Smugglers’ Notch Patch (Retro Mountain) — c. 1970s

A vintage Smugglers' Notch ski patch from Jeffersonville, Vermont, estimated to date from the 1970s, featuring the three peaks collapsed into three overlapping triangles — green, blue, red — with SMUGGLERS' NOTCH in heavy black block caps beneath. Rectangular, white ground, white merrowed border.

Three peaks: Madonna, Sterling and Morse. Madonna is the serious one, a long double chair up a face that does not get groomed into submission, and for decades it has been the thing that separates people who say they ski Smuggs from people who actually do.

The patch gives you all three without ranking them, which is diplomatic and slightly misleading.

Smugglers' has spent most of its life marketed at families, which is a decision that quietly cost it a certain kind of credibility and quietly earned it a few decades of reliable revenue. Madonna is still up there regardless, not caring what the brochure says.

Embroidered on twill, merrowed edge. Photos are the condition report.