Suicide Six Ski Centre Re-named Saskadena Six

A ski area in Vermont formerly known as ‘Hill No.6’ and more recently ‘Suicide Six’ has changed its name again to Saskadena Six.

The name change, announced as coming soon last month, is the latest of several attempts to remove insensitive business titles and follows the decision to rename the better-known Californian ski area and 1960 Winter Olympics host ‘Squaw Valley’ as ‘Palisades Tahoe’.

The word “squaw” is considered a racist slur by many people and using “suicide” considered insensitive when the number of people taking their own lives in Vermont is at a record high.

Saskadena (pronounced “sahs-kah-deena), which means ‘standing mountain’ recognises that the land was originally inhabited by the  Abenaki people before Europeans arrived and took it.

Saskadena Six is one of North America’s oldest ski resorts, established in 1936 and was home to one of America’s first ski lifts.

The story goes that the man who installed the original rope tow joked that “skiing the steep pitch would be suicide,” and the new name stuck.