History
Viking's warming hut (back then a barn) as featured in a ski club calendar
Twin brothers Stan and Lee Allaben founded Viking Ski Touring Centre in the winter of 1970 as an outgrowth of their cross country ski retail and catalog business, the Nordic Trader. The trails were a draw to get people to buy equipment. The few trails they had were free, given colors for names, and a coffee can was put out for donations. It was the early ‘70’s; they didn't find much money in that can, but did find a few joints. As years went by the trail system grew and Viking became the first Nordic ski area to charge for daily trail passes. Several ideas were tried: a trail to neighboring Weston, inn to inn skiing, and many community races. Southern Vermont native Bill Koch won a silver medal in the 1976 Winter Olympics. In Boston the blizzard of ’78 made cross country skiing the fastest way to get around for almost a week. Nordic skiing was flourishing in the USA, and Viking was growing, too.
A ski race underway in the early '70s
Stanton and Lee Allaben were extremely active in the cross country skiing community and helped shape the early days of commercial cross country ski areas. In addition to establishing Viking, Stan & Lee led ski tours through the backcountry of Southern Vermont and helped establish a 40 km public trail system in the Green Mountain National Forest in the Peru-Weston area. Both Stan and Lee were early certified EPSTI (Eastern Professional Ski Touring Instructors) instructors. Lee became one of the first EPSTI nordic examiners while Stan went the management route. When EPSTI merged with PSIA, Stan was on the group's Eastern board for many years while Lee helped write and (modeled for) the first manual for nordic ski lessons. Stan served 4 years as president of National Ski Touring Operator's Association where he was instrumental in establishing a rapport with the US Forestry Service on behalf of ski area operators. An ardent conservationist, Stan was also director of the Vermont Sierra Club in the early 1970's. Both Allaben brothers also were founding members of Vermont Ski Touring Operators Association.
In the late 1980's the Allabens decided to focus on their construction businesses year-round, first Lee sold his share in Viking to Stan and then in 1988 Stan sold Viking to ABC executive Irving Gross. Irv opened the 4 bedroom Viking Guest House where he hosted skiers, fed them a huge breakfast, and sent them out for a great day on the trails. At the time, Irving was a downhill skier who had not cross country skied. To fill that knowledge gap Irv made sure Dana and Malcolm McNair, managers under Stan, stayed at Viking to continue operating the center. Their expertise and hard work led to improvements like the big deck, summer trail grading, and the first big grooming machine. The McNairs spent countless hours at all times of day dealing with the problems Vermont weather causes, the constant changeovers of the land owners from whom Viking borrows access during the ski season (to whom we are eternally grateful for the trail access), and all while putting a smile on the face of Viking's visitors and instilling a culture of fun. From lessons to rentals to trail maintenance and grooming, the McNairs have worn multiple hats and have done what needs to get done at the center. Frequent visitors will be well acquainted with Malcolm’s easy-going attitude and expert advice, and Dana’s sense of humor and delicious vegetarian chili. The face of Viking belongs to the McNairs.
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Malcolm has been involved the US cross country ski center business since its first few winters. He started his career teaching skiing in Breckenridge, Colorado and became one of the youngest certified instructors with Rocky Mountain Nordic before coming to Viking in 1974. Dana was raised in ski retail and began her career at Viking in the ski shop in 1980.
By the late 1990’s Irving decided it was time to retire, for real this time, and Viking was again put up for sale. Beth and Peter Foley had been vacationing at various cross country centers for years and always spent the drive home talking about how, “if we owned the center….” Viking, with its gorgeous trails, great location, and experienced operating team seemed like the perfect place to slowly put some cross country dreams into place. The Foleys bought Viking in 2000, with the McNairs staying on to operate the Center and Guest House. |
A fresh new sun deck at Viking, 1990
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Peter, a sports product manager with experience growing large and small companies, was raised in the deep snow belt of central New York state and took up cross country skiing after Bill Koch’s dramatic 1976 Olympic medal. When not scoping out cross country areas across the US on work trips, he skied endless afterwork loops at Weston Ski Track, Minneapolis parks, and his homemade loop on a Denver golf course. His wife Beth has been cross country skiing since she was a little girl growing up in the Philadelphia area. Their 3 kids learned to cross country ski young as the family moved from New England to Minnesota, then to Colorado. In 2022 the Foleys returned home to New England.
In recent years Viking has concentrated on trail work to increase the number of kilometers that can open on low snow, created the cookie hunt card game, a special program to encourage kids to ski more, secured land to maintain the trail network, and upgraded the Farmhouse and its apartment lodging into a year-round vacation spot. The center has grown to 204 acres including the woods roughly outlined by Boynton Run/Roundabout/the Chute. This acreage that has great topography and natural overlooks and offers Viking a lot of choices for further growth.
As the years glide by some things at the center have changed but Viking continues to offer the same fun, relaxed, atmosphere it has since it was opened by Stan and Lee Allaben, though with fewer joints in the till and way better cookies.
We’d love to hear your stories about Viking. If you have a memory of skiing at Viking or pictures you’d like to share please e-mail it to Peter at [email protected]
We’d love to hear your stories about Viking. If you have a memory of skiing at Viking or pictures you’d like to share please e-mail it to Peter at [email protected]