Could anyone ever learn to ski on a slope with a vertical drop of only 31 feet, 6 inches?

Yes, more than 5,000 students did so years ago on a campus hill at Green Mountain College in Vermont.

You can learn more about it at the New England Ski Museum in Franconia, N.H., right next to the aerial tram at Cannon Mountain. It's one of the many stories in the "lost" ski areas exhibit now on display through March 31.

Executive director Jeff Leich and his staff were working on it when I stopped by for a visit last March. He said interest in New England ski areas of long ago has grown with the popularity of a Web site: www.nelsap.org -- New England Lost Ski Areas Project.

The goal of the 10-year-old site is to preserve the history of 591 lost ski areas in New England and 74 elsewhere, including four in Pennsylvania that I had never heard of -- Devil's Hole, Henryville House Retreat, Miller Mountain and Richmond Hill. I'll find out more about them and get back to you.

The museum, one of only four recognized by the U.S. Ski Association, is the only one in the East. Admission is free.

For more information, go to www.skimuseum.org or call 1-603-823-7177.