Stowe Spruce Peak Chairlift Patch — c. 1960s-70s

A vintage Stowe ski patch, estimated to date from the 1960s or 70s, cut as an arched-top rectangle with a red merrowed border — two skiers on a double chair, one blue and one yellow with an arm raised, above grey firs and a white snowfield. Stowe in yellow script at the top, SPRUCE PEAK in black at the bottom.

For years, getting from Mansfield over to Spruce meant walking across Route 108 in your boots with your skis on your shoulder, waiting for a gap in the traffic and hoping the driver coming through had seen a skier in the road before.

Every regular did it a thousand times and nobody ever thought it was strange. Mountains were less engineered then. So were the people on them, and so was everything about how a day out there actually went.

The road is still there, the traffic is faster, and nobody walks it anymore.

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