This East Coast Ski Area Is Fully Wind Powered

Brian Fairbank is changing the future of skiing in the Northeast

Words by Meghan McCarthy McPhaul

This story originally appeared in the October 2019 (48.1) issue of POWDER.

In 1968, freshly minted associate degree in hand, Brian Fairbank, who grew up in Kenmore, New York, did what any self-respecting East Coast ski bum would do: headed west. He made it as far as Wisconsin, where he paused for a year before returning east to take a job managing Massachusetts’ Jiminy Peak at age 22.

More than 50 years later Fairbank is still there, overseeing the largest ski area in southern New England. He’s incorporated innovative environmental measures like a wind powered turbine that provides much of the resort’s energy, developed more energy-efficient snow guns, and grew Jiminy from a five-employee winter operation to a year-round resort.

“His energy and passion are contagious,” says Jim Van Dyke, vice president of environmental sustainability at Jiminy, where he’s worked for 45 years. “We’ve had a long run, and it’s been a good run, and we’re going to keep it going. We owe it all to Brian for nurturing us along the way.”When I was 6 years old, my father pushed me down a ski slope and said, ‘Make a wedge, you’ll be fine.’ I tumbled and tumbled and somehow figured out how to get back up the rope tow and I got addicted to skiing.

When I started at Jiminy, I was the youngest employee on the year-round staff. I built a relationship with the other men here, and over time came to realize how important it was to have a cohesive team of people.

When I got married, my mother said to me, ‘You’ll never be able to raise a family as a ski bum. You’ve got to find something else to do.’ Fortunately, my mother lived long enough to see that what she said was inaccurate.

The days that are outstanding are the days that are like out West, where we’ve just got 15 inches of snow and it’s not groomed out yet, but it’s not all clumped up. Natural snow is still a driver.

In 2007 we put in the wind turbine, ‘Zephyr.’ It was the first wind powered turbine at a ski area. It’s as tall as the Statue of Liberty. It was a humongous task to get it up the mountain.

I’d like to say we did it because we wanted to be environmental pioneers, but the truth is, electric rates were going up, and we looked at how we could curb energy use. Jiminy is net green. If you look at the amount of power we produce versus the power we consume, we’re on a level playing field.

The challenges to our industry now are as remarkable as they have ever been. We have the Baby Boomers hanging up their skis. We’ve got Millennials who want to ski but may not be able to afford it. We’ve got weather challenges. We’ve got big companies like Vail who we have to compete with on ticket prices.

I think the guiding principle is, if you can do the right thing and do it fairly, then you are probably going to be able to move forward more successfully.

I always make sure I have my boots. You can put on a different pair of skis, but putting a different pair of boots on isn’t as advisable.