about a ski day — not the summit view, but the specific sound a chair makes going over a sheave wheel, and the cold coming up through the seat.

It is the least obvious choice available and the most accurate one.

Towers also date a patch, if you know what you are looking at. The spacing of the sheaves and the shape of the crossarm are specific to an era of lift construction.

Embroidered on twill, merrowed edge, with a loose thread at the border. Photos are the condition report.