ENFIELD — Whaleback Mountain will open later this month after it raised $210,000 to help offset anticipated operating losses due to a broken chairlift.
The successful fundraising effort came in response to a late October appeal the mountain issued asking the community to help it raise the money required to open for the season.
“It’s easy to say this didn’t work out. We’re going to lose money. We’re going to close,” general manager Khara Benoit, a Sunapee resident who grew up skiing at Whaleback, said in a phone interview last month. “But we’re not going to do that. We’re going to open knowing we’re going to lose money.”
The mountain, which is operated as a nonprofit organization and located off Interstate 89 in Enfield, is scheduled to open as usual on Dec. 26, Benoit said. This season, visitors will have access to two surface lifts that will get them about halfway up the mountain.
The chairlift to the mountain’s summit stopped working in March. Though the nonprofit raised $250,000 to repair the lift, the repairs could not be completed in time for this ski season.
When contractors started taking apart the lift’s gear box — a roughly 9,000-pound device that allows the lift to operate — they realized the work that was required to repair it was much more extensive than they initially thought, Benoit said.
There were also issues with the bullwheel, a large device that spins the cables that carries the chairs to reach the summit.
Even without the chairlift, those involved with the mountain felt it was important that it stay open for families, particularly those with children.
“We don’t want those kids sitting at home on an iPad,” Benoit said. “We want them to be exploring and make their memories there.”
Whaleback plays an important role in introducing Upper Valley youth to skiing and snowboarding, said Eric Michaels, who has worked at Golf & Ski Warehouse in West Lebanon for 27 years.
“It’s been a great place for young people to learn and for parents to feel comfortable about their children skiing there without too much chaperoning,” Michaels said in a phone interview this month. “The beauty of Whaleback is it all converges back to one spot. There’s only one base.”
The nonprofit expects that the limited access to the mountain this year will reduce attendance and pass sales. In spite of the successful fundraising effort this fall, Whaleback, which has an operating budget of about $1 million, anticipates losing at least $300,000 this season, Benoit said.
The mountain employs three year-round workers, including Benoit. She expects there will be around 30 seasonal staff members.
To try to attract more newcomers to the mountain and to make up for the loss of the chairlift, Whaleback has reduced the price of its season pass to $99 for adults. Passes are usually $299, Benoit said.
A new rope tow surface lift installed this summer will help Whaleback’s youth racing teams go on as planned. The terrain park, where skiers and snowboarders can practice tricks and skills, can also be accessed by the surface lifts. There will be a racing league for adults, in addition to other programs that can use the bottom half of the mountain to operate.
“I think people associate skiing with a chairlift, but there’s so much to gain, so much growth that can happen as a ski area in the capacity we’re going to operate in,” Benoit said.
People are also welcome to get to the summit by “skinning” up the 300 vertical feet the surface lifts can’t access.
“There’s a lot to be excited about if you’re into uphilling,” Benoit said.
Whaleback is also planning more activities at the base this season, Benoit said, including more live music and other events.
The Lebanon Recreation, Arts and Parks Department still plans to run youth programs at Whaleback, as long as there is interest from families, said Paul Coats, the department’s director. Traditionally, the department has run programs both at Storrs Hill in downtown Lebanon and at Whaleback, because it is a bigger mountain.
“We find that some people like to take advantage of both community hills and some people desire a bit more terrain that Whaleback offers,” Coats said in a phone interview.
The department paused registration for its after school program at Whaleback after the Lebanon staff member who traditionally oversaw it left for another job, Coats said.
The department is in the process of filling that job and should have someone in place by the time the youth programs start up in January.
“I do think there will still be interest in people signing up for it even if it’s only surface lift,” Coats said.
Whaleback’s offerings have proved popular in the past: The van that transports Lebanon Middle School students to Whaleback is always full, Coats said.
“They don’t pretend to be something that they’re not,” Coats said. “They’re not trying to compete with Killington or Sunapee … they’re trying to be neighborhood friendly.”
Even as the organization plans to operate in a reduced fashion this season, plans are still in the works to repair the chairlift for the future.
In mid-November, Whaleback got some good news on that front. Holiday Mountain Ski Area in Monticello, N.Y., which had heard about Whaleback’s troubles, gave the Enfield mountain a gearbox and bullwheel to fix the lift.
However, it is not as simple as switching Whaleback’s broken pieces out and replacing them.
“We have to reengineer the lift itself, ” Benoit said. That will take the work of multiple people who specialize in chairlifts, who are few and far between.
“It’s not one company and one person,” Benoit said. It is also more difficult to do the work during the winter season when people are busy and the scope of the work is unknown.
It is too soon to say how much the lift will cost to repair, Benoit said. Whaleback will have to continue to raise money to offset operating expenses and potential repairs to the lift, depending how much it ultimately costs.
Current plans call for starting the work over the summer, with the hope it will be completed for the start of the 2026-27 season.