The summer of 2020 was the warmest ever recorded in Burlington, but backcountry ski equipment was flying off the virtual shelves by August — months before ski shopping season usually begins.
“You could say hundreds of percent increase [in sales] for sure, across the board, just for alpine [touring equipment],” said Doug Stewart, a manager at Burlington-based Skirack.
Backcountry skiing, which takes place in the wild, not at a resort, exploded in popularity during the pandemic in Vermont. It puts skiers out in the woods and in wide-open spaces, far from the lift lines and chairlift rides where crowds had to be carefully controlled during Covid-19.
The sport offers a ski bum’s favorite drug combo: fresh powder and speed. For Adam DesLauriers, director of Bolton Valley Resort’s burgeoning backcountry program, carving up fresh, deep snow can be compared to surfing.
“It’s the same sort of appeal,” DesLauriers said. “You’re harnessing this energy, gravity or water. It’s like when you get a perfectly formed barrel — it’s just easy and exciting, but calming at the same time.”
Of course, all skiing in Vermont was of the backcountry variety until the first trails were cut in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, formed to put unemployed young people to work during the Great Depression.
The Vermont Historical Society reports that more than 40,000 men, including 11,243 Vermonters, were employed by the CCC in Vermont between 1933 and 1942. Under the leadership of state forester Perry Merrill, they built bridges, dams and roads, cut trails to the tops of mountains such as Mount Mansfield, and opened up state forests such as Groton.
Merrill’s idea was that downhill skiing, already popular in Europe, could breathe life into a hard-hit Vermont economy. The new ski hills drew a lot of attention, and soon various kinds of lifts — rope tows, poma, T-bar — blossomed. Then came the chair lift.
But the reckless, wilderness allure of the initial ski trails never went away, and some of the best skiers eventually grew bored with lift-served skiing, according to David Goodman, a writer who lives in Waterbury. He literally wrote the book on the sport. His 2020 book, “Best Backcountry Skiing in the Northeast,” updated his initial version of his book. (Full disclosure: VTDigger carries Goodman’s “Vermont Conversation” podcast).
“The ’80s were an era when a lot of the big ski areas were blasting their ski trails into these very wide, homogenized trails to accommodate new snowmaking and grooming,” Goodman said. “And people were just bored with it. It was not very interesting.”
But a downhill skier couldn’t just head into the backcountry, and making the switch wasn’t cheap. Backcountry skis required different boots and bindings, so a skier could have a fixed heel for downhill or a free heel for climbing. The skis themselves were generally wider and heavier than downhill gear.
However, that’s changing. More on that in a minute.
A skier who eschews the lifts has to get up the hill. That requires skins — sleeves that fit over the skis with materials that allow the skier to make progress uphill without sliding backward. They’re called skins because the originals were made of animal hides — animal fur typically forms layers in one direction, so skins allowed a skier to slide forward, and the direction of the fur kept the skier from sliding backward. Now, modern materials and science go into making skins.
A full set of new gear can easily run $1,000 or much more. To make the switch more affordable, Bolton Valley began offering a full-season lease program this year, and skiers could rent a basic set of new gear for $540. Lower prices will be available next winter because skiers will be able to lease used gear.
Equipment is evolving
More downhill skiers have begun to purchase hybrid boots and bindings — the kind that can go up or downhill — even without experience in the backcountry.
That trend started only within the past few years because manufacturers have improved the equipment markedly.
“[Alpine touring] has grown so much in recent years that all the big players, all the big downhill companies, are involved in alpine touring stuff these days,” said Joshua Stephen, ski buyer at Outdoor Gear Exchange.
Backcountry skiers used to rely on Telemark gear, which was bulkier and required an entirely different ski technique. With modern alpine touring equipment, skiers have a choice.
“The barrier to entry used to be pretty high, in that you had to learn a whole new way of skiing,” Goodman said. “Now it isn’t that difficult because equipment is such that a downhill skier can in fact go downhill skiing in the backcountry — same basic technique, although it’s a different environment.”
And that different environment poses a challenge to backcountry skiers. There’s some risk involved, and no safety team is standing by to come to your rescue.
“The backcountry is an untamed environment,” Goodman said, which is both its appeal and its risk. “There’s no ski patrol, and there are consequences for one’s actions.”
And in nature, the only consistently enforced law is Murphy’s. Backcountry veterans know they need to pack first-aid kits, a change of warm clothes, emergency water and food, maps, and shelter of some sort in case an overnight stay becomes necessary. Depending on the area, avalanche awareness and training is also advised.
Area for growth, and a downside
Bolton Valley offers the only in-house backcountry-specific guiding and instructional program in North America, according to Ski Vermont. And it’s paying off, DesLauriers said, doubling in popularity last year.
“The wilderness experience is gorgeous no matter what. That’s pretty much a slam dunk every time,” DesLauriers said. “There’s big old-growth trees back there, tons of snow. It’s pretty magical, for sure.”
But there are downsides to backcountry skiing, other than the risks. Skiing through virgin territory can damage forest plants and disrupt wildlife patterns. And, because the nature of backcountry skiing means trails are not formally maintained, some skiers illegally cut or trim undergrowth to make their outings more enjoyable.
The problem is common, said Michael Snyder, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation. “It kind of ruins it for everyone, because backcountry skiing is a really good thing,” said Snyder, an avid backcountry skier himself.
The most infamous example of the problem occurred in 2007 when two men illegally cut more than 800 trees in a 2,000-by-60-foot area of state land on Big Jay, apparently to create their own downhill ski glade.
Last month, Vermont’s state government sued a New Hampshire resident for illegal cutting at Hazen’s Notch State Park in Westfield, allegedly to clear an area for backcountry skiing near his property.
Officials say those cases are outliers. Most illegal cutting happens on a much smaller scale — the odd bush and branch here and there — which makes it extremely difficult for forest authorities to monitor. But in environmentally sensitive areas, even small alterations can affect habitat quality and ecosystem function.
Authorities and responsible backcountry skiers wanted to tackle this issue, which led to the partnership between the U.S. Forest Service and the Rochester/Randolph Area Sports Trail Alliance.
Together they launched the Brandon Gap project in 2016, which became the first backcountry ski area with official designation from the Forest Service.
“To the Forest Service’s credit … they had to create the standard, if you will, to create this new recreation opportunity,” said Angus McCusker, executive director of the Rochester/Randolph Area Sports Trail Alliance, now a chapter of the Catamount Trail Association.
Hundreds of volunteers in the ski community were authorized to create four ski zones, cut directly out of the Green Mountain National Forest, with training and guidance from the Forest Service. More volunteers help out each year to trim the ski areas, which are monitored for environmental impact.
More and more resources are available around the state to help people who want to get into backcountry skiing. Maps with built-in geolocation capabilities are available online, and the glades themselves are marked.
Experienced skiers looking for longer treks can consult the Vermont Huts Association, which has partnered with groups such as the Catamount Trail Association to help all types of outdoor enthusiasts to find safe overnight lodging.
Until recently, it was considerably harder for someone to figure out how best to get into the backcountry.
The partnerships have “really made backcountry skiing something that was handed down in sort of an oral tradition — ‘go to this tree and turn left’ — to something that is embraced as a community resource,” Goodman said.
Some in the backcountry community were worried about what the partnership would mean for the sport’s culture, where quiet and unknown ski areas are a prized commodity, but McCusker said the overall response has been positive.
“We don’t have those field conditions where it can naturally happen, without some sort of management,” said Holly Knox, a recreation program manager for the Rochester and Middlebury Ranger Districts in the Green Mountain National Forest. “Working together, in partnership, we feel we would have more success to alleviate that pressure and see that unauthorized clipping.”
Their example is catching on. In Readsboro, the Dutch Hill Alliance of Skiers and Hikers partnered with the Forest Service to reopen skiing at Dutch Hill, which had been closed since the mid-1980s.
In New Hampshire, the Granite Backcountry Alliance is working to grow local backcountry skiing through similar partnerships, and many examples have followed.
Not all infrastructure problems have been solved — limited parking spaces remain a challenge for outdoor opportunities across the state, for example. But thanks to improvements in ski equipment and the increased resources available to newcomers to the backcountry, the sport’s popularity may far outlast the pandemic.
“People from all ages are enjoying the true backcountry, uphill experience,” McCusker said. “You slow down a bit. You’re more aware of your environment, and you’re not in a lift line.”
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Equipment, pandemic fuel explosion in popularity of backcountry skiing - vtdigger.org
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