Stratton Reserve First Chairlift Ascent of 2019-20 Season for Jake Burton

The ski season has got underway today in a number of ski and snowboard areas in Vermont, just a few days after the death of Jake Burton Carpenter, whose Burton Snowboarding business has long been headquartered in the state, right from the very start back in the 1970s.

Most of those resorts, once slow to embrace snowboarding, are now organising tributes to the great man, linked together by the #RideOnJake tag.

At Stratton, which was one of the very first resorts to allow snowboarders in the early 1980s,  the very first chairlift going up the mountain today, number 13, was reserved for him, and a vintage Burton Snowboard made the ascent.

13 is a big number for Burton as the number looks like a B, and is often used in the company’s products and was one of their film titles.

The resort provided access to the gondola today to snowboarders and skiers with the plan to come together for a moment of silence at 3.30 then a communal slide sideways to celebrate the life of a legend.