Honoring Joe Cushing

The landscape of skiing across North America would not be what it is today without the lifetime of contribution from Joe Cushing. A pioneer of ski area planning, with a legacy worthy of the US Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame, into which he was inducted in 2014.  While many in the ski industry today may not know Joe, or have had the pleasure of working with him, most are likely to be familiar with some of his handiwork.  

Joe Cushing’s skiing career started at the age of four in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. He soon became a top contender in several regional racing events, including first-place finishes at the Massachusetts Junior Skiing Championships on nearby Wachusett Mountain – a mountain that several decades later he would transform into one of New England’s most successful urban ski areas.    

 After graduating from Fitchburg High School, Joe attended Dartmouth College and Boston University, traveling frequently to Franconia, NH to ski and race at Cannon Mountain. In the late 1950s he moved to Franconia permanently with his young wife, Mary, and started working at a local potato farm owned by Sel Hannah, the founder of Sno.engineering.   

Together, Sel and Joe became the pioneers of modern ski area planning and design throughout North America developing techniques, standards and criteria that continue to guide ski area development today. In the 1980s Joe started training and mentoring junior planners that would carry forward his design legacy.  To this day these young protégés continue to utilize the mountain planning techniques originally developed by Joe.  

 Over his 40-year career Joe worked on literally hundreds of ski areas throughout North America and the world. Many of these resorts were built from scratch, while others were existing ski areas, renovated to the modern standards and more aesthetic designs that Joe brought to the industry. Joe’s signature lift layout and trail designs can be enjoyed at such great resorts as Loon Mt. and Bretton Woods in New Hampshire; Sugarbush and Stratton, Vermont; Copper Mountain and Keystone, Colorado; and Deer Valley, Utah just to name a few.  The true benefactors of Joe’s influence on ski area development are the millions of skiers who enjoy the resorts that Joe has helped to shape over the years.    

The SE Group team is honored to be stewards of Joe’s legacy. He taught us much about the mountains that we love, and that choosing a profession that blurs the line between work and play, clients and friends, coworkers and family, leads to a long and happy life.