Every skier from northeast Massachusetts knows the commercial with that jingle right at the end: “Ski Bradford, ski close to home.” It’s catchy, you sing it over and over again, and it’s the slogan of the mountain (ok, mountain is a stretch), that started it all for me years and years ago.
Ski Bradford is the place where my love for all things snow started. 18 years ago, my parents slapped skis on my feet and sent me up the magic carpet. While I can’t say I remember my first moments, they were clearly monumental in my life as they set the tone for a childhood (and eventual adulthood) full of making turns. Six years later, I decided that skiing just wasn’t cool enough and those two skis became one snowboard. Once again, the location for my first heel slips were off the magic carpet here at Bradford.
Both my siblings found love in skiing here as well. My brother and I went from playing all kinds of youth sports together to just skiing, never turning back. Though they decided to keep two planks under their feet, they learned the basics here with me, and it built a strong foundation for them to become amazing skiers. They both went on to ski race for their respective high schools on the wasp trail, combining nostalgia with as much speed as 250ft of vertical drop can give you.
Bradford was a staple of my early seasons of skiing and snowboarding. It was the perfect place to learn and have a lot of fun. The after-school program brought me to Bradford every Tuesday for three winters, where my friends and I would spend a few hours acting like we owned the mountain, alongside many other schools from northeast Massachusetts who were doing the same.
Ski Bradford in Numbers:
15: trails
10: lifts (3 fixed-grip triples, 1 T-Bar, 3 surface, 3 rope tows)
250: Feet of vertical drop
48: acres of skiable terrain
1: passionately drawn, old trail map to show you the way
As the years went by, I kept coming back with those same friends, reliving old memories from when we were in elementary school, and making new ones as we got better and better. One winter, there was a blizzard in the area and school was called off, so I convinced my mom to drop us off at Bradford for some pow turns. We were some of the only people there, and it was dumping. That’s a day that I’ll never forget.
I grew up and started riding bigger mountains, but those old memories are still burned in my mind. There was something special about this tiny New England gem where it all started for me. It wasn’t the terrain or the snow quality, and it certainly wasn’t the vertical drop, but the memories with friends and family alike.
Sometimes I’d venture back to watch my siblings race for their high schools and relive a little bit of those glory days, and the place hadn’t changed one bit. It remains a local spot for the community to get a taste of sliding on snow. If you want a glimpse into the good old days at Bradford, watch the Ski Bradford Commercial, it never gets old.
