skier, dog trainer, bon vivant, ted ross is gone
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Ted Ross, one of the many colorful Stowe personalities from the ’60s and ’70s, when the town became a magnet for suburban and city transplants seeking another kind of life, died last March at his home in Hudson, N.Y. One of the founders of the iconic—and now defunct—Shed Bar and Restaurant on the Mountain Road, Ross moved north from the New York area in the early 1960s, and was a skier, dog trainer, hunter and fisherman, epic drinker, writer, and bon vivant. A Stowe ski instructor for 25 years, he eventually moved away and made a living as a writer, trained and worked with Springer spaniels in the field, and ran a fishing camp in Nova Scotia in the summers—making careers from his passions. Ross called his kennel Liver’s End, and his entertaining memoir, Stick Season Grouse (Silver Print Press), is still available. Ross is best remembered in Stowe for his role in starting The Shed, which until 2011 had been a celebrated hub of drinking and eating for nearly half a century. According to an oft-repeated story, in the
history
1960s Paul Biedermann was addressing a gathering of friends, advising Ross and his compadres on their careers. When Biedermann came to Ken Strong, he said: “Ken, you can’t afford to drink with these people, so you should probably open a bar.” Strong did just that, with Ted Ross as his partner. The Shed opened in 1965. “The Shed became pub-central for Stowe,” remembers Peter Miller, a lifelong Ross friend. “Everyone who had a sense of booze, gossiping, picking up someone for a dalliance, or having a good time being a robust part of Stowe society cozied up to the bar. This was before the social cliques were established with their unwritten prejudices, so everyone mixed together—farmers, trustfunders, ski patrol and instructors, ski bums, lodge owners.” “It was a great decade,” echoes Strong. Adds Miller: “This was the kind of Stowe it was. Lots of affairs and eventual marriages started at The Shed; many affairs and marriages ended there, too. … It was the prime searching ground for the broke ski bum to play up to the trustfunder.” Ted Ross was there through it all. —Biddle Duke
SPOTLIGHT The first practical over-the-snow vehicle was designed for World War II winter combat ski troops for the famous 10th Mountain Division. The rugged Studebaker Weasel was admired by troops for its ability to carry both men and heavy equipment over snow-covered mountains. ••• After the war, Weasels became surplus and at least one of them came to Stowe Mountain Resort to perform work around the mountain, both on and off the snow. ••• By 1949 the ski area began to develop the trails on the Spruce Peak side of the resort and a new type of over-the-snow “tractor” came onto the commercial market. The Weasels had proven to be enormous time savers in all snow conditions, but a more sophisticated vehicle, the Tucker Sno-Cat, replaced them in the marketplace. ••• Sno-Cats combined steel tracks mounted on large pontoons in the back, with turnable skis on the front; they provided amazing traction. Stowe purchased a brand new 1949 model and its performance was so outstanding the resort eventually bought an entire fleet. ••• The Sno-Cats carried tons of food to summit restaurants, ferried passengers from top to bottom, and even pulled early snow-grooming machines. ••• In the 1960s the resort sold off its first Tucker, but it didn’t go far. The Edson Hill Manor, where it is shown above, used it for many years to groom its cross-country trails. By 2010, it had ended up in the hands of a collector in Colorado, and word on the street is he intends to fully restore Stowe’s first Tucker Sno-Cat to its 1949 condition. —Brian Lindner
STOWE’S TUCKER SNO-CAT
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PETER MILLER. INSET: JOHN SCOTT
RURAL ROUTE