Cranmore Mountain

Cranmore Mountain's summit reaches 2,000 feet, dropping roughly 1,200 vertical feet to a base at 600 feet across 57 runs spread over 200 acres in North Conway, New Hampshire. Terrain splits 44 per cent intermediate and 28 per cent each for beginner and advanced, with no expert-rated runs, and average annual snowfall of roughly 45 inches. Nine lifts, including two quad chairs and two triple chairs, serve the mountain alongside one double chair, three surface lifts and one t-bar.

Cranmore holds a storied place in American ski history, having pioneered one of the sport's most distinctive early lift technologies and helped establish North Conway as a genuine skiing destination. Its historic Skimobile Road, still bearing the name of the resort's famous vintage lift, remains a visible link to this heritage today.

Local businessman Harvey Gibson founded Cranmore, opening the resort for the 1937-38 season with a single rope tow after purchasing land parcels on the mountain's west side. For the 1938-39 season, Gibson introduced the Skimobile, a distinctive lift consisting of 60 small cars travelling on a wooden track, designed by area mechanic George Morton, which carried skiers from the base to roughly halfway up the mountain. In 1939, at Gibson's invitation, prominent Austrian skier Hannes Schneider moved to Cranmore after being briefly imprisoned in Austria for his anti-Nazi views, and Schneider's arrival spurred further expansion, including a second Skimobile stage to the summit and additional trails.

The Skimobile operated as a beloved, if unusual, piece of Cranmore's identity for decades before being fully abandoned by 1988, giving way to more conventional chairlift infrastructure. Adult daily tickets run from 79 to 109 US dollars, with a discounted beginner-terrain-only ticket also available.