The only remaining single-chair ski lift in the United States is in central Vermont, at a no-frills mountain called Mad River Glen. The place is unique in America, if not the world—a throwback to a time before the corporatization of the ski industry, one whose sense of history and distaste for frippery are pure New England. Mad River does very little snowmaking. It does not allow snowboards. It offers nothing in the way of slope-side accommodation, and an after-ski (don’t call it après) scene that consists of a single, modest bar.