Ducky’s once served as an après-ski venue during the evening and a place for daytime skiers and snowboarders to relax. Before the pandemic, the daytime crowd lounged here, eating packed lunches and hoarding seats with bags of equipment and clothing. A hiatus during the pandemic allowed the hill to rethink the space and how patrons used it; it also provided an opportunity to cull years of decoration and branded advertising.

In 2022, the space changed to a more formal lounge. We cleared the space of decorations and branded advertising and painted the walls “snow” to calm the vast amounts of knotted pine. In addition to the new paint, we reskinned the bar, redecorated it, and renamed it “Ducky’s Social.”

A vital component of the work was to rethink the guest flow, to ensure a better customer experience, from entry to seating, and to ensure little obstruction of live music. Before introducing a new sign, Ducky’s patrons entered the venue to the backs of seated customers; the new sign welcomes guests while delineating the space. All new features in the space employ similar construction methods: an entrance sign composed of horizontal slats, a room division system made up of vertical slats and a sinuous-wave canopy constructed from horizontal slats.

Maintaining a sense of history is important to the owners. Photographs of the 1930s–60s skiers were collected from the local historical society and digitized. We also went through the hill’s old ski gear and apparel collection. Of the skiers, George Wilson (grandfather of the Wilson’s family who own the facility today) and Ralph “Ducky” Cream, among many others, played vital roles in the development and lore of the hill.