Vermont Ski + Ride Fall, 2018

VT

FREE! FALL 2018

SKI + RIDE

Vermont’s Mountain Sports and Life

Season Preview WHO WINS THE PASS WARS? THE HOUSE OF THE FUTURE THE PARK RATS WHO MADE IT BIG

5 GREAT BEER TOURS

3 PRIVATE MOUNTAINS www.vtskiandride.com

6 KIDS TO WATCH

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STRATTON MOUNTAIN

DECEMBER 14-16, 2018

WINTERWONDERGRASS.COM

CONTENTS / 04.01

FEATURES IN THE RACE TO BUY SKI RESORTS, WHO WINS? p. 26

Vail Resorts and Alterra Mountain Company started the largest ski resort buying spree in the history.What does it mean for Vermont, and for you? By Abagael Giles

THE HOUSE OF THE FUTURE p. 36

In the Mad River Valley, visionary architect David Sellers has built a house designed to last 500 years.

And you can rent it this fall on AirBnB. By Lisa Lynn

CARINTHIA = TEN p. 44

In the last decade, Carinthia Parks at Mount Snow has turned out some of the world’s premier freeskiers and riders. This year, the legendary park adds something really big. By Lisa Lynn In the Mad River Valley, foliage season and ski season overlap.

FIRST TRACKS FIRST TRACKS | YOUR OWN PRIVATE MOUNTAIN,

COLUMNS p. 6

This season, one of these Vermont ski areas could be yours for a day.

Photo by Brian Mohr/EmberPhoto

RESORT NEWS | VERMONT SENDS IT,

p. 9

From new base lodges to new owners, here’s what’s on tap for this winter.

LOCAL HEROES | SWITCHING GEARS ,

p. 15

These three skiers, all under 30, also have other mad skills.

APRÈS| BREW TASTINGS AND TRAILS,

p. 19

Get off the beaten path on these outstanding craft brew trails.

EDITOR’S LETTER | FINDING HOME,

p. 4

COMPETITION | NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK ,

Look who just made the U.S. Ski Teams for the first time.

p. 53

COACH | 3 WAYS TO TRAIN FOR WINTER p. 56

If you want to get ready for winter, here’s how the pros train.

RETRO VT | THE 2018 HALL OF FAME,

p. 58

THE GREEN MOUNTAIN CALENDAR |

p. 60

CHAIRLIFT Q/A | THE LOGGER RETURNS,

p. 64

ON THE COVER: Handing a friend his camera, Brooks Curran shows how to get the goods. Taken in November, at Jay Peak. Photo by Brooks Curran

vtskiandride.com Fall 2018 3

FINDING HOME

CONTRIBUTORS

Where are you going to ski? Which pass are you going to buy? The questions are flying faster than the fall leaves. In the last year, the season pass landscape has exploded, thanks to Vail Resorts’ addition of Stowe (and now Okemo), Alterra’s purchase of Stratton and its Ikon Pass—which now includes access to 14 resorts, plus seven days at Killington and Sugarbush. Abagael Giles’ story “In the Charge to Buy Ski Resorts, Who Wins?” is an in-depth view of what’s happened in the last year, why so many ski resorts are being gobbled up and which season’s pass includes what.

For many skiers and riders, though, there’s more to choosing where to ski than simply the price, the size of the mountain or where else you can ski on a season’s pass. As Boston’s Hunt Stookey told Giles, “Sugarbush feels like authentic Vermont, the type of skiing I grew up with.”

Twenty years ago, I was an editor at SKI Magazine which, at the time, meant I could ski anywhere from Aleyeska, Alaska to Sugarloaf, Maine, for free. And I did. Ski towns like Telluride, Truckee and Jackson Hole tempted me to stay. But after spending a few weekends in the Mad River Valley I knew that one day I would move to Vermont.

There’s a sense of community and belonging at Vermont’s ski areas that’s irresistible, be it the sense of authenticity at Sugarbush (above), the old-school vibe of places like Mad River Glen and Magic Mountain, or the high energy at Mount Snow’s Carinthia Parks. That energy has created two generations of the finest freeriders and skiers on the planet. As Sean Logan says in our story on Carinthia Parks on p.44: “My best friends and the people I ski with now are the ones I grew up with at Carinthia.”

When architect David Sellers came upon the Mad River Valley in 1965, something struck him too. Sellers created his own community on Prickly Mountain, across the valley from Sugarbush, importing friends who also built houses there. We’re honored to be the first publication to showcase Sellers’ newest Prickly Mountain project, the visionary House of the Future.

So, when you are thinking about what pass to buy or where to ski, you might want to keep this question in mind, too: Where’s your house of the future?

And if you are thinking of moving, Vermont is making it easy with “Stay-to-Stay” weekends (the next is October 19-22) where you can sign up for meetings with employers, realtors and entrepreneurs. The state is also offering up to $10,000 in incentives to telecommuters who move here in 2019. The details are at thinkvermont.com/relocate.

Now that’s a sweet deal. —Lisa Lynn, Editor

Abagael Giles After working for a newspaper in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., Assistant Editor Abagael Giles returned home to Vermont last spring. On page 27, Giles does a deep dive into the season pass wars and ski area consolidation.

David Pollard has been designing VT Ski + Ride since it first became a magazine, four years ago. Though he lives in Connecticut, he rides all over Vermont and keeps considering moving here.

Lindsay Selin The daughter of two Vermont architects, Lindsay Selin truly believes that architecture has the power to transform our lives—and her photographs of the “House of the Future,” p. 36 capture this.

What’s New at VTSKIANDRIDE.COM?

WIN A SKI WEEKEND, A SEASON’S PASS AND GEAR Thanks to our partners, we’re giving one lucky winner a weekend at Stowe’s swank Topnotch Resort (with a spa treatment), a pair of Renoun skis, Dodge boots and a season’s pass to the Trapp Family Lodge. GET THE NEWS FIRST Sign up for our e-newsletter for breaking news and deals. LOG ON to see videos and stories that you won’t find in print. SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE Don’t miss an issue—read our free digital edition and find back issues at vtskiandride.com.

EDITORIAL Publisher, Angelo Lynn angelo@vtskiandride.com Editor/Co-Publisher, Lisa Lynn editor@vtskiandride.com

ADVERTISING SALES & DISTRIBUTION

HEADQUARTERS

Christy Lynn, Advertising Manager christy@vtskiandride.com | 802-388-4944

VT SKI+RIDE is published four times a year

by Addison Press Inc., 58 Maple Street, Middlebury, VT 05753

Greg Meulemans greg@vtskiandride.com

Creative Director, David Pollard

Dave Honeywell dave_golfhouse@madriver.com

VT SKI+RIDE print subscriptions are available for $25 (U.S.) or $35 (Canada) per year. Digital subcriptions are free. Subscribe at vtskiandride.com

Assistant Editor, Abagael Giles, abagael@vtskiandride.com;

Wilkie Bushby Wilkie@vtskiandride.com

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Contributors: Brooks Curran, David Goodman, Bud Keene, Brian Mohr, Doug Stewart, Jeb Wallace-Brodeur

Circulation & Distribution Mgr.: Lisa Razo subscribe@vtskiandride.com

4 Fall 2018 vtskiandride.com

AUDI FIS SKI WORLD CUP Killington, Vermont November 23-25, 2018 killington.com/worldcup

FIRSTTRACKS YOUR OWN PRIVATE VERMONT

L

ast Valentine’s Day, Lycored, maker of wellnessproducts and nutraceuticals, showed Vermont skiers a lot of love. The New Jersey-based multinational rented Magic Mountain, set up a booth for “love letters” and gave out free skiing to all as part of its #rethinkbeautiful campaign. In a, um, sweetheart of a deal, anyone who showed up at Magic was treated to a free day of skiing.

Lycored isn’t the only company that’s taken advantage of Magic’s policy of renting out the entire mountain to groups or individuals midweek (Monday through Wednesday) when the lifts are typically closed. Manchester building supply company RK Miles also booked Magic to throw a party for its customers.

You can book Magic, too. For $5,000, ride the lifts from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., without ever standing in a liftline or having anyone (other than your invited buddies) poach your pow.

Other mountains are also up for rent. Suicide Six in Woodstock pulls out all the stops in a deal that’s targeted

6 Fall 2018 vtskiandride.com

at corporate retreats. If you “Buy Six For a Day,” for $7,500 you get exclusive use of the mountain for 200. You also get ski and boot rentals, an activity director to help organize races or events, coffee and hot chocolate, cross-country skiing (and equipment), meeting and banquet rooms and shuttles to the Woodstock Inn & Resort, where guests can stay at group rates.

New this season, Pico Mountain has a private mountain rental option on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. “This is a unique destination to host your next fundraiser, corporate event or family outing,” says Lee Cohen, group sales manager at Killington Resort and Pico Mountain. “It’s a guaranteed way to get you first chair, fresh snow and no lift lines.”

The private mountain rental, with two lifts (Golden and Summit) and a chance to ski 1,967 feet of vert is $6,500 for up to 250 guests (more than that and you’ll get charged $15 a person) and is available from January 8 through April 4, 2019. Food, beers and drinks are extra, so maybe ask your buddies to buy a round. n

Photo by Chandler Burgess/Killington

Tired of crowds? You can have Pico Mountain all to yourself (and 250 friends) this winter.

vtskiandride.com Fall 2018 7

Do everything or nothing at all – it’s up to you.

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Resort News

VERMONT SENDS IT Vermont will be booming this winter with new base lodges, new ownership of a number of resorts, new ski passes, lifts and programs. Here’s what to expect.

By Abagael Giles

Photos courtesy Sugarvbush and Bolton

Sugarbush celebrates turning 60 this winter with events such as “sloshwicking” (above.)

Bolton Valley doubles down on its guided backcountry skiing, right.

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ou don’t have to look far in Vermont this season to find a reason to celebrate. With big birthdays for Sugarbush (60th) and Mad River Glen (70th), a rebirth for Mount Ascutney, a new park and lodge for Mount Snow and new owners moving in at Okemo, there’s a lot going on.

The Ascutney Outdoors Center was slated to open in September. The 3,000-square-foot lodge will be open for ski season and will serve as the base for the mountain’s year-round multi-use trails. The upstairs features a large open room with a small kitchen, rest rooms and, best of all, large windows with a view of the mountain and a deck. New this year is a lift-operated snow tubing center and, if all goes as planned, a new 1,800-foot Dopplemayr T-bar, which will take skiers from the new base lodge to mid-mountain.The old rope tow will still operate, serving skiers with access to natural snow.

Bolton Valley is doubling down as a center for backcountry skiing. This year it will offer group and private guided backcountry ski tours from its Nordic center. Group tours are $75 per day, which includes the cost of a Nordic day pass. Rental packages for high-end splitboards and ski touring equipment complete with lightweight Dynafit tech bindings are available for $63 to $68 per day onsite. Rentals include skins and boots. A private guided tour costs $220.

Additionally, Bolton Lodge and Bryant Camp, originally built in the 1920s and restored in 2017, will reopen to skiers who want to ski up for a backcountry stay this winter, through March 31. Both are operated by the Green Mountain Club. Best yet, on Dec. 6 anyone dressed as Santa and Mrs. Claus skis free at Bolton This winter, Bromley partners with Arena Snowpark, a Whistler/Blackcomb-based company that has built parks for Olympic and FIS World Cup events, to revamp its park. Once completed (later this season), it will be one of the most extensive progression parks in the East, Bromley claims. Don’t worry—you can also still hit the existing rails.

And just next to Bromley, the classic Seesaw’s Lodge (formerly Johnny Seesaws) will reopen this winter after a three-year hiatus.The menu features local fare like Seesaw’s Poutine—hand cut French fries drenched in braised duck leg gravy and Maplebrook Farm cheese curds. Try the craft cocktails and sit around the fire in a rustic-chic dining room and bar or book one of the stylish cabins.

Burke Mountain recently installed a new booster pump at its summit that will allow it to double snowmaking capacity and get more terrain covered and open earlier in the season.The Bunker Hill trail received some extra TLC, with snowmaking pipes installed and repaired to give them much more efficient snowmaking across the lower mountain. A new system for monitoring and operating

vtskiandride.com Fall 2018 9

Shuffleboard and darts come to Stratton’s new BaseCamp bar. Stratton also gets a new chairlift while it’s old chairlift has been purchased by Magic, (below)

the snowmaking system has also been installed, which will help get more snow on the hill faster.

The Hermitage Club at Haystack Mountain may have a second shot at operating this winter. The Club closed after failing to pay more than $1 million to the State of Vermont in back taxes. A club membership is required to ski at Haystack Mountain, which cost $65,000 at one point in 2016.

As of press time, the club’s members had voted to reopen the ski area this winter, collectively raising the $4 million they’ll need to operate the ski area through a membership dues increase.

At Jay Peak, new skiers and riders will have access to advice and pointers from instructors on the slopes–

10 Fall 2018 vtskiandride.com

without having to commit to either rentals or a lesson.

As part of the new Guided Discovery Program, first time skiers and riders who rent their equipment at Jay can expect to have unfettered access to professional instructors in the Magic Carpet area every day starting at 11 a.m. If, at 1 p.m., they decide they didn’t have a good time, they can return their rental equipment for a refund.

If they are interested in signing up for a lesson, they earn a $20 coupon good toward the cost of a $45 group lesson on the regular mountain.

Additionally, Jay is promoting its new Vennedag Program, which translates to “friends day” in Norwegian.

For a flat rate of $360 for a full day or $180 for a half day, you can book an instructor for a group lesson–with a group of your choosing. “The idea is that, as a group of friends, you could be hopping around the mountain and see something that’s challenging and say to your instructor, help us ski that,” says Director of Communications JJ Tolland.

At Killington, POWDR corporation will invest $25 million in new projects for the 2018-2019 season.

This winter, the mountain unveils its new 6-pack bubble lift, the Snowdon Six Express, which will replace the Snowdon Quad and cut the lift ride from mid-mountain to the summit from 10 to 12 minutes to four and a half. The lift also shields riders from wind and snow. The Snowdon quad will be relocated to the South Ridge area, improving skier access to Pipe Dream.

Riders at Killington this summer may have noticed four tunnels being installed on the mountain: the Snowdon Mountain Tunnels, the Upper Bunny Tunnel and the Lower Chute Tunnel. According to Communications Director Kristel Filmore, they will be complete in time for ski season and will provide more top to bottom runs for intermediate skiers and better access to the K-1 Express Gondola off of Ramshead and Snowdon. Killington also widened and rerouted portions of the Great Northern trail.

The mountain is also adding four new groomers to its fleet this year, including one Prinoth Bison Winch Cat, which will specialize in steep terrain like the World Cup Superstar Trail. There will also be a Pisten Bully Park Cat and two new Prinoth Bison Free Groomers, to help manage snow produced by the 44,000 feet of replaced and new snowmaking pipeline installed this summer. It will also add RFID gates that automatically scan your pass.

Mad River Glen turns 70 this year and when we asked Marketing Director Eric Friedman what was new for at the ski area, he replied, “I mean, we’re kind of famous for not changing much.” Despite that, the resort plans to revamp its mid-mountain Bird Cage Lodge. For the first time, skiers will be able to buy wine and beer at

Photos couetesy Magic and Stratton

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Mikaela Shiffrin and the top women slalom and giant slalom racers in the world return for the FIS Killington Cup over Thanksgiving Weekend.

the Bird Cage. It will also get a new, expanded deck and a this summer after 40 years at the Snow Bowl. The new new entrance designed to keep the facility warmer. general manager will be Rikert Nordic Center Director Magic Mountain has been hard at work this summer Mike Hussey. Hussey has overseen major expansions installing a new mid-mountain lift, called the Green Chair. to snowmaking at Rikert and says a big high efficiency According to owner and president Geoff Hatheway, Magic overhaul is slated for the Snow Bowl, which “should Mountain hasn’t had a mid-mountain lift since 1997, and push our opening date ahead by as much as a month, this change will create more opportunities for beginner Hussey says. The Snow Bowl a hopes to open between and intermediate skiers, who previously had to ski more Nov.14 and 20 this season and Hussey says more efficient challenging terrain off the top of the mountain to access snow guns and hydrant technology will allow the ski area to green and blue trails at the bottom.

Additionally, either this year or next year, another new lift, which it purchased from AN EVEN BIGGER, BETTER WORLD CUP Stratton (remember the Snowbowl Quad?) will replace the existing Black Line Chair lift On November 23-25, the best women slalom and GS ski racers in the and double the mountain’s capacity. world are coming back to Killington. Among those expected are homeThese improvements are part of a plan to town hero Mikaela Shiffrin and, possibly, up-and-coming Vermont invest $1.5 million in improvements to lifts slalom and GS junior star, Abi Jewett , 18, of Ripton and Dartmouth and snowmaking over the next two years.

College ski racer, Tricia Mangan, 21.

According to Hatheway, the ski area hopes When Killington originally signed on for the World Cup, the governto double the size of its snowmaking pond ing body, the Federation International du Ski (FIS) gave it two years.

With in-your-face viewing on Superstar, a bulletproof course, free live before the start of the 2018-2019 season, concerts from the likes of O.A.R. and Dispatch, and a vendor village, allowing them to make more snow and Killington blew the doors off all previous attendance for a women’s World groom more of their intermediate trails. For Cup in the U.S., ensuring another year, and probably, more down the now, Hatheway plans to continue to limit the road. “From FIS’ side, it’s a big wish to be able to return to Killington number of people who buy day tickets to to continue the really good start we’ve had here. We’ve also heard very 2,000 on a given day. positive feedback from many additional stakeholders regarding the Last year the Middlebury Snow Bowl market and interest and also the practical work and service that has been made skiers very happy when it started done here for everyone attending the World Cup,” noted FIS director serving beer for the first time. Long time Atle Skaardal at a conference in June.

“Don’t recreate what you just did. Go back to where you started, General Manager Peter Mackey retired

focus on the process of what you did, and add what you want to do better,” Killington’s World Cup chair Herwig Demschar added, speaking to a crowd that included organizers of World Cups around the globe.

Demschar and Killington are serious about that and this Thanksgiving weekend expect The Beast to roar again, and even louder as it hopes to break its own attendance record of 32,000 visitors for the weekend. On Sept. 5 tickets went on sale, ranging from Grand Stand bleachers ($40) to Superfan tickets for $125 (which include a lift ticket voucher) to the new VIP seating in the semi-heated finish pavilion for $150 for one day. Parking passes were going for $20 to $50.

However, with plenty of shuttles up to the mountain and free viewing at the finish-line spectating area, even if you didn’t score the ticket you wanted you can still be part of the East Coast’s biggest skiing event and party.

Don’t miss it.

vtskiandride.com Fall 2018 11

u THERE’S AN EPIC APP FOR THAT While there are many apps that can track your skiing, such as Trace Snow, Ski Tracks, SNOCRU and Slopes, Vail Resorts’ EpicMix mobile app now allows Stowe skiers to do all that and socialize. (Okemo will not yet be online.)

The EpicMix app lets you download and share photos taken of you and your friends by resort photographers, earn badges for completing challenges customized to your skiing ability and uses pass scanning technology to keep track of your kids and family every time they get on a new lift. EpicMix even allows you to race against your friends or pro skiers such as Lindsay Vonn on slopes you’ve both skied, and allows you to enter multi-resort challenges for most vertical feet skied and earn badges. One couple even earned a JetSetter badge for skiing Vail, Park City, Utah and Heavenly, Calif. in all in one day. Of course, they used their private jet.

The app also gives skiers real time updates on conditions and tracks personal stats, like the number of days and vertical feet you’ve skied. It lets skiers and riders avoid long lift lines by previewing wait times and gives real time updates about lift closures, holds and openings.

According to Stowe’s Jeff Wise, Vail Resorts will not include a parking guide in this year’s EpicMix app for Stowe as it does for some of its other resorts, but the company is considering building one in the future.

All of that data is fun for skiers, but it’s also incredibly useful for Vail Resorts. It allows the company to do targeted advertising that cross-markets products to customers according to their abilities and skiing patterns. It also lets the resort to see which trails are skied the most and by whom, and which challenges and learning tools are most popular at a particular destination.

The EpicMix app is even accessible through a PC, so if you’d rather not be looking at you’re phone all day, you can monitor your vert or photos after you get home.

The app is free in the iTunes app store for all Epic and Epic Local passholders.

make more snow early in the season.

Also new this year is a season’s pass that gives skiers access to both Rikert and the Middlebury Snow Bowl and a $40 combo ticket, good for a half day each at Rikert and the Snow Bowl.

Mount Snow unveils its new 42,000-square-foot Carinthia Base Lodge in November in time for the 10th anniversary of its terrain park. There will be two bars in the new lodge, along with a 9,000-square-foot deck. The mountain plans to extend its 100-acre terrain park to the base of the lodge so that you can watch events like the Carinthia Classic, a new rail competition for skiers and riders with a $20,000 prize purse, and a new snowboard event from Snowboy Productions. The mountain has also completed a $30 million upgrade to its snowmaking equipment, which doubled its capacity. Snowmaking now covers more than 80 percent of its terrain.

12 Fall 2018 vtskiandride.com

In June, Vail Resorts announced plans to purchase Okemo Mountain Resort and from the mountain’s previous operators, Triple Peaks LLC, as part of an $82 million multi-resort deal. According to Bonnie MacPherson, director of public relations for Okemo, Vail Resorts has earmarked $35 million for improvements to be made over the next two years across the three resorts it acquires as part of the Triple Peaks deal– Okemo, Mount Sunapee and Crested Butte Mountain Resort. Okemo will now be part of the Epic Pass and offer unlimited skiing for the 20182019 season.

Pico Mountain made some major snowmaking improvements this summer, including adding two new snow guns. Permitting is underway to provide a new water source for snowmaking, too, which, if approved, will also increase snowmaking capacity and consistency.

Also new this summer is a new rooftop solar system on the administration building, and, for the first time you can rent the entire resort (see p. 6) starting in January.

At Smugglers Notch Resort, fat biking will be available for the first time this season.

The mountain will offer a rental fleet and will groom trails on its existing mountain bike trail network. They’ll also be offering a new intermediate skier’s flow trail, designed to teach kids and adults how to better engage their edges to ski the mountain’s steeper natural terrain.

“We plan to shape it into a banked slalom course that is kind of mountain bike- and motorcross-inspired, to help get people comfortable making turns on natural terrain,” says Public Relations Director Mike Chait.

At Stowe, skiers and riders will now have access to the EpicMix mobile app, which lets you track your personal ski stats, like the number of days skied, or vertical feet skied, and compare them with friends. It also lets you preview lift line times around the mountain and see which lifts are open, closed or on hold and preview weather conditions Additionally, Epic Passes will be scanned by attendants instead of the old RFID gates, which Stowe is removing. Skiers will point to a pocket and the attendant will wave a scanner over it, hopefully eliminating the jumbling that used to occur when a pass malfunctioned at the gate to a lift.

This year, skiers can now watch snow accumulate on the mountain in live time with Vail Resorts’ live, on-mountain Snow Stake Cameras. A snow stake with measurement ticks is attached to a metal plate and

filmed. The plate is set to dump whatever has accumulated daily, so skiers can see a live streaming visual of how much snow is falling, via the mountain’s website.

Stowe is also creating new Family Adventure Zones by removing saplings that have popped up in the middle of established routes in the low-angle glades off of the Triple Chair and Four-Runner Quad, as well as off of Toll Road and Lullaby Lane. There will be ample signage to guide beginner tree skiers to comfortable terrain.

Like last season, the FourRunner Quad will start running at 7:30 a.m. on weekends and holidays and 8 a.m. weekdays and the mountain plans to close on April 21. There is also a plan to revamp the Octagon Café.

Stratton Mountain was acquired by Alterra Mountain Company in April 2017, and is now part of the Ikon Pass. The first sign of new investment: a high speed Dopplemayr quad replaces the existing Snow Bowl lift, reducing the time it takes to access the summit from mid-mountain from 14 minutes to five minutes.

Stratton will see $10 million in improvements this season, including the Stratton BaseCamp, a refurbished shipping container that serves as home to a new bar and pub. Skiers will be able to kick back on the container’s rooftop deck and watch the slopes or live music. The resort will also be home to a new bluegrass music festival, Winter WonderGrass, on December 14.

In December, Sugarbush will celebrate its 60th anniversary.

There will be live music and plenty of other celebrations throughout the winter. In March, the resort plans to host a series of events to celebrate its history, including “sloshwicking,” a purportedly oncepopular activity at Mt. Ellen. Sloshwickers race up and down the mountain with a ski on one foot, a snowshoe on the other and a broom for fending off their competitors.

For foodies, Worthy Burger will be opening a location in Warren, walking distance from the highly anticipated Lawson’s Finest Liquids tasting room, which is set to open late this fall. Old favorite Hyde Away will be operating a new restaurant, Sage, on the corner of Routes 17 and 100.

Suicide Six unveiled its new Elemental Bike Park in July. The mountain now offers three miles of lift-served downhill mountain bike trails developed by Vermont-based trail builder Sinuosity: Flowing Trails.

Bike rentals, coaching and lift tickets will be available through the fall, and an additional three miles of trails are planned for the future.

The bike park will be open seven days a week through the end of October.

Also new this fall are foliage chairlift rides up and down the mountain. The Red Barn dinner series at the Kelly Way Gardens was launched this summer, and will continue through the fall, featuring family-style meals crafted to include seasonal Vermont products.

For this winter, mountain biking trails will offer skiers new powder stashes and terrain. Eight new tower fan guns and several new lance guns will vastly improve snowmaking capacity on The Face and hopefully allow the mountain to open earlier for skiing. n

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SWITCHING GEARS

Local Heros

You may know them as darn good skiers, but these threeVermonters (all under 30) are rocking the world in other ways, as well.

NAME: MAZIE HAYDEN AGE: 18 OCCUPATION: Freshman at the University of Vermont, pro mountain bike racer. CLAIM TO FAME Second at 2018 FIS World Junior Championships in skicross; third at the UCI Mountain Bike Downhill World Cup, LIVES IN: Pittsfield, Vt

Photos courtesy Mazie Hayden

SKI CROSS AND MOUNTAIN BIKE CHAMP

Mazie Hayden had no idea she was even being considered to be part of the U.S. Team when she received the invite to the 2017 UCI Mountain Bike World’s in Australia, last fall. “I’d only done one UCI World Cup, the one in Mont St. Anne, Quebec,” the Killington Mountain School student, said at the time. Her second place finish in Canada, combined with a steady stream of podium finishes in the Pro Cat 1 categories in Vittoria Eastern States Cup events and a fifth overall (not just in her age group, and competing against pros) at the U.S. Nationals in West Virginia, secured Hayden the invite.

The invitation came at just the right time as she just happened to be planning to go to Australia in September anyway, to ski.

You see, downhill mountain biking is Mazie Hayden’s second sport.

Hayden’s first sport, ski cross, takes her Down Under each fall. Ski cross, an event that sets four or five competitors out on a course at once, with jumps and speed sections all thrown in, has been an Olympic sport since 2010.

Hayden qualified to compete in the Olympics in 2018 but the U.S. chose not to field a team.

That has not stopped Hayden. This past August 27, she finished second in ski cross in the FIS World Junior Ski Championships in New Zealand. Two weeks earlier, she finished third at the UCI Mountain Bike Downhill World Cup at Mont St. Anne.

Hayden grew up skiing and mountain biking around Killington Mountain Resort, where her father works. She

Mazie Hayden, top, competing at Mount Snow and, bottom, in New Zealand where she just took silver in ski cross at the FIS World Junior Championships.

vtskiandride.com Fall 2018 15

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NAME: IAN COMPTON AGE: 29 OCCUPATION: Artist/woodworker. Past: Professional skier, sole curator of webisodes on iancomptonsweak.com CLAIM TO FAME Artist and woodcarver. Produced videos with Line’s Traveling Circus, Level 1, Meathead Films. Doesn’t own a cell phone. SKIS: Mount Snow, Jay Peak, Stowe, Sugarbush LIVES IN: Greensboro, Vt.

16 Fall 2018 vtskiandride.com

IAN COMPTON: FREESKIER AND ARTIST

You may have seen Ian Compton’s lanky six-foot frame flying through parks at Mount Snow, Killington, or Sugarbush.You may have spotted him coaching at Stowe or Jay Peak or scouting stair rails at schools in Burlington. But the place Compton really likes to ski now is a dairy farm near his secluded farmstead in the Northeast Kingdom.

“This farmer sets up his tractor to run a free rope tow for locals on weekends. On a busy day, you might see 10 cars there. It’s awesome,” Compton raves.

It’s not the lifestyle you’d expect from a skier who was once on the Nordica freeski team, which features established pros like Rory Bushfield and Caroline Gleich.

Then again, Ian Compton isn’t your average pro.

Compton grew up near Brattleboro, Vt. where his father, singer/songwriter John Compton was based when he wasn’t touring with likes of the Allman Brothers, Blood, Sweat and Tears or his own acoustic band, Appaloosa.

Compton got a video camera for Christmas one year and began shooting with his friends. Those early videos made a splash online and at 19, he landed a sponsorship with Line Skis. “When you’re a kid and someone hands you a pair of skis or a pair of boots, that’s how you know you’ve done it,” he says. “That moment was huge.”

Compton became part of a crop of talented skiers in Mount Snow’s freestyle program who would take their skills across the country. He started making appearances with Line’s Traveling Circus at ski areas all over the U.S. His early work features him with a goofy, often onefooted style of grinding handrails or spinning off lips. His infectious energy and talent earned him a reputation as one of the more charismatic and recognizable online ski personalities.

The on-the-road skiing and shooting was largely nofrills: the Traveling Circus webisodes show the crew eating lots of fast food, downing doses of 5-Hour Energy and driving impossibly long distances.The webisodes earned

Photos courtesy Ian Compton

Once a sponsored pro and star of freeski films, Ian Compton now skis at a dairy farm near his Northeast Kingdom home. The woodworker and artist crafts pieces like this table, at right, that he sells on Etsy.

earned her first USASA National Ski Cross Championship title in 2012 when she was 11, and has won every USASA National title since.

This summer, she also turned pro as a mountain biker/ She finished sixth at the Fox U.S. Open at Killington and won her first pro downhill race at the Mountain Creek (N.J.) Pro GRT Spring Nationals where the women’s field was packed with top pros from California, Canada, Colorado and the East Coast. In August, Hayden was one of 17 women from all sports across the country to receive a Travel and Training grant from the Womens Sports Foundation.

What’s it like to compete in two sports at the international level? Hayden acknowledges it can be a challenge for scheduling races and training. But, as she says, “I have so much fun biking and I really enjoy competing in ski cross. There are lots of movements you do for both, like ‘popping.’ And the most important thing is the mental preparation for each race and that carries over for both seasons—and overcoming the fear,” she says, adding, “that said, it’s better to fall on snow.” —Lisa Lynn

as many as 200,000 views. Compton continued shooting on his own and with other groups, landing spots in productions by Level 1 and Meathead Productions.

But as his videos went viral, the growing number of people who recognized him on the street started to take a toll.

“I was really stoked on people knowing who I was,” he says. “But I pretty much grew up on the internet and it’s hard to grow with people having an assumption about who you are. It became something I wanted to get away from.” He also suffered a back injury that, at age 26, made it painful to even walk. “I had a limp foot and was in constant pain. I didn’t think I could keep skiing,” he says.

So he headed north—far north—to a farmhouse on eight acres in Greensboro built in 1952 by his grandfather and used by his grandmother as her artist’s retreat.

Since making the place his permanent home in 2013, he and his sister Vanessa (a professional climber and accomplished collage artist) reclaimed three acres of swamp to make room for an organic garden. Ian also built a yurt as his woodworking shop.

And he started doing ice baths in the pond nearby. “I’d limp down there, cut a hole in the ice and throw myself in,” he recalls. He also did acupuncture. It worked and at 29, Compton is back on skis. He has also become an accomplished woodworker who sells his tables and cutting boards on Etsy.

“I am just so so lucky. It’s a special place that puts me in touch with everything I love,” he says of the region he now calls home. And now that’s he’s back on skis, expect to see some new footage soon. —Evan Johnson

Photo by Tracy Beers

IAN CLARKE: PILOT AND SKI MOUNTAINEER

Before he could drive himself to school, Ian Clarke was the only 14-year-old in the state to earn a solo gliding pilot’s license. He got his commercial pilot’s license at 17.

In 2017, he was also the only American to compete as a junior in the International Ski Mountaineering Federation World Championships in Italy, where he finished 23rd overall, just one year after his first skimo race.

Clarke grew up near Killington and was introduced to glider planes as a kid by his dad, who was a commercial pilot. “I used to get dragged to the airport, where I’d hang out in the hangar with the pilots. Eventually I started cleaning planes,” said Clarke.

Today, he works at Sugarbush Soaring as a pilot during his summers off from the University of Vermont, where he’s double majoring in Community Entrepreneurship and International Development. Clarke says being a commercial glider pilot is an exercise in self-confidence.

“When you’re 17 years old and can’t shave and clients are

Ian Clarke (right) spends summers working as a glider pilot and racing road bikes. In the winter, he competes at the international level in ski mountaineering.

stepping into a plane you’re about to fly, they give you some funny looks.”

Clarke is also a member of the Jamison Capital-Cannondale U23 elite cycling team. His favorite ride is the 33-mile Lincoln Gap-App Gap loop, which includes one of the steepest miles of paved road in the Lower 48.

Building up cycling endurance helped him compete as a junior in the 2017 Ski Mountaineering World Championships. He said the experience was humbling and he thinks it made him faster. “I like to joke that it’s the hardest sport that nobody cares about,” said Clarke, who is also a former alpine ski racer. “In Europe, it’s like the NBA.” In an effort to get more young people interested in skimo locally, Clarke helped found the UVM Backcountry Skiing Club.

Gliding aside, Clarke has a full fall of cross training ahead of him to prepare for the Skimo World Cup qualifying races in Colorado in December 2018. “Skimo is new enough that there isn’t really an established rule or training method that people at the top have adopted,” he says. “I plan to do a lot of running up and down Killington and a lot of cycling.”

Clarke sees commonalities between skiing, soaring and cycling. “All three sports give you freedom of motion.

You’re always trying to go further and faster and there’s always more to explore,” he says. “That was especially exciting for me as a kid. Before I could drive, I was flying over the hillsides on my skis and in the air.”

On August 29, a glider crashed into Sterling Mountain, near Smuggler’s Notch. Tragically, two passengers and the pilot, Don Post, who owned Stowe Soaring, perished. Clarke says his thoughts are with those who were affected by the crash but that he’ll continue to soar.

Clarke credits flying with giving him a discipline that he applies to all his sports. “In flying, we have checklists.

I make them for big bike rides and skimo adventures because when you’re nervous or scared it’s comforting to know everything’s in the green.” —Abagael Giles n

NAME: IAN CLARKE

AGE: 20 OCCUPATION: Student at University of Vermont; Licensed commercial glider pilot CLAIM TO FAME Ian Clarke was the only American to compete as a junior in the 2017 Ski Mountaineering World Championships and has been the youngest commercial glider pilot in Vermont. LIVES IN: Burlington, Vt.

vtskiandride.com Fall 2018 17

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Après

BREW TASTINGS & TRAILS

Photo courtesy Whetstone Station

If you want to sample some of Vermont’s hidden trails and get a taste of some of the nation’s top beers, the Green Mountains have you covered. By Lisa Lynn

At Whetstone Station you can sample Vermont brews with views of the Connecticut River.

O

n a crisp morning, Rick Sokoloff maneuvers his mountain bike over a series of obstacles in the meadow by the Trapp Family Lodge Adventure Center. “You can handle a drop if you just learn to keep your weight back and your arms loose,” says Sokoloff, a long-time ski instructor. “Taking even one lesson just makes you so much more comfortable when you come to a drop on a trail and know you can handle it. And then, once you do, you’re ready to reward yourself with a really good beer after.” And just as he knows his trails, Sokoloff can also guide you to a great beer.

Like any good ski bum, Sokoloff has worn many hats: ski instructor, tour guide, real estate broker and founder of Stowe’s mountain bike club. The one he wears now seems like a dream job: running the touring company 4 Points VT. Often, his mornings start with teaching a group of mountain bikers—a family gathering, a bachelor or bachelorette party— how to negotiate the trails of the Trapp Family Lodge. Afternoons, he’s likely to be found teaching visitors about one of his other passions: Vermont beer.

The lessons starts over excellent Bavarian fare (think bratwurst) at the

vtskiandride.com Fall 2018 19

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Photos courtesy Lawson’s Finest and von Trapp Brewing

von Trapp Brewing Bierhall (home to the 2,000-barrel von Trapp brewery) and a tasting of the crisp, light German-style Kolsch which won gold this past summer at the U.S. Open Beer Championship as well as the classics, Pilsner, Helles and Dunkel. Sokoloff then piles guests in his van for a chauffeured tour of some of the other world-class breweries in the area. They might include The Alchemist (rated No. 1 by Ratebeer), Idletyme, practically across the street, Rock Art, Lost Nation and tiny Ten Bends in Morrisville.

He’ll even make a trip to the revered Hill Farmstead in Greensboro, where the world’s No. 1 beers are brewed in such small quantities that people make pilgrimages there.

In Vermont, more than 50 craft breweries dot the landscape and more pop up each day. The craft scene has even given rise to a new type of beer, the Vermont (or New England) IPA, a hoppy double-IPA that The Alchemist’s Heady Topper has made into something of a national beer cult.

“We’ve had people fly in just to do a beer tasting for a day, and then fly back the same day,” says one of the ground crew at Tradewind Aviation, which operates scheduled and chartered flights out of the Stowe/ Morrisville airport. Ranch Camp, located just at the base of Stowe’s Cady Hill mountain bike network, doubles as bike, beer and burrito shop. Across the street, Doc Ponds features a rotating menu of beers and “beertails” (cocktails made with beers, like a Mezcal Gose-arita).The menu is curated

by Tom Rowlett, who has worked at von Trapp and The Alchemist and is

Stowe’s von Trapp Brewing celebrates its heritage at the Bierhall— which also serves up tasty Austrian fare, top.

Below, Lawson’s Finest’s new brewery and tasting room opens this fall in Waitsfield.

one of a handful of cicerone-certified bartenders in the state (the beer equivalent of a master sommelier). With more than 20 brews on tap, including hard-to-find ones such as small-batch beers from Vermont’s Backacre, River Roost and Good Measure breweries, it’s also become a de rigueur après bike spot. “We have five goto beers that represent different styles here,” he says, ticking off von Trapp’s pilsner, Hill Farmstead’s Edward, Fiddlehead’s IPA, Lost Nation’s gose, and Zero Gravity’s lager. He also praises the craft of places like Drop In: “The fact that they can make a Christmas Cake or Key Lime beer that tastes just like the food, is amazing.”

Umiak Adventures, which is known for hosting everything from SUP and guided canoeing to snowmobiling trips and dog sledding, has also gotten into the tasting-trail business with tours of the area’s top breweries and distilleries. If you are a connoisseur (or aspire to be one) the Brew Master tour is a special chance to learn more about how each brewery crafts its specialties. Umiak even offers a paddling trip down the Lamoille River, with tastings at Boyden Valley Winery.

And resorts are jumping in on the tasting scene, too. On Sept. 29, there’s the New England Craft Beer Open at Sugarbush where golfers sample local brews at each hole. Last spring, Garin Frost, owner and brewer of Hinesburg’s Frost Brewing, held court at a magical candlelit dinner at Sugarbush’s mid-mountain Allyn Lodge. Guests who skinned or rode the snowcat up were treated to a four-course meal with beer pairings, and then skied down by headlamp. Brewer/naturalist Sean Lawson hosts less-formal full-moon hikes and brew dinners at the base lodge at Mad River Glen, and Stowe’sThe Cliff House also hosts a beer pairing dinner as part of its Summit Series.

While Burlington and Stowe are epicenters for brewtours, consider some of these other tasting trails and pair them with trail hikes or bikes.

1. BURLINGTON: A BREW CITY If you’re headed to the city, you can practically walk between breweries such as Switchback, Magic Hat, Zero Gravity and one of the original classics,Vermont Pub and Brewery. If you want to get more of a workout, start your day on the waterfront bike path (you can rent bikes,

vtskiandride.com Fall 2018 21

u winters leading nature hikes at Mad River Glen. In fact, he and his wife Karen met on a moonlight snowshoe tour he was leading. A few years later, they set up Lawson’s Finest brewery at their home in Warren and began turning out one of the top rated beers in the country (Lawson’s Finest Double Sunshine IPA is currently ranked 17th in the U.S. by Beer Advocate). This fall, the couple are opening a stunning new brewery and tasting room, complete with great hall, tasting room and retail shop, with a fire pit and beer garden out back. More than 10 beers will be served with new ones in rotation and, says Karen Lawson, “we’ll be asking customers for feedback and recipe ideas and doing a special monthly ‘customer’s brew.’”

And if you want more than a beer, just down Route 100 in Warren, Mad River Distillers has guided tours of the distillery each day at 1 p.m. (book ahead) with samplings.

2. WATERBURY TO WARREN Waterbury, where The Alchemist got its start, is better known to some as Waterbeery.

While the Alchemist’s tasting room is now in Stowe, there’s more here to discover. Stop off at Prohibition Pig to sample the restaurant’s house brews and seasonal favorites as Jack Be Little, an English mild ale with house-roasted pumpkin and spice or Blueberry Milkshake Swine Cooler (the name says it all). Across the street, the Craft Beer Cellar is a place to stop and talk with a “Beercierge.”

Just south on Route 100 in the Mad River Valley, Sean Lawson straddles both “trail” worlds.

A naturalist by training, Lawson spends part of his

22 Fall 2018 vtskiandride.com

Otter Creek seasonal favorites are on tap. At Doc Ponds in Stowe, Tom Rowlett (one of Vermont’s seven certified cicerones) curates a local beer menu.

Photos courtesy Doc Ponds and Otter Creek Brewing

boats or even Rollerblades) and then begin your brew touring at Foam Brewers, just off the waterfront, where the brews change faster than the weather and some, like Emotions and Math (a farmhouse ale fermented and aged in Chardonnay barrels) are not even available in growlers. Other relative newcomers include Queen City Brewing (which opened a tasting room in 2014) and Simple Roots, which moved from garage to taproom in 2016. While in town, stop in at Mad River Distillers’ tasting room or see what’s on tap at Citizen Cider, among others.

3. THE MIDDLEBURY MILE (OR TWO) If you want to get the most tastings in per mile and run, ski or bike some of the prettiest trails in the state, head to Middlebury. At the Rikert Nordic Center, just east of the Middlebury Snow Bowl, cross-country trails ramble in and out of the woods and open meadows beneath the imposing backdrop of the Greens—also connecting to the trails near poet Robert Frost’s one-time cabin. Come November, Rikert is among the first Nordic centers to open for skiing (and fatbiking) thanks to extensive snowmaking and the Middlebury Snow Bowl, owned by Middlebury College, remains one of the least-crowded ski areas in the state.

Burn calories there, then head to downtown Middlebury where you can practically walk between some of the state’s best tasting rooms.

Starting from the south, on Route 7, drop in on Drop In Brewing. More than just a brewery, it’s home to the American Brewers Guild Brewing School, a place where brewers from around the world come to learn the craft.You can sign up for a one-hour tasting and lecture series or just simply pick up cans of their famous Sunshine & Hoppiness and darker Heart of Lothian or a growler of whatever is on tap.

On Exchange Street, Otter Creek Brewing has a brew pub featuring

both its regular canned beers and specialty seasonal beers like Germanstyle Oktoberfest and bottles of Coffee Drip Stout. It also has outdoor games like cornhole and live music some nights.

Beyond the breweries, it’s worth making a day of Middlebury’s eight tasting rooms, which you can do, self-guided, with cues from middtastingtrail.com. At Danforth Pewter’s Seymour Street shop, try WhistlePig’s whiskeys, or stop in at Appalachian Gap, which handcrafts its spirits in small batches to create Fractal Vodka, Mythic Gin and Ridgeline Whiskey. Next door at Stonecutter’s stunning tasting room, sample their barrel-aged, double gold medal award-winning gin or other spirits. Just a few hundred yards away, Woodchuck Cider has a tasting room in its giant barn-like structure. End the day at Lincoln Peak Vineyard’s winery, just north off Route 7 or head 20 minutes south on Route 7 to Foley Brothers, run by two brothers who moved into beer from the wine world and are crafting small-batch (the brewery is 7.5 barrels) IPAs, sours and ales.

4. SIP ACROSS CENTRAL VERMONT If you want to make a day of it, start near Killington by hiking the Sherburne Pass trail to Pico Peak (or the Long Trail) or biking the trails at Killington. Then, head east on Route 4 to Bridgewater for a stop at Long Trail’s riverfront brew pub. Try a sampling flight or what’s on tap (we recently had the limited-release Electric Boogaloo, described as a hoppy American wheat ale with notes of candied orange, peach and vanilla).

Make it a meal with the pub’s pulled pork sliders and pretzels.

Then, head to Suicide Six’s new Elemental Bike park, or to Ascutney’s mountain bike and hiking trails to work off lunch. Finish up at Harpoon Brewery where weekends (and Fridays, 5-7 p.m.) you can take a brewery tour and try what’s on tap (for the name alone, we love Clown Shoes Bubble Farm, a slightly-bitter IPA with tropical and citrus flavors). If you still want to drive, at Trout River Brewing in Springfield you can often find the classic Rainbow Red Ale or try their Hangry Angler.

Plan Your Beer Tour

If you want to learn more about beer touring, check out the Vermont Brewers Association website (vermontbrewers.com) which has additional tasting trails, a “brew passport” and descriptions of its 56 members.

Always have a designated driver or, better yet, hire a guide. The following organizations will not only drive you but, can educate you about brews and often arrange for special tastings or meetings with a brewmaster. Rates generally start at around $90 per person for a half day and include transportation, light snacks and tasting.

4 POINTS VT: Rick Sokoloff leads guided mountain biking and beer touring

in Stowe with behind-the-scenes talks and light snacks. 4pointsvt.com

CITY BREW TOURS: Based in Burlington, City Brew Tours visits four breweries (either in Burlington or in Stowe) with a pizza lunch included. citybrewtours.com UMIAK OUTFITTERS: beer, winery and distillery tours, as well as canoe trips, SUP rentals and more. umiak.com VERMONTOLOGY GUIDED TOURS: Based out of Killington,

Vermontology does guided tours from Middlebury to Shelburne or can arrange custom tours. vermontology.com

5. BRATTLEBORO’S BEER TOWN Greg Meulemans knows where to find the best brews in southern Vermont. His tiny, 800-square-foot Meulemans’ Craft Brews in Rawsonville stocks more than 400, including the hard-to-find Backacre, which he raves about. “It’s brewed by a couple at their home and you’ll only find it at some of the specialty brewpubs like Doc Ponds.”

Top photo by Lisa Lynn, bottom courtesy Whetstone Station

Rick Sokoloff (above) leads mountain bike tours and and teaches his 4PointsVT clients about beer, taking them for samplings at the best breweries in the region.

Meulemans is also big on the sours that Hermit Thrush, out of Brattleboro, is producing, especially the Gin Barrel Saison, (made in the barrels Caledonia Spirits uses to age) its award-winning Barr Hill gin or its signature sour Brattlebeer, made with local apples. In Brattleboro, two other must-stops are Whetstone Station and McNeill’s. At Whetstone Station on nice days you can sit in the biergarten overlooking the Connecticut River and sip a Big ‘Stoner double IPA or try Off the Rails, a hoppy, hazy black IPA, brewed with dark malts. McNeill’s is one of the oldest continually-operated breweries in the state.

For something a little different, head to the top of Hogback Mountain, near Mount Snow, where Beer Naked (formerly part of Pizzapalooza) has set up operations in the old Skyline Lodge with 100-mile views and brews such as their Missing Mink farmhouse saison.

J’ville, with tasting rooms in Jacksonville and West Dover (which it shares with Honora Winery) has highly-seasonal selections that range from lighter wheat beers (hibiscus, blueberry and blackberry) and a saison aged in Honora’s chardonnay barrels, to a rich maple brown ale and coffee stout. n

vtskiandride.com Fall 2018 23

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Brett Simison Photography

Brett Simison Photography

Having a snack at Rikert Nordic Center.

Jessica Sipe Photography

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IN THE CHARGE TO BUY SKI RESORTS, 26 Fall 2018 vtskiandride.com

For powder hounds, the rise of the multi-resort pass means you can now chase a snowstorm from Squaw Valley, Calif. to Sugarbush, Vt., or Silverton, Colo. to Mad River Glen (shown here), all on one pass.

WHO WINS? IN THE PAST 24 MONTHS WE’VE SEEN THE BIGGEST SKI RESORT BUYING SPREE IN HISTORY. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR VERMONT’S 20 RESORTS? AND WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR YOU?

BY ABAGAEL GILES

vtskiandride.com Fall 2018 27

old single chair with a new single.

“WHEN I STARTED BOLTON VALLEY, each ski area in the state was owned by one or two people,” reflected Ralph DesLauriers in early August as he sat in his office at Bolton Valley Resort. “I think most of them were owned by friends who got together to own a ski area, or families. Every area was owned by a real person, and we all kind of helped each other out,” said DesLauriers. “When I left Bolton in 1997, I think I was the last person in the country running the ski area they started.”

DesLauriers started Bolton Valley in 1966 on land his father Roland purchased for lumber. “When I graduated from Burlington High School in 1953, I knew maybe 12 kids at most who skied. It was something that was for wealthy out-of-state kids. So, I decided I wanted to teach every Vermont kid I could how to ski,” said DesLauriers.

In the first year they were open, Bolton Valley offered every Vermont student one lift ticket per week and one lesson, all for $10 a season. At its peak, Bolton Valley was teaching 2,000 Vermont kids from 40 schools to ski or ride each year in its after school program. I was one of them. Today, that number hovers at around 1,500 annually.

The mountain became a playground for the DesLauriers’ kids as well. His oldest sons, Rob and Eric, were early pioneers in extreme skiing. Rob DesLauriers has been featured in more than 20 ski films.

He was one of the first Americans to ski Mt. Everest and, along with his brothers Adam and Eric, he founded a ski film company, Straight Up Films, to document other big mountain ski descents.

28 Fall 2018 vtskiandride.com

THE BIG BUSINESS OF SKIING

At the tip top of the food chain, most of the ski resort companies, big and small, are owned by people who, like DesLauriers, have an intense passion for skiing.

John Cumming is a former mountain guide who co-founded Mountain Hardwear in 1993 before joining his father’s growing resort company, POWDR. By his own estimate, he’s climbed Mount Rainier 69 times. His wife, Kristi Terzian, was an Olympic slalom racer in the 1990s and no doubt helped influence the World Cup coming to POWDR’s Killington resort.

KSL Capital Partners, the private equity giant fueling Alterra Mountain Company, is led by, among others, Eric Resnick and Michael Shannon, both former executives at Vail Associates (the private predecessor to Vail Resorts, Inc.). Rusty Gregory, CEO of Alterra, started his career as a liftie at Mammoth Mountain and is a former heli-ski guide. Rob Katz came from Wall Street but has been involved with Vail Resorts since 1991, when he

Photo by Brian Mohr/EmberPhoto

In 2007, Mad River Glen skiers raised $1.8 million to replace the

When DesLauriers sold the resort in 1997, his youngest son, Evan, was just nine.Twenty years later, Evan, now 30, Adam, 45, and sister Lindsay, 39, told their dad they wanted back in.

In April 2017, after a successful decade in real estate, Ralph DesLauriers bought Bolton back.

That February, Vail Resorts had announced it would buy Stowe for $41 million. In July 2017, a conglomerate formed by Henry Crown & Company of Chicago and Denver-based KSL Capital Partners bought Intrawest Resort Holdings and formed Alterra Mountain Company in January 2018. That started the biggest consolidation spree the American ski industry has ever seen. In June 2018, Vail Resorts announced plans to purchase Triple Peaks, LLC, a group of three resorts that had been managed by Tim and Diane Mueller, former owners of Okemo, Vt., Mt.Sunapee, N.H. and Crested Butte, Colo. Once that deal closes, Vail Resorts will own 18 ski resorts.

Not to be outdone, Alterra, after a lightning buying spree, now owns 13 ski areas, including Stratton, Mont Tremblant, Squaw Valley and Mammoth Mountain.

Peak Resorts, parent of Mount Snow, also owns 14 resorts (mostly smaller urban markets) and POWDR owns Killington and Pico in Vermont along with another six ski areas out west.

What followed put smiles on the faces of many skiers and riders: the price wars began on season pass rates.

Vail Resorts cut the cost of a Stowe season’s pass in half, from a high of $1,860 for the 2016-2017 ski season, to $859 for an Epic Pass (good to varying degrees at 65 resorts) for the 2017-18 ski season. Suddenly, with an Epic Pass, you could ski at Stowe and 44 other destinations for less than a 2016-17 early-bird season’s pass had been any of five of Vermont’s largest resorts. At the same time, day tickets soared in cost from $99 to $131 at Stowe, making buying a season pass all the more attractive.

In reaction, eight Vermont resorts also dropped their pass prices.

Then, in January 2018, Alterra introduced the Ikon Pass, which, at $999, is now good at 36 resorts.

So, beyond a passion for skiing, why would DesLauriers or any smart business person purchase a ski resort, particularly as winters are getting warmer and snowfall more variable?

Photos courtesy Bolton Valley, top, and POWDR, bottom

worked as a senior partner at Apollo Management, L.P., an affiliate of the condos at Maine’s Sunday River and Sugarloaf and Vermont’s Killington former majority shareholder in Vail Resorts. He has served as Vail Resorts’ and Mount Snow. At its height in the late ‘90s, ASC owned nine resorts, CEO since 2006. including Killington and Sunday River.

These men are skiers, but they are also business people who American Skiing Company, as New Englanders well know, recognize that beyond the savings that owning multiple resorts can eventually failed and collapsed in 2007. offer, multiresort pass sales bring access to the names, data and credit And for the most part, the pattern of resorts investing in real estate cards of hundreds of thousands of people who can afford to spend has changed. close to $1,000 a year on a season pass, plus more on travel, lodging, In 2015, Katz told The Vail Daily that Vail Resorts was no longer dining and the other amenities connected with the sport. interested in developing real estate at its properties. “We’d rather For Alterra, this means it can cross-market its CMH Heli-skiing spend our money on the mountains,” he said, citing past conflicts with operations to Stratton skiers. In the same way, Vail Resorts can market resort communities as a contributing factor to the decision and saying rooms at its Rock Resort luxury hotels in Colorado and Wyoming to the company will court third party developers going forward. When Okemo and Stowe skiers. POWDR can market its Woodward action Vail bought Stowe, all of the Spruce Peak complex’s lodging remained sports centers and programs to Killington and Pico skiers and riders. Large with previous owner AIG and independent homeowners. companies can also consolidate the purchasing of items ranging from In Vermont, the outlier to this trend is Jay Peak, which is currently toilet paper to coffee (Vail Resorts will be now be serving Starbucks at under receivership and up for sale, along with its recently constructed Stowe and presumably Okemo) to Pisten Bullys. water park, Clips & Reels Recreational Center, its ice rink and more Consolidation is also a hedge against bad weather and brings than 3,000 beds. in revenue during a part of the year when many resorts have little “Jay Peak is unique because of the way our balance sheet is or no cash flow. In 2017, Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz told CNBC’s constructed,” says general manager Steve Wright. “We are not as focused Squawkbox: “The benefit of [the Epic] pass was that… we’re selling all on lift ticket sales and rely as much on lodging and real estate. We’ve these passes before the season starts, so we take all the risk of weather, done that consciously to protect ourselves from the vagaries of weather.” of economic fluctuations, out of the season POWDR takes yet another approach. before we even start it.”

In addition to its nine mountain resorts, These strategies allow the companies which boast 3.5 million skier visits annually, to make big capital investments. In March, it owns Outside TV, Woodward and Human just three months after Alterra Mountain Movement adventure and athletic training Company acquired Stratton Mountain, the camp brands and Sun Country Tours, a company announced plans to invest $10 whitewater rafting guide service. In the past million in capital improvements at Stratton few years, its focus on the outdoor adventure for the 2018-2019 season. Similarly, in June, lifestyle has been reflected in Killington’s Vail Resorts announced plans to acquire buildout of the mountain bike park (now the Okemo Mountain Resort and to invest $35 largest in the East), and this summer’s addition million in capital improvements to be shared of the WreckTangle (see p. 10). Killington has across Okemo, Mount Sunapee and Crested also been hosting events such as the Fox US Butte over the next two years.

Open of Mountain Biking, the Spartan Race A family affair: In 2017, Ralph DesLauriers (center) with And then there’s the element of scarcity: and Under Armour Mountain Running series, daughter Lindsay and son Evan, bought back Bolton there is limited land that ski areas can operate as well as the Audi FIS Ski World Cup. Valley, the ski resort he founded in 1966 on his dad’s land. on and increasing restrictions on ski area “Community experience and purity of development. The last major ski areas to be place are why we do POWDR,” says chairman built in North America were built in the 1980s and founder John Cumming. “We’ve been at Beaver Creek, Colo. and Deer Valley, Utah. successful over the last 25 years because we’ve Bolton Valley was the last major ski area to be been really, really patient,” says Cumming. He built in the Northeast. runs POWDR with a mountaineer’s sensibility for risk: growth (which he likens to summiting) HOW SKI AREAS MAKE MONEY is optional, but sustaining the company’s In the ‘80s and ‘90s, resort owners were current offerings without allowing them to looking to make money in real estate and began suffer in quality is mandatory. “We recognize building everything from ski shops to spas at that up is optional and down is mandatory, a ski areas. Ralph DesLauriers financed Bolton’s climbing analogy I’ve used many times to operations by building condo complexes. Les think about growth,” said Cumming. Instead Otten, the legendary founder of American of acquiring new resorts, POWDR has been Skiing Company, financed the only acquisition investing heavily in growing skiing and other A former mountain guide and founder of Mountain Hardspree historically comparable to those of Vail activities at its existing ones. In September, wear, John Cumming took over POWDR from his father.

Resorts and Alterra by building hotels and POWDR announced plans to invest $25

vtskiandride.com Fall 2018 29

(5) EPIC PASS

TICKETS TO RIDE THE GLOBE

In the beginning, there was the Epic Pass and skiers used it and it was good. Now, mountains across the globe are banding together, making it easier to throw down all your money up front and then maximize your season pass by skiing as many days as at many places as you can. New this year, the Ikon Pass and the Silverton Unguided Pass include Vermont resorts.

Each of these passes has multiple variations based on your age, where you want to ski and what restrictions and black-out days you’re willing to deal with. But hurry up, as pass prices go up the longer you wait. —A.G.

(3) SILVERTON SPRING UNGUIDED PASS For $149, this is an epic deal

(2) FREEDOM PASS

(1) PEAK PASS,

If you’re looking to explore the East, the Peak Explorer pass ($829) earns you unlimited skiing at seven of Peak Resorts’ 14 ski areas across New York, Pennsylvania and New England, including Vermont’s Mount Snow. peakpass.com

Planning to ski Bolton Valley or Magic Mountain this winter, and want to ski around at other smaller resorts with an old-school, throwback vibe? This may be your answer. When you buy a season’s pass at any of the 14 participating resorts, you get three days free at each of the rest. An adult season’s pass at Bolton goes at $699 and at Magic, for $649. freedompass.ski

2

1 PEAK RESORTS EXPLORER PASS Unlimited skiing at 7 Eastern Resorts.

EAST Mount Snow, VT Attitash, NH Crotched Mountain, NH Wildcat Mountain, NH Hunter Mountain, NY Big Boulder Ski Area, PA Jack Frost, PA MIDWEST (Owned by Peak Resorts but not on the Peak Pass) Alpine Valley, OH Boston Mills, OH Brandywine, OH Mad River Mountain, OH Hidden Valley, MO Snow Creek, MO

THE FREEDOM PASS A season pass at one of these resorts earns you three free days at each of the rest.

EAST Bolton Valley, VT Magic Mountain, VT Lost Valley, ME Black Mountain, NH Dartmouth Skiway, NH Granite Gorge, NH McIntyre, NH Whaleback Mountain, NH Plattekill Mountain, NY MIDWEST Crystal Mountain, MI THE ROCKIES Ski Copper, CO Pajarito Mountain, NM Sipapu, NM WEST Eaglecrest, AK

Owned by the parent company that offers the pass.

46 vtskiandride.com 30 Summer Fall 20182016 vtskiandride.com

for anyone who loves gnarly unguided backcountry skiing or wants to taste heliskiing (you get one heli-drop for an additional $39) in Silverton, Colo. Get three days at each of 13 resorts, including (midweek only) at Mad River Glen and Smugglers’ Notch (with holiday blackout dates), plus 17 days at Silverton in March and April and $2 beers there. silvertonmountain.com

3

(4) MOUNTAIN COLLECTIVE PASS

If you like to jetset, this could be the pass for you. For $449, the Mountain Collective gives you two days at each of 17 destinations from New Zealand to Japan and includes one resort in the East, Sugarbush. mountaincollective.com

4 MOUNTAIN COLLECTIVE PASS

SILVERTON SPRING UNGUIDED PASS EAST Mad River Glen, VT Smugglers’ Notch, VT MIDWEST Mount Bohemia, MI THE ROCKIES Monarch Mountain, CO Powderhorn, CO Silverton Mountain, CO Sunlight Mountain Resort, CO Brundage Mountain, ID Red Lodge Mountain, MT Sundance Mountain, UT Resort, UT Snow King, WY WEST Eaglecrest, AK Homewood, CA Mt. Baldy, CA Mission Ridge, WA

EAST Sugarbush, VT THE ROCKIES Banff Sunshine, AB Lake Louise, AB Revelstoke, BC Aspen Snowmass, CO Sun Valley Resort, ID Big Sky Resort, MT Taos Ski Valley, NM Alta Ski Area, UT Snowbasin Resort, UT Snowbird, UT Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, WY WEST Mammoth Mountain, CA Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows, CA INTERNATIONAL Thredbo Alpine Village, Australia Valle Nevado, Chile Chamonix, France Niseko United, Japan Coronet Peak and The Remarkables, New Zealand

For $929, the Epic Pass gets you unlimited skiing at Vail Resort’s 18 resorts, including Stowe and Okemo in Vermont, plus unlimited skiing at A-Basin. It also earns you limited days at 15 other resorts and deals on tickets and lodging at 30 resorts. New for this year, Epic passholders get seven days at Telluride, as well as at six Canadian resorts and 5 days in Hakuba Valley, Japan. For a bit less, the Epic Local Pass ($689) now earns you unlimited access to Okemo plus five other resorts and restricted access to Stowe and five others, 10 non-holiday days at Vail/Beaver Creek and Whistler/Blackcomb and five days in Hakuba Valley, Japan. epicpass.com

5 VAIL RESORTS/ EPIC PASS EAST Okemo, VT Stowe, VT Mount Sunapee, NH Stoneham, QC Mont-Sainte Anne, QC MIDWEST Mt. Brighton, MI Afton Alps, MN Wilmot, WI THE ROCKIES Nakiska Ski Area, AB Fernie Alpine Resort, BC Kicking Horse, BC Kimberley Alpine Resort, BC Arapahoe Basin, CO Beaver Creek, CO Breckenridge, CO Crested Butte, CO Keystone, CO Telluride, CO Vail Mountain, CO Park City Ski Area, UT WEST Whistler Blackcomb, BC Heavenly, CA Kirkwood, CA Northstar, CA Stevens Pass, WA INTERNATIONAL Perisher, Australia (2019) Hakuba Valley, Japan ACCESS TO Arlberg, Austria Les Trois Vallees, France Paradiski, France Skirama Dolomiti, Italy Tignes-Val D’Isere, France 4 Vallees, Switzerland

POWDR doesn’t offer a multiresort pass to the eight ski areas it owns: Killington and Pico in Vermont, Copper and Eldora in Colorado, Lee Canyon in Utah, Boreal Mountain and Soda Springs in California and Mt. Bachelor in Oregon. However, Killington is part of the Ikon Pass and Killington tickets are good at sister resort, Pico. The outdoor adventure lifestyle company also owns seven Woodward adventure camps, Outside TV, an outdoor event company HumanMovement MGMT and an Oregon raft guiding company. powdr.com (6) IKON PASS

Starting this year, Alterra Mountain Company, the new resort company that now owns Stratton and 12 other resorts, has created the Ikon Pass. At $999, it’s good for unlimited days at Stratton Mountain and 13 other resorts as well as discounts at Alterra-owned Canadian Mountain Holidays Heli-skiing. The pass also includes a week of skiing at each of 21 non-Alterra-owned partner resorts, among them Sugarbush, Killington, Sunday River and Sugarloaf. For $499, locals can opt to ski exclusively at Stratton with the Stratton Select Pass. ikonpass.com

6 ALTERRA MOUNTAIN CO./ IKON PASS EAST Killington, VT Stratton Mountain Resort, VT Sugarbush, VT Sugarloaf, ME Sunday River, ME Loon Mountain, NH Mont Tremblant, QC Snowshoe Mountain Resort, WV MIDWEST Boyne Mountain, MI Boyne Highlands, MI Blue Mountain, ON THE ROCKIES SkiBig3 (Banff, Lake Louise, Ski Sunshine), AB Revelstoke, BC Aspen Snowmass, CO Copper Mountain, CO Eldora, CO Steamboat, CO Winter Park Resort, CO Big Sky, MT

Taos Ski Valley, NM Alta Ski Area, UT Brighton, UT Deer Valley, UT Snowbird, UT Solitude Mountain Resort, UT Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, WY WEST Cypress Mountain, BC Big Bear Mountain Resort, CA June Mountain, CA Mammoth Mountain, CA Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows, CA Crystal Mountain, WA The Summit at Snoqualmie, WA Steven’s Pass, WA INTERNATIONAL Thredbo, Australia Niseko United, Japan DISCOUNTS AT CMH Heli-Skiing & Summer Adventures, Canada

These passes come with varying degrees of access, limitations and holiday blackouts to some of the resorts listed. For more information, visit their respective websites.

million in on-the-hill upgrades at Killington for the coming season.

Peak Resorts has also been investing. Over the last few years, the company put $52 million into Mount Snow, Vt. bringing snowmaking to 80 percent of its terrain and, this year, adding the new Carinthia base lodge.The company also bought one of NewYork’s largest resorts, Hunter Mountain, in 2015, and has committed $9 million toward a 25-percent expansion of the mountain’s terrain.

Peak Resorts started its ski resort life in 1981 when Tim Boyd bought a struggling nine-hole golf course outside of St. Louis called Hidden Valley and converted it into a ski area. Today, the Missouribased company owns Mount Snow and 13 other resorts across the Midwest and East Coast. It is one of two publicly-traded ski resort companies, (the other is Vail Resorts). Peak Resorts was also one of the first companies to actively pursue what are commonly referred to as “feeder” resorts in the industry.

According to Jesse Boyd, Vice President of Operations for Peak and Tim’s son, the majority of the company’s 14 properties are located within a one hundred-mile radius of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland or St. Louis. “We got started in the business running small metropolitan ski areas and transitioned to running medium and large resorts [such as Mount Snow, Attitash and Wildcat Mountains] and use those small metro area resorts as a feeder system,” Boyd said.

That’s a strategy Vail Resorts has since pursued with its 2012 acquisition of Afton Alps, just outside of Minneapolis, Mount Brighton near Detroit and Wilmot, between Chicago and Milwaukee. As Katz told Men’s Journal in March 2017, “[Now] We get access to 800,000 skiers in Chicago and 400,000 each in Detroit and Minneapolis.” As of press time, word had it Vail Resorts was also eyeing Japan’s Hakuba Valley resorts as well.

Boyd says the regional focus of Peak Resorts’ acquisitions has positioned it well to compete with Vail Resorts and Alterra. The company’s motto is “We don’t meet expectations, we set them.” Boyd says Peak Resorts caters to weekend and local skiers, not the destination crowd that Vail courts. “Our pre-season pass sales are up 14 percent over last year, and our Drifter pass [$399] for 18 to 29-year-olds was up 47 percent,” Boyd reports. He said revenue on pass sales overall was up 16 percent last year. “The consolidation stuff hasn’t had a lot of effect on us.”

THE INDIE RESPONSE

Win Smith, the owner and president of Sugarbush Resort skis over 100 days a year and is on the mountain at 9 a.m. most every morning.

The son of a founder of Merrill Lynch, he had a 28-year career in finance before he purchased Sugarbush in 2001.

Since owning Sugarbush, he’s overseen more than $65 million in resort improvements and $50 million in onsite real estate development.

He also anticipated Vail’s move into Vermont. On March 15, 2017, just three weeks after Stowe’s acquisition was announced, Sugarbush cut its adult season pass price by 30 percent, undercutting the Epic Pass that year by $60. In the same move, it offered even cheaper passes for 20-somethings, 30-somethings, seniors and baby boomers, and remained on the Mountain Collective Pass, a $449 pass option that offers two days of skiing at 17 resorts across North America.

How did that work out? Smith says well. “Our ability to quickly anticipate the Epic Pass paid off. We grew our base that year.”

According to Smith, “as long as it’s cash-flow positive, a private

vtskiandride.com Fall 2018 31

EPICVS. IKON

V

ail Resorts started its acquisition game by becoming the owner of some of North America’s Vail Resorts’ CEO, Rob Katz most iconic ski areas, purchasing Breckenridge and Keystone in 1996 and Heavenly in 2002.

The company then began acquiring “feeder” mountains near urban areas such as Afton Alps in Minnesota and Mount Brighton in Michigan in 2012.

Much of the growth spree can be attributed to Rob Katz. Katz started out working in private equity in Manhattan and started covering Vail as an analyst at Apollo Management, LLP in 1991. He served on the company’s board from 1996 until 2006, when he became the company’s CEO. Vail Resorts announced the first Epic Pass in March 2008, featuring unlimited skiing at five resorts for $579.

Under Katz’s leadership, Vail Resorts has made skiing a luxury experience. Ron Baron, CEO and founder of Baron Funds started investing in Vail Resorts stock when the company went public in 1997.

“At the time, they were charging $44 a day to ski at the mountain and we thought that if you made the experience better, instead of $44, you could charge $100.” When Katz took over in 2006, he did just that. “[He started] investing in the town, investing in the mountain… then he made ski passes a really huge Rusty Gregory, Alterra’s CEO part of the business and built a network of other mountains… and that ski pass business represents a very large percentage of the company’s cash flow,” Baron told CNBC’s Squawk Box in 2017.

In 2017, lift tickets accounted for 44 percent of revenue. Katz brought in data collection and better pass technology, revolutionizing the way it tracks customers and generating instant marketing data. In the last six years, Vail Resorts has invested more than $600 million in capital improvements across its resorts and now employs more than 30,000 people. pril 2017 saw the birth of the company that would become Alterra. KSL Capital, a private equity That has led to financial success: In group comprised of several former executives of Vail Resorts, teamed up with Henry Crown & March 2008, just before the Epic Pass Company, owner of Aspen Skiing Company and a significant stockholder in JP Morgan Chase was released, Vail Resorts’ stock price and Hilton Hotels among other national corporations, to acquire Intrawest Resorts, Mammoth Resorts was listed at $45. In January, 2017, it was and Squaw Valley Ski Holdings for $1.5 billion. Between April 2017 and September, 2018, some of the at $170. In early September, 2018, it hit biggest resorts in the nation were brought together under one operating company (which didn’t receive its $300. Shortly after the company that name, Alterra Mountain Company, until January 2018). It now includes 13 resorts (Vermont’s Stratton, would become Alterra formed, Katz told California’s Squaw Valley-Alpine Meadows and Mammoth Mountain; Steamboat and Winter Park, Colo.; CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that he hoped Deer Valley, Utah and, as of September, Crystal Mountain in Washington) as well as Canadian Mountain they would create a pass to rival the Epic Holidays’ heli-skiing and hiking lodges. In March 2018, Alterra unveiled a plan to invest $550 million in Pass. “If they come in and offer something capital improvements across its mountain resorts over the next five years. truly innovative, truly compelling, it’ll be a Just two weeks after announcing the name Alterra, the company launched the Ikon Pass ($999), positive for the industry overall,” Katz said. which is good at its resorts and 22 others. Rusty Gregory, Alterra’s CEO, will be the first to say that Alterra did just that.

Alterra Mountain Company intends to be the industry counterpart to Vail Resorts. “Rob Katz is a good friend of mine,” says Gregory. “He and Vail have done an incredible job with their business model, which is highly centralized and efficient. The opportunity for Alterra is different, opposite in many ways. Our goal is to really create a company that supports the unique, individual, radically idiosyncratic personalities of the resorts that are part of the Ikon Pass.”

He calls Alterra Mountain Company a “house of brands and not a branded house.”

Gregory said that a variety of economic factors have made rapid consolidation a trend across industries in North America. “Financial markets are incredibly liquid and interest rates are low,” but he says that environment won’t last forever. And when it changes, the rate of acquisitions will slow down.

Photo Credit

A

32 Fall 2018 vtskiandride.com

Photos (top to bottom) courtesy Smugglers’ Notch, Peak Resorts and Jay Peak

company can make long-term decisions that public companies have a harder time doing.”

The result? “We can be more nimble in our pass offerings.”

Smith says that so far, Sugarbush isn’t feeling any negative effects from the Epic Pass’s presence in Vermont. Nonetheless, he decided to join Killington and team up with Alterra Mountain Company for the 2018-2019 season by offering seven days of skiing at Sugarbush to Alterra’s Ikon Passholders.

Sugarbush doesn’t get any revenue from Ikon Pass sales, but Smith says that’s OK because it draws new interest in the resort.

Sugarbush has also seen an increase in skier visits since it joined the Mountain Collective in 2017. Most of those were from first time skiers or skiers new to Sugarbush.

“The value of joining the Ikon Pass for Sugarbush is exposure,” said Smith. Sugarbush, which brands itself around “community,” also has a strong local following, with more of its season pass sales coming from Vermont than from any other state, including Massachusetts and New York.

Just next door, Mad River Glen, which is operated as a cooperative, was one of only a few Vermont ski areas not to lower its season pass prices in response to the Epic Pass’s release in 2017. According to marketing director Eric Friedman, for 2016-2017, roughly 55 percent of Mad River Glen’s revenue came from day lift tickets. Additionally, Friedman reports that about a quarter of Mad River Glen’s skiers are first-time visitors to the area.

The co-op also has shareholders who commit year after year to season passes.

“We don’t have real estate or big hotels.

We make money from selling lift tickets and that’s why so many small ski areas are profitable,” says Friedman. “Once you’ve covered the basic costs of operations at a ski resort, the more lift tickets you sell, the better you do.”

ciation, skier visits to Vermont’s 20 resorts have averaged between 3.9 and 4.6 million annually over the last ten years.

“I can’t predict who will be the winner in New England; Alterra Mountain Company or Vail Resorts,” Jensen said. “However, I think that for maybe 25 percent of the remaining resorts, it’s a possibility they can be successful if they really market their niche.”

Jensen says American skiing is about selling an experience, and the key to success as an independent resort is in knowing what unique experience you’re selling.

Win Smith worked on Wall Street before buying And that, says Vermont Ski Areas AssociaSugarbush, where he has focused on building community. tion President Molly Mahar, is exactly what Vermont is good at. “We have a mystique here in Vermont,” says Mahar.

Vermont’s 11 independent ski area operators and owners reflect the state’s character and the mountains they represent.They have an entrepreneurial spirit.They are pragmatic and each can tell you exactly what sets their skier experience apart.

They are also keenly aware of who their competitors are within the statewide market.

According to a 2015 report by the University of Vermont’s Vermont Tourism Research Center, 23 percent of overnight visitors to Vermont overall are from Boston and 20 percent are from New York. Since 2002, Canadians have accountVice President of Operations Jesse Boyd says Peak Resorts ed for as many annual visits as Boston residents. has grown by building up resorts such as Mount Snow and According to Geoff Hatheway, president Hunter, N.Y., that are near large population centers. and part-owner of Magic Mountain, every regional demographic is different, as are its sub-groups: Boston has a reputation for having a high density of athletic and advanced skiers focused on challenging terrain. According to Sugarbush’s Smith, the New York market likes good terrain, but they also like amenities.

Bill Stritzler, owner and managing director of Smugglers’ Notch, notes that the Quebecois visit Vermont ski areas year-round.

Hatheway was one of a group of skiers who purchased Magic in 2016. The previous season it had been closed for much of the year.

BUILDING A NICHE Hatheway recognized that, like Mad River President and part-owner Geoff Hatheway and a group of Bill Jensen, the former CEO of Intrawest who Glen, what Magic could offer was no-frills, fellow skiers revived Magic Mountain, keeping it true to its currently runs Telluride Ski Resort, isn’t so throwback skiing with a healthy dose of com“steep and deep” rep. hopeful for Vermont’s independents. munity. And it’s become just that: a serious “I think [the consolidations] will change skier’s mountain where the lines are steep, the this market share game that’s been played in New England for the last 40 beer is cheap and the lift tickets sometimes sell out. years,” he said. Jensen pointed to New England’s fairly stagnant skier visits, With its iconic, red chairlift and gladed tree skiing, Magic is a which, according to data compiled by the National Ski Areas Association, throwback. “We are a back to the future kind of a place,” Hatheway have fluctuated between roughly 9 million and 14 million annually since says. Day lift ticket sales are a bigger source of revenue for them than 1978, while Colorado’s have grown steadily from 15 million to 21 million season passes. And yes, if it gets too busy on a Saturday powder day, over the same period of time. According to the Vermont Ski Areas Asso- they will stop selling day tickets to keep lift lines and crowds down.

vtskiandride.com Fall 2018 33

“YOU CAN’T OUT-NEW YORK A NEW YORKER, BUT YOU CAN OUT-VERMONT ‘EM .”

—RALPH DESLAURIERS

AUTHENTIC VERMONT

The word “authenticity” came up again and again in interviews with owners and operators.

By way of explanation, Ralph DesLauriers told the story of his first business: a farm to table restaurant he opened in his parents’ farmhouse in South Burlington. Instead of doing what the other Burlington restaurants were doing, which was fine dining, he decided to do what he knew and keep it rustic. It was a hit. The same parable has guided his development of Bolton Valley. As he put it, “You can’t out-New York a New Yorker, but you can out-Vermont ‘em.”

One of the oldest and most notoriously “Vemont-y” of ski areas, Mad River Glen has a similar approach. When it came time to replace its iconic single chair in 2007, the shareholders decided that rather than upgrade to a double or a quad, they would put in a new single to preserve the original character. Mad River Glen skiers and Mad River Valley community members raised the $1.8 million to do it. This year, Mad

34 Fall 2018 vtskiandride.com

River Glen celebrates its 70th year, in part because it knows its niche.

According to Friedman, that niche is steep, gladed terrain covered in natural snow and no frills. “We might not have gold-plated toilets, but our experience is really unique,” says Friedman. “You could ski at any other ski area all day long and at the end of the day, you’re not tired. But if you ski a full day at Mad River? You feel it.”

Bill Stritzler has worked at Smugglers’ Notch in a leadership role since 1987 and owned the resort since 1996. He stands by the idea that you can’t beat a conglomerate at what it does.

As he tells it, his strategy at Smuggs’ is to find out what the industry giants are doing and do the opposite. “We have an internal philosophy which says we are not going to pursue anything that we don’t believe we can achieve the level of best at,” says Stritzler.

That philosophy has led to Smuggs’ being “single-mindedly focused” on kids and families for the past 25 to 30 years, because being the best in that category felt attainable. In 2017, Owner Bill Stritzler has made Smuggler’s Notch successful Smugglers’ Notch was rated number one for its by keeping a singleminded focus on family and kids. programing for children and families in a survey of readers of Ski Magazine and named the top resort in the East and eastern Canada. A season’s pass at Smugglers’ Notch, at about $600, has always been cheaper than the Epic Pass. “Our season pass sales were up last year and, so far, our preseason sales are on target,” says Stritzler.

The same tenet guided the resort’s relationship with real estate. In the 1970s, Smugglers’ Notch began investing in timeshare condo development because share ownership was more financially attainable for families and eliminated the hassle associated with owning a property. “We kept it small, internal, and we never got out. Today we have 6,000 owners As general manager of Jay Peak Resort, Steve Wright and have a sales and marketing contract with hopes to attract new skiers with the resort’s waterpark, lodging, ice rink and entertainment center.

Wyndham.”

Photos (top to bottom) by Brian Mohr, courtesy Sugarbush Resort, courtesy Magic Mountain

Hatheway said that while he is confident in the viability of Magic Mountain’s market niche, he’s afraid for independent ski areas in Vermont. “For the major players to be interested in mountains in Vermont is good,” he says. “But quite frankly, it’s a very difficult market for independents. The multi-pass environment is difficult to navigate.”

Hatheway suggested that local operators have a different sense of investment in their businesses than corporations. “It keeps you up at night.You don’t want to see these places not be open, to have people not have this as a part of their lives. I feel that personally, that overriding sense of responsibility for this place and what it represents for these people,” says Hatheway. “I want this place to be here for my kids, for our kids.”

;

Stritzler also adds: “When the industry was putting in high speed lifts, we didn’t think we could compete in spending capital dollars, so we decided to invest heavily in summer [25 years ago] when the rest of the industry was not.” Today, Stritzler says Smuggs’ is as busy during the summer as in the winter thanks to family-oriented facilities like the FunZone 2.0, two world-championship disc golf courses, mini golf, a water park, mountain biking trails and kids’ summer camps.

Stookey. “I love that the lodge at the base of Mt. Ellen is 50 years old and I still bump my head on the stairs going up and down. It’s part of the history of the place,” he says, adding that the eclectic culture of the Mad River Valley is part of Sugarbush’s allure, too.

Stookey adds: “On the snow there’s a real local vibe and most people you meet are serious skiers, passholders who are there for the gnarly terrain and narrow trails. It’s old-school and it reminds me of what Vermont skiing was when I was a kid.”

WHO WINS? Peter van Raalte, a lifelong Stowe skier and second homeowner, According to Kelly Pawlak, President and CEO of the National Ski was grateful for the price cut to season passes but worries it will cause Areas Association, the real winners in all of this heightened competition overcrowding at the resort. “It’s just the way of the world that nothing are the skiers and riders. “This is not the first ever stays the same, but Vail Resorts is… the time we’ve seen consolidation, it’s just a little McDonald’s of skiing in some respects. They’re HOW SKI AREAS larger scale than in the ’90s,” says Pawlak, and it’s all about numbers,” says van Raalte, who works MAKE MONEY working to bring in more season pass customers. in finance in Manhattan. However, he says, “Vail The National Ski Areas Association collects data annually about how ski areas generate Pawlak reports that even small and mid-sized can’t change the mountain or that killer view revenue.

Here’s the latest data, averaged from from the top. It’s the trails, the lake effect snow resorts are seeing an increase in the skier visits the 2016-2017 ski season. they see from season passholders. “It’s important to from Lake Champlain and the terrain that make remember when we talk about consolidation, that Stowe the best in the East.” the rising tide does seem to float all boats.”

“It’s bittersweet,” says Jack Holby, a lifelong Pawlak says the sale of multi-resort passes Okemo skier who worked eight seasons at the generates stability across the industry by ensuring mountain starting in high school, about Vail’s Rental Shops: that operators have the capital they need to acquisition of his home mountain. “It marks the 3.7% function through the ski season before it starts. It end of a family-owned mountain which in part Retail: also reduces their dependency on natural snowfall, represents the rugged, raw individualism that 6.7% which Pawlak says is the biggest driving factor in skiing embodies. While the investment may be why people ski where they ski. It’s also a benefit nice, I’m also worried that it’ll make the mountain Lodging: for skiers, who, in a drought year, can chase snow. too corporate and too ritzy.”

8.8% However, as Steve Wright, general manager of Back at Bolton Valley, Ralph DesLauriers says Jay Peak points out, “The consolidation and rise he’s not worried about a future in which two of the multi-resort season pass has made skiing entities dominate season pass pricing. “I think Lessons: cheaper for the avid skier, but with day ticket they’re buying other ski areas because they don’t 10% prices soaring it has not benefited the newcomer think that there will be any more of them built,” he so much.” He’s hoping Jay Peak can capitalize on says. “Big companies always want to get bigger, and that segment of the market that is no longer being my guess is that they figure that if they can control Food & Beverage: served as many options. the market, they can control the prices at will.”

13.6% “We’re as much about the new skier, or the As for ticket costs? “I want them to raise those some-time skier who may come for the water prices,” says DesLauriers park and ski one day or play hockey or ice skate.

I asked DesLauriers why he ever sold Bolton We’ve intentionally kept our lift tickets low,” says Valley. He said, with a sigh, “I was running out of Wright, noting that a day ticket will go for $89 gas and I really couldn’t afford to keep the place this fall. That’s a sharp contrast to the three-figure going.” And he didn’t want to see it die. prices at many ticket windows around the state.

“If there’s one thing we did here at Bolton “There is still room in the market for smaller Valley that I am most proud of, it’s teaching ski areas that focus on introducing kids and all of those Vermont kids how to ski,” he said.

Tickets and families to skiing [and riding] and ski racing,” said He estimates that in 58 years, Bolton Valley has Season Passes: Vermont Ski Association President Molly Mahar. taught upwards of 27,000 Vermont school kids 47.7% “Those sorts of operations are not necessarily to ski. He hopes some of them will bring their competing with a Killington or a Stratton.” kids there.

That’s what keeps Boston’s Hunt Stookey “For a lot of Vermont families, that $115 and his family driving up to ski at Sugarbush lift ticket is out of reach,” says DesLauriers. each weekend. He grew up coming to Vermont “That’s why we offer night skiing for $25. Verto ski and now his two kids are part of the Green mont families ski more than anybody. Rain or Mountain Valley School ski club. snow, it’s the locals who will always turn out “Sugarbush feels like authentic Vermont,“ says and carry you through.” n

vtskiandride.com Fall 2018 35

Sellers’ new house centers around an indoor garden where a living wall is fed by rainwater from a cistern just above it.

Nine floor panels pop out, hiding threefoot-deep treewells where fruit trees could grow and a huge, 14-foot by 14foot window tilts open to cross breezes.

The small staircase leads up a half level to a main bedroom and bath.

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THE HOUSE OF THE FUTURE In the Mad River Valley, visionary architect

DAVID SELLERS

has built a house designed to last 500 years.

BY LISA LYNN | | PHOTOS BY LINDSAY SELIN

vtskiandride.com Fall 2018 37

T

he house of the future is smart: “It has 50 sensors that monitor everything from temperature to humidity,” says architect David Sellers.

The house of the future is sustainable: It runs on solar power and geothermal energy enabling radiant heat floors. From the main floor, a living wall of plants rises two stories high, fed automatically from a cistern that collects water from the roof.

38 Fall 2018 vtskiandride.com

The house of the future is durable: “It will last for 500 years and could withstand forest fires,” Sellers says.

The house of the future is versatile: Interior walls are temporary, allowing for three bedrooms or three apartments, or something entirely different—there are no actual architectural drawings or floor plan.

The house of the future is playful: There are touches of humour throughout (an imprint

of a computer keyboard randomly embedded in a concrete ceiling, a “take-out” window off the kitchen modeled after a creemee stand; a wall made of stacked, unfinished pieces of wood) and they make you laugh.

The House of the Future, as Sellers calls it, is high on Prickly Mountain overlooking Blueberry Lake and the Mad River Valley. The House of the Future is a prototype, he says, and this fall you can rent it on AirBnB.

The House of the Future (left) was designed to withstand both cold winters and hot summers. With solar panels on the roof and geothermal pads providing heat, the net-zero house creates more energy than it uses. Sellers designed the “eyebrow” awnings to shade the windows when the sun is overhead and outdoor blinds can drop down from the two larger ones. The carport (still being finished) leads to a small garage where Sellers envisions electric cars being charged.

The arched ceiling (right) draws its shape from a boat’s ribs. The second floor seating area leads to a bedroom/living area and a balcony with a ballustrade made from the wood left over from creating the ceiling beams.

The kitchen has a “takeout window” (below) and an entire wall slides open for indoor/outdoor summer living.

“I’m looking forward to seeing how different AirBnB guests use the house and what we learn from them,” says Sellers, gesturing with excitement. “People are going to be part of this grand experiment.”

It is a warm day in late August. Sellers, a vigorous 80, is dressed in a white shirt, black pants and electric yellow leather shoes. He holds forth from a folding chair in the atrium of the house, which is still under construction.

vtskiandride.com Fall 2018 39

Sellers cleverly designed spaces to have multiple uses. A glass wall in the main bedroom swings open so you can pull a bed out to sleep beneath the stars and the pointy-roofed closets (inside) can be repositioned. In the adjacent room (below right), a bed slides out from a cupboard. “We were’nt sure how to fit the main staircase in,” says Sellers. The answer? Craftsmen from Gristmill Builders laminated plywood into a stunning curve, facing the stairs and adjacent laundry closet with slate from old blackboards.

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The glass wall of the main living area is slid open to the waning sun and, as Sellers speaks and gestures, long wisps of his white hair break free and dance in the cross-breeze.

“We first started thinking about The House of the Future about 15 years ago,” says Sellers. Sitting before him on couches and perched on the massive hearth is a crowd of about 20. It’s a virtual who’s who of the design-build movement, a movement Sellers is credited with founding more than 50 years ago. There’s Sellers and fellow Mad River Valley architect William Maclay (author of The New Net Zero)—both inducted last year into the American Institute of Architecture’s prestigious College of Fellows.

Jim Sanford and Ellen Strauss are there— architects and owners behind Prickly Mountain’s funky multi-family Dimetredon, and collaborators with Sellers on projects such as California’s award-winning hotel, the Inn at Newport Ranch. Contractor and project manager Brendan O’Reilly of Gristmill Builders is there. Seated on folding chairs are architect Mac Rood, Dan Reicher (formerly Clinton’s Assistant Secretary of Energy for Energy Efficiency and Renewables), and John “Sucosh” Norton, a former CEO who helped grow Northern Power.

Jack Wadsworth, whom Sellers has known and worked with for decades, has flown from the West Coast for this preview as well. Wadsworth and environmentalist and financial entrepreneur John “Mac” McQuown are partners in the project, which is owned

by Sellers’ non-profit Madsonian Museum of Industrial Design in Waitsfield.

“This house wasn’t built to be owned by anyone—it’s a prototype and an ongoing work in progress,” says Sellers.

“The concrete structure and exterior mean it should last for 500 years with no exterior maintenance which means you can really amortize the cost,” he says, pointing to the massive posts and beams that were poured on site by local craftsmen John Bertrand and Justin McCullough and others. “Justin has been helping me since he was an eight-year-old, notes Sellers as McCullough, 36, passes through. McCullough’s father worked with Sellers on his early homes.

Fireproofing is important to Sellers as three of his homes have gone up in flames. In 2016, the concrete house in Warren that Sellers named “Archie Bunker” burned after an AirBnB guest misused a wood stove. “The interior is

But behind Sellers’ whimsy is a genuine desire to make the world better. Among the businesses he has helped incubate and cofound in the Mad River Valley are sustainable power company North Wind Power (now Northern Power), Vermont Iron Stove Works and 4 Elements, an aquaculture farm. “I’ve worked with earth, wind and fire,” he says with a grin.

He also worked with Bernie Sanders, then-mayor of Burlington, on a 200-year plan for the city and helped Sugarbush owner Win Smith design an elegant addition to The Pitcher Inn in Warren, where rooms start at $400 a night.

While Sellers skis Sugarbush, the most fun he claims you can have on snow is on another of his creations: the Mad River Rocket. “Mad River Canoe was here in the Valley so as we looked at how canoes move through the water, we thought why not make a sled that can bomb downhill through deep snow, where you can arc and turn it with your knees as you do with a canoe.” Sellers lights up with a smile just thinking about it.

Photos by Michael Heeney

MAD RIVER GENIUS When David Sellers graduated from Yale Architecture School in 1965 he knew one thing: he didn’t want to follow a traditional path. “I wanted to be able to build everything I designed, not spend hours drafting and handing plans to builders who might then tell me the idea will never work,” he says.

Sellers had a vision. “I wanted to find a place as big as Manhattan where I could practice my craft and actually construct my designs by hand,” he says. After looking all over New England he found the Mad River Valley and 450 acres on an unnamed hillside. It was later named Prickly Mountain, “after architect John Lucas inadvertently sat on a raspberry bush,” he explains with a laugh. In 1965, he put down $1,000 toward the $200,000 property. He later sold two-acre lots for $4,000, largely to friends and fellow designers and builders. “If you didn’t have the money then, you could pay me later. I’ve never believed you should make money off selling land,” he says.

Sellers brought with him Yale Architecture classmate Bill Reinecke and soon other architects like Jim Sanford followed. Sellers had a line of credit at the local grocery store and scavenged materials. “None of us had any money,” Sellers remembers. The Prickly Mountain gang, as they became known, began building homes, designing as they went along, using what they could find, salvage and recycle to inspire the shapes and forms they created. Strange bulbous ripples characterized his first house, the Tack House.

Sharp angles rose up in the Sibley House. Soon their homes were being featured in The New York Times, Progressive Architecture and Life Magazine.

“Patch Adams must have read about us because one day he showed up at my place, dressed as a clown—he always dressed as a clown,” says Sellers. “He asked me to build for him.” That started a collaboration between Sellers and the legendary physician/comedian/activist (played by Robin Williams in the eponymous movie).

Sellers helped design and build four existing structures at Adam’s Gesundheit Institute, an ecovillage on 425 acres in West Virginia. Sellers’ sketches for a proposed Gesundheit Hospital, that Adams is still fundraising for, show an anthropomorphic structure where vision clinics are shaped like eyeballs, and an orthopedic wing, from the air, is comprised of four fingers and a thumb. Sellers also designed a residence, loosely fashioned on a Russian dacha and went on to help Dr. Adams build clinics in Peru and elsewhere.

Like Adams, Sellers believes laughter is integral to success. “When you start to laugh, it frees up your creativity and lets you think about a problem in a new way,” he says. “Houses should make you laugh.” And many of his do.

On Prickly Mountain, Sellers’ early homes such as the Tack House (1966), top, and the Pyramid Sibley house (1968) — showcase his versatile style. In Warren, Sellers’ current workshop, the 2011 Temple of Dindur (third from top), continues that evolution.

When Dr. Patch Adams asked Sellers to design him a residence (bottom) for his Gesundheit Institute, Sellers modeled it after Russian dachas.

Sellers favorite toy is the the Mad River Rocket sled (below) that he designed in 1987.

vtskiandride.com Fall 2018 41

gutted but, the structure is all intact,” says Sellers. “Think about what would have happened if there were more homes like this in the parts of California hit by wildfires,” he says.

Because the House of the Future is built to last for generations, Sellers designed it to be as flexible in its interior as possible. A 9-foot by 18-foot glass wall slides open to a central living area that acts like a greenhouse.

One side of the central area is a living wall of plants. On the floor, nine square panels pop out revealing three-foot concrete wells. “The idea is that you could have fruit trees or an indoor garden in here. The plants help clean the air and

absorb carbon monoxide,” says Sellers. “Or you could make it a traditional living space.”

The arched ceiling of a hallway funnels guests toward a small room with large windows on two sides. A handle in a wall pulls out, revealing a hide-away bed. “This could be an office or a bedroom,” says Sellers as he slides it out.The 1,800-square-foot house is configured with three bedrooms and bathrooms, each a level up from each other. “The house could be set up as three apartments,” notes Sellers. One bedroom also features a glass wall that swings open onto a porch. The closets are moveable plywood structures with pointy roofs.

“What I love about the house is the very simple palette Dave used,” says architect Jim Sanford, who designed wild light fixtures for the hallway that look like metal flamethrowers. “He kept it to three basic materials: concrete, plywood and slate.”

One of the first projects Sellers ever tackled was a parking garage in New Haven, a project his professor at the Yale School of Architecture was working on. “I learned there that I never wanted to design anything I didn’t know how to build with my own hands,” Sellers said. He also fell in love with concrete. “It’s a sustainable material that you can mold into

The massive fireplace’s chimney (below) rises inside the house, minimizing heat loss. Above it hangs a painting by Candy Barr, an artist who lives in Sellers’ first home, the Tack House (which she also rents out on AirBnB). Upstairs (top right), a walkway lined by plant wells leads to a mini-suite with a bedroom, bath and balcony. The glass flame-shaped lampshade is an antique that once stood outside of

credit

New York’s Plaza Hotel. The bath off the main bedroom (right bottom) was molded with concrete with a blackboard slate panel above and laminated plywood shelves and drawers form the vanity.

42 Fall 2018 vtskiandride.com

anything,” he notes, brushing his hand over a rough pillar. “I like showing its structure and the crumbling finish in some areas or molding it into something smooth like the bathtub.”

The concrete posts and beams are incredibly strong. “Concrete can support up to 3,500 pounds per square inch,” says Sellers, which allowed him to place a cistern just below the roof, which collects rainwater.

As a designer/builder, Sellers has always tried to work with found objects and materials he recycles. The wood framework for many of the concrete forms Sellers recycled into arched beams for the ceiling. Brian Carter, who Sellers refers to as his “woodwright” reshaped the part cut out of them into rails for an upstairs walkway. “We didn’t really have a plan for where to put a staircase,” Selllers says with a shrug. Gristmill Builders’ Pierre Jaubert and John Rodriguez fashioned a staircase from laminated plywood, molding it into an elegant curved piece that’s a focal point for the home.

Closet doors, wall plates and switch covers were made from the slate of old school blackboards that McCullough hand-cut and shaped. On top of one pillar sits a giant glass lampshade, fashioned like a flame. “That’s from New York’s Plaza Hotel,” Sellers notes.

As the “Symposium” (as the group decides to dub the gathering) draws to a close, the crowd is talking about what ideas can be taken from this experiment and how it will evolve in the future. Engineer Audrey Martinez nods toward a low glass window which opens into a basement room where the “brains” of the house reside: the heating, cooling and pumping systems she helped design. “As time goes on, the house should be able to learn from itself.

Sensors could let you know when the weather is about to change and open or close windows.”

The topic of costs comes up. Base costs have come to about $800,000, without a profit margin. “That’s about $400 per square foot,” Sellers admits. “But this house is not about money, it’s about creating ideas we can learn from,” he says.

“The idea we’ve created here is that we could do a simpler shell of a house out of the affordable materials we have here, perhaps using tilt-up concrete for walls (a process where you pour concrete slab, then tilt it), and then let people find the kitchen cabinets and furniture on Craigslist and use their creativity to bring in recycled parts.”

In other words, the “house of the future” is just getting started. n

vtskiandride.com Fall 2018 43

Rory Bruder test drives one of the features he created for Carinthia, a giant C.

42 Summer 2016 vtskiandride.com

Photo by Pat Ryan

IN ITS FIRST 10 YEARS, MOUNT SNOW’S CARNINTHIA PARKS HAS TURNED OUT SOME OF THE BEST FREESKIERS AND RIDERS ON THE PLANET. THIS YEAR, THERE’S EVEN MORE TO CELEBRATE.

vtskiandride.com Fall 2018 45

by two lifts, all part of what was once its own 100-acre ski area, and the East’s biggest three-ring circus for freeriders and freeskiers is in full swing.

And, new this year, it is all served by a new 42,000-square-foot base lodge with two bars and a view of the action—a “Happy 10th Birthday” present for Carinthia.

Photo by Jesse Mallis

November, long before the natural snowpack builds, the guns are firehosing snow with enough force and volume to fill a football stadium. “Yeah, sometimes the Mount Snow dads get on my case about why we’re building this massive, massive snow pile at Carinthia,” says communications director Jamie Storrs. But, Storrs notes, thanks to the resort’s recent $30 million investment in snowmaking and 80-percent coverage, there’s no shortage of manmade white stuff to go around.

Within a week or so of opening, there they are: about 13 features—rails, tree trunks and bizarre shapes — a giant C, a red barn.

A week or two later, there’s snow stacked so high and packed so hard you can air 40, 50, 60 feet and spin into inverted aerials.

Soon, there’s a landscape of more than 200 features laid out across nine parks, served

years: In that time, Mount Snow has turned out some of the best freeskiers and riders the planet has ever seen. Kelly Clark, three-time Olympic medalist, was there before the park was even built. She was born in 1983, when Carinthia was still its own ski hill, separate from Mount Snow. But by the time she was riding a snowboard, it was part of the larger resort and by 1992, had a small terrain park, Un Blanco Gulch. In 2008-2009, all the terrain parks were moved to Carinthia and Un Blanco Gulch became simply, Gulch—an easier park, with progressively more difficult features leading up to the big, bad-ass Inferno.

Devin Logan was 13 when “Carinthia Parks” came to be. “I was a grom and for me freestyle still meant training on moguls, but I was learning how to slide rails and chase my brothers around the park,” recalls Logan, who has gone on to become the only halfpipe and slopestyle skier to win the overall Freestyle

46 Fall 2018 vtskiandride.com

Mac Forehand (lower left), who took gold in big air at the World Junior Championships in New Zealand in September, credits his training at Carinthia. Jumps like these (left) helped him and Devin

Photo courtesy US Ski and Snowboard

Photo by Mike Dawsy

Logan, below, earn medals.

World Cup and one of the few top athletes who competes in two events.

“There was so much that Carinthia had to choose from—all these cool little trails and boxes and rails to slide,” Logan says.You can start at the grommet level on little boxes and then move up to the best. When I was little, Inferno scared me so much. My brothers and the boys dared me to do these huge jumps there.There’s a great feeling when you end up conquering something that scared you. When you do, you ask yourself ‘why did I not do that before?’”

The “boys” are her brothers Chris and Sean, Parker White, Ian Compton and others.

At the time, Devin, Sean and Chris Logan were part of a posse of local kids skiing Mount Snow. Coaches such as Jesse Mallis and Bryan Knowles (both of whom did stints at Mount Snow Academy) egged them on. Devin’s mom, Nancy Logan had moved to Vermont after a divorce. “It was easier for her to just have all the kids doing the same thing so Devin just came skiing with us,” remembers her brother, Sean, who is 10 years older.

Devin went on to win silver at the Olympics in Sochi. Her brothers Chris and Sean

vtskiandride.com Fall 2018 47

Rory Bruder (left) welds the C. He’s helped make a number of Carinthia’s features out of scrapped parts.

Carinthia skier Caroline Claire (below) made the 2018 Olympic slopestyle team and placed second in the first World Cup big air of the 2018. A rider, right, goes big off one of Carinthia’s

Photo by Pat Ryan

skate-inspired ramps.

founded The Big Picture, a film production company which followed the original posse in a series of web videos and movies that made them internet famous.

Today, they have moved out West and take the tricks they learned at Carinthia to the backcountry, front flipping over road gaps, jibbing tree tops, and hucking 720s off cliffs.

“The skills we learned as kids– the awareness in the air, how to land – we still use those,” says Sean Logan, who works as a videographer. “The funny thing is all the guys I ski with now out West, are all the guys I grew up skiing with at Mount Snow, guys like Parker White and Duncan Adams.” years ago. That’s when Line Skis Traveling Circus started up, webisodes that have survived 10 seasons and have reached as many as 200,000 viewers.

A lanky, goofy kid with a smile as wide as a sunset, and teeth that earned him nicknames like “Chompers,” Ian Compton became part of the Circus and then went on to air his own series, The Weak.

“The first time I hit Carinthia I was just getting into skiing,” Compton remembers. He lived nearby and his mom had signed him up for the Mount Snow ski club. “It was so cool to see kids my age doing wild stuff. It felt like this endless universe with huge, gigantic toys.”

Compton quickly learned to ride rails,

48 Fall 2018 vtskiandride.com

Photo by Jesse Malllis

Carinthia skier Caroline Claire (below)

Photo by Mike Dawsy

vtskiandride.com Fall 2018 49

Photo by Pat Ryan

“Carinthia made freeskiing all about expression”

credit

—Ian Compton

44 Summer 2016 vtskiandride.com

The single chair at Mad Levi Gunzburg slingshots through one of Prospector’s features (opposite page).

Mount trail crew CaSant,Snows’s conse prepel pick coolvolestetur? trees, partsCus of incti out rerum old lifts quat and whatever they explaut quas escimperi can to make of the temque pror some se escipsape 200 features (far left). volorer ibuscipsam quidelit expliquatem et exped et The 42,000-sq.ft. alit, new sed mi, vendustendalodge (left) openscore thisexpe fall. officab dolessitati int dolenit, que sapit autem Stratton Mountain School utatiate parum evento ve coaches Jesse Mallis and Keith Shipman (below, left

Photo courtesy Jesse Mallis

logs and whatever came his way. “The first day I skied with Parker White and Chris Logan I nutted a rail so hard and they give me a nickname. After that I knew I was friends with them and we were like brothers.”

At the time, Carinthia was one giant freedom zone, says Compton. “There’s a je ne sais quoi about skiing and it requires money to do it but at Carinthia, it could also be this rag tag young kid thing. We could do anything. They could light rails on fire, there…” Compton’s voice trails off. “Carinthia made freeskiing all about expression.” years ago, Jesse Mallis was coaching at Mount Snow.

Mallis grew up skiing but didn’t start freeskiing until his junior year in college. He’d spent a year in Alta, then came back to Mount Snow. “Carinthia had a lot to do with my getting into freestyle,” he says. “Everybody likes to fight gravity and just learning how to do a back flip is a rush.”

Mallis soon started coaching at Mount Snow Academy, helping Devin Logan and others.

Mallis is now Freeskiing Program Director at Stratton Mountain School. Five days a week, he loads students in a van to drive 30 minutes to Carinthia. “The park really caters to progression,” he says. “You can move from the easier features on Gulch into things that are a little harder on Nitro and then hit big stuff on Inferno.”

In 2018, Mallis was named Freestyle Coach of theYear by U.S. Ski and Snowboard.

Looking at some of the kids he’s been driving to Mount Snow each week, it’s easy to

see why. Caroline Claire, 18, made it to the Olympics last February and graduated from Stratton Mountain School last May. In 2018, she also won her first World Cup, a slopestyle event in Seiseralm, Italy and took third at another in Mammoth Lakes, Ca. On Sept. 7, 2018, the Manchester, Vt., local scored a second at a big air World Cup in Cadrona, N.Z. Mac Forehand, 17, another of Mallis’s Stratton Mountain School posse has been on a tear since he was 13. On August 25, 2018, Forehand won the FIS World Junior Ski Championships in slopestyle and two weeks later, took 13th in the first FIS World Cup big air event of the season.

With big air skiing becoming a part of the Olympics for 2022, both Claire and Forehand are positioned to be contenders, the next Devin Logan.

“It’s kind of funny now to go back to Mount Snow and see all these young kids— they are awesome,” says Devin Logan. “I remember being that young kid and looking up to the freeskiers on the Dew Tour and in the X Games and then wanting to go out and learn the tricks they did.”

And Nancy Logan, Devin’s mother, still works at the Mount Snow Training Center, watching all those new kids come through. “That’s our demographic, the 18- to 29-year-olds,” says communications director Jamie Storrs. “That’s where the future of the sport lies.” years ago, Mount Snow was a stop on the first Winter Dew Tour, bringing the top freeriders and skiers to Southern Vermont and inspir-

ing a new generation. “It costs a lot of money to host events like that,” says Storrs. “Instead, we decided to hold our own.” In the past few years, Mount Snow has hosted The Comp, the Carinthia Freeski Open and a season’s end bash.

“This year, we’re doing away with those two competitions and combining them into one for both skiers and riders, the Carinthia Classic, with a $20,000 prize purse, thanks to presenting sponsor, Monster Energy,” says Storrs.

But one thing will stay the same. On Memorial Day weekend, long after the snow has melted on the main mountain and the trails are bare, snow that the snow guns piled up for the halfpipe and the jumps will get spread thick across the mountain. And in front of the base lodge, the free-form, free-style, free-riding circus will go off in all its rail-riding glory for one last day of skiing and riding: the Peace Pipe Rail Jam. And it’s free. n

vtskiandride.com Fall 2018 51

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COMPETITION

BY ABAGAEL GILES

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK This year’s U.S. Ski Team features a lot of new faces from Vermont.

F

Photo courtesy GMVS

or a state with just over 600,000 people, Vermont produces a lot of world-class skiers and riders. This year, nine Vermonters were nominated to the 2018/19 U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team, including six newcomers.

Another 14 athletes trained or went to school in Vermont.

Meet the new athletes on the team.

ALPINE UPSTARTS Last winter,Vermonters were cheering for two well-known names at the Olympics: Mikaela Shiffrin and Ryan CochranSiegle, of the famed Cochran ski racing clan. This season, there are three new names on the U.S. Ski Team.

One new Vermont face you may see in the starting gate at November’s World Cup at Killington is Ripton’s Abi Jewett. This summer, Jewett, 18, bypassed the U.S. Alpine Ski Team’s development team altogether and was nominated to be a member of the U.S. Ski Team’s C squad.

The Green Mountain Valley School grad said, “It’s been something I was working toward for a long time.” Last February, Jewett finished 20th in slalom and 35th in giant slalom at the FIS Junior World Ski Championships in Davos, Switzerland.

In March, she took 16th in the giant slalom at the U.S. Alpine Championships at Sun Valley, Idaho, following a 7th place finish in slalom at the same event the previous year.

Jewett learned to ski at the Middlebury Snow Bowl but trained at Waitsfield’s Green Mountain Valley School starting in seventh grade. She graduated from GMVS last May and was accepted early decision to Dartmouth in spring 2018.

Skiing is in Jewett’s blood. She’s the daughter of Willem Jewett, a former Bowdoin College ski racer who served as state representative for Addison County for 14 years starting in 2002.

According to her father, the Middlebury Ski Club’s

coaching and the Snow Bowl’s steep terrain is a big part of what made Abi so good. “For young kids, those big GS rolls on Allen [a steep trail at the Snow Bowl] have a quick turnaround. It’s steep, but they learn to love it. That trains good technique,” Willem said. “It’s cool because you’re moving at high speed, but it’s really technical skiing,” Abi says of the Allen. “I have a need for speed. I think I might be a little bit of an adrenaline junkie.”

Jewett wasn’t the only Green Mountain Valley School student to make the team. Her classmate, Ben Ritchie, 18, of Waitsfield made the Development Team following an impressive string of top ten slalom finishes in FIS ranked races in 2018.

Ritchie has earned a reputation for being scrappy. Over the course of the 2015-2016 ski season, he went from being ranked 38th in FIS rankings for Super G to second.

That effort helped earn him the 2016 Golden Ski Award, presented annually to the top male and female ski athletes in the East by the New England Ski Museum. Past recipients include U.S. Alpine Ski Team veterans Mikaela Shiffrin, Alice Merryweather, Ryan Cochran-Siegle and Sam Morse.

The 6-foot 3-inch recent high school graduate started ski racing when he was six with Jay Peak Ski Club. In March, he continued his slew of impressive performances when he earned tenth place in slalom at the U.S Alpine Championships in Sun Valley.

Another newcomer is Zoe Zimmerman. If Zimmerman’s last name sounds familiar to you, it’s because she’s part of a ski racing legacy. The 16-year-old hails from the Granite State, but trains and skis at Burke Mountain Academy. She’s the granddaughter of Austrian Olympic skier Egon Zimmerman and Penny Pitou, the first American skier to win an Olympic downhill medal, a silver in 1960.

This will be Zimmerman’s first year on the U.S. Alpine Development team. However, in 2016, she qualified for the

Abi Jewett jumped onto the U.S. Ski Team’s C Team after training at Middlebury’s Snow Bowl and Green Mountain Valley School. She may be a face to watch at the Killington World Cup.

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COMPETITION

Ben Ritchie of Waitsfield races for Green Mountain Valley School. The recent graduate is a newcomer to the US Alpine Ski Team’s development squad for 2018.

ANOTHER CROSS COUNTRY SIBLING At the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, Vermonter Jessie Diggins made history when, along with her teammate Kikkan Randall, she became the first American to win a gold medal in women’s cross country skiing. Of the 16 skiers named to the U.S. Cross Country Ski Team for 2018, five are Vermonters, and just one is a newcomer, albeit one with a familiar last name.

In January, Ben Ogden, 18, told fasterskier.com that if he had a day when he didn’t have to train or compete in Switzerland, he’d like to spend it “huckin’ backflips in the Swiss backcountry.” The University of Vermont student mountain bikes, fly fishes and alpine skis—when he’s not racing, that is.

This will be Ogden’s first year on the U.S. Cross Country Development Team. He earned a host of top results in 2018, including a silver medal in the 4x5K team relay at the 2018 FIS Junior World Championships in Gom, Switzerland in February. His team was the first American team to ever podium in the relay event.

Ogden took first place in the 30K classic at the U.S. Junior National Championships in Craftsbury,Vt., and 15th in the 15K freestyle in Craftsbury for the U.S. Supertour in 2018. Ogden’s sister Katharine Ogden is on the cross country development team for her third year.

A RISING SNOWBOARD STAR Kelly Clark, Hannah Teter and Lindsey Jacobellis are among Vermont’s greatest contributions to snowboarding, but now there’s a new generation of riders and AnnaValentine, 18, is one to watch.This spring, Okemo Mountain School Head

Snowboard Coach Luke Bonang told TheVermont Journal that Valentine’s style was “timeless.” He’s been coaching her since she was eight.

Anna Valentine earned her first nomination to the U.S. Snowboard Team’s Halfpipe Rookie squad in 2017. She’s back again this year, after a stellar 2018 season.

Valentine grew up in Sparta, N.J., but has been snowboarding since she was seven with the Okemo Mountain SnowboardTeam. In February 2018,Valentine took first place in halfpipe at the Nor-Am Cup in Park City and followed that up with third place at the tour’s next competition at Mammoth Mountain, Ca. She placed second in the FIS Junior World Championships in Laax, Switzerland in March 2017 in halfpipe.

Valentine started her career in USASA Southern Vermont competitions and in the Vermont Open. Her performances there earned her a spot on the Revolution Tour in 2016, where she won the 2016 Mammoth Revolution Tour Halfpipe Competition and took the silver medal in halfpipe at the 2016 Junior World Championships in Laax, Switzerland.

BIATHLON’S STRAIGHT SHOOTER Biathlon is another sport where Vermonters dominate. Of the nine biathletes named to the 2018 U.S.A. Biathlon High Performance Team, three are Vermonters and two more have trained here. But one newcomer stands out: Rutland native and Middlebury College junior, Chloe Levins, 20.

Levins is not only a world class biathlete, she’s also been a state golfing champion. In 2014, at age 14, Levins placed second of all women (not just juniors) at the Vermont State Amateur Golf Championship.

In February 2018, Levins, 20, placed 6th in individual, 7th in sprint and 6th in pursuit at the 2018 Junior World Biathlon Championships in Otepaa, Estonia. Less than a month later, she placed 43rd in sprint and 45th in pursuit at the IBU Cup in Martell-Val Martello, Italy.

In December 2017, she put in a fierce performance in the IBU Cup trials in Minnesota, winning the 12K mass start event, her first win as a senior, and earning a second in the 7.5K sprint. Levins also comes from a family of athletes: her father raced alpine for Middlebury College and her mother, an All-American golfer at Duke, played on the LPGA tour.

Biathlon, which mixes the precision that golf requires, with the speed and aerobic conditioning cross-country skiing demands, seems perfect for Levins. And in the 2016 Youth Olympic Games, Levins placed fourth in biathlon, after starting in 22nd place and passing 18 competitors. At Middlebury, Levins fits in racing on the college’s Nordic team while studying for a major in neuroscience and completing her pre-med requirements.n For a full list of U.S. Ski Team nominees, see vtskiandride.com

54 Fall 2018 vtskiandride.com

Photo courtesy GMVS

Junior National Championships at Snowbird, Utah, where she competed in the U14 class as a thirteen-year-old. She took 18th overall in Super G, 38th in giant slalom and 25th in slalom, despite competing against skiers a year her senior.

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COACH

BY LISA LYNN

If you want to make the most of the ski season, train like the pros.

Myles Cotter-Sparrow skates near Lake Champlain, left.

Nordic skiers race up the Appalachian Gap in August (below) and World Cup racer Breezy Johnson demonstrates sled training, right.

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I

ROLLERSKIING IS ON A ROLL Last August, some of the country’s best Nordic skiers gathered on Route 17 in Waitsfield to compete in the 10th annual App Gap Challenge, a grueling rollerski up one of the steepest roads in Vermont.

The brainchild of Green Mountain Valley School coach Justin Beckwith, the race set men on a 7,500-meter climb (and women on a 5,000-meter climb) up the Gap with a transition from skate roller skis to classic at the parking lot of Mad River Glen. The women’s race looked almost like an Olympic trial with Caitlin Patterson leading fellow U.S. Ski Teamers Ida Sargent, Katherine Ogden and Sophie Caldwell.

“This is easily the hardest race I’ve ever done,” said Caldwell after the race.

Rollerskiing has, increasingly, become the go-to training sport for anyone who wants to build Nordic skiing endurance and

skills. “It really approximates Nordic skiing and it’s a great workout for your legs, core and arms,” says Reese Brown, press officer for U.S. Ski and Snowboard’s Nordic team.

“It’s even catching on in Texas where there are some clubs where the majority of the roller ski racers never ski.”

While it’s not an easy sport to learn, (the skis have “speed reducers” but no real brakes and you need a road with a shoulder wide enough to skate and pole) Brown says it’s a great workout for alpine skiers too.

“You really learn balance and it builds your leg strength, but it’s gentle on your body and you just can’t get into the back seat.”

And if you want to try it yourself, Skirack sells both classic and skate skis from Swenor and V2 for about $300 a pair.

This fall, the New England Nordic Ski Association roller ski series returns to the Ethan Allen Training Site in Jericho for the NENSA Fall Classic. Then, on Nov. 3, the series will culminate with the Trapp Elite Invitational, which should attract some members of the 2018 Olympic team.

BURLINGTON GOES IN-LINE Myles Cotter-Sparrow has been inline skating since he was a junior alpine racer.

“I really got into it for training,” he says.

Cotter-Sparrow, whose parents started the Zero Gravity skate park in Rutland, now works for Rollerblade and is working on a re-release of the 1990s classic Skate to Ski training videos. Rollerblade has also been hosting clinics around the country for PSIA instructors, showing how skating can help improve skiing technique.

“It’s a great workout because it builds up the stabilizing muscles, like your gluteus minimus, works your core and keeps you balanced. It can also really help to use endurance.” Ski academies, Green Mountain School, Carrabassett Valley Academy and Proctor Academy all use inline skating as training now, says Cotter-Sparrow.

Cotter-Sparrow worked with Jason Starr of Paddlesurf Champlain to set up Rollerblade rentals and held “fun 10Ks” on the Burlington bike path this summer. “I’d

Photo by Reese Brown; Myles Cotter-Sparrow

THREE WAYS TO TRAIN FOR WINTER

f you only ski 30 days or fewer a year, do you really want to spend part of that time on snow just getting in shape? We thought not. More and more athletes are finding creative ways to build up their ski muscles long before the snow hits the ground. Here are three ways top skiers get in shape.

Photo courtesy U.S. Ski and Snowboard

love to see Vermont get races going like the marathon in Duluth, Minn., which draws 1,000 inline skaters, or get an inline division in the Burlington City Marathon,” he says.

DIY SLED TRAINING When alpine and Nordic ski racers at Middlebury College want to build strength, they go talk with Chris McKhann. McKhann, who was a Division 1 ski racer at Harvard, is Middlebury’s strength and conditioning coach. His secret weapon, he says, is sled training.

“One of the biggest issues people have is that it’s easy to get hurt in the weight room. Sleds are super easy to teach and incredibly safe. There’s no eccentric loading. When you do a squat you are putting the weight on your low back and knees. With sleds, there’s no lowering of the weight. You don’t have the same strain on the muscles and ligaments, so there’s no soreness.” More and more top skiers and riders are using sled training to build power, including Mikaela Shiffrin, Shaun White and downhiller Breezy Johnson.

“A lateral drive is one of the best things skiers can do because it works stabilizing muscles you often don’t get to,” says McKhann, referring to the exercise where you pull a sled as you cross-step sideways. With “presses” you hold the straps in front with your arms bent at 90 degrees and with pulls your arms are behind you. (for a series of videos and workouts see vtskiandride.com) The other beauty of sled training is you don’t need a gym to do it.You can buy a sled for $100 or you can build one yourself with an old tire, a strap and a cinder block for $15 and work out outside.”

McKhann, 46, has come out with a new video series that shows various training programs on his website, SledRX.com.

He recommends doing a “power day” of reps where you pull 80 percent of your body weight, followed by a strength day with 100 to 200 percent of your weight. Pulling the sled laterally builds the lateral strength needed to set and hold an edge.

As for how you add weight? “I like to put a couple of small children in the tire and tow them around. They love it and I get a great workout,” McKhann says. n

vtskiandride.com Fall 2018 57

RETRO VT THE

2018

HALL OF FAME Meet the Vermonters who are making history.

I

f you want to rub elbows withVermonters who have made ski history, put October 27 on your calendar. That’s when the Vermont Ski & Snowboard Museum holds its annual Hall of Fame gala. This year’s event, held at the Killington Grand Hotel, honors five Hall of Fame inductees and presents three special awards.

FOSTER CHANDLER: MARKETING GURU Foster Chandler has skied 196 ski areas, but there’s one he knows best. From 1964 to 1996 Chandler was vice president and director of marketing at Killington, which he helped grow into one of the largest ski resorts in the East. He mass marketed the Graduated Length Method that revolutionized the way people learned to ski, resulting in major growth of the sport in

58 Fall 2018 vtskiandride.com

the 1970s and ‘80s. He was founder and president of Ski New England, director of New England Ski Areas Council for 46 years and served as chairman of the Vermont Travel Council.

DENNIS DONAHUE: BIATHLETE AND COACH Biathlete Dennis Donahue raced internationally from 1968 to 1976, representing the Putney Ski Club. He competed in the 1972 and 1976 Olympics and raced in five World Biathlon Championships. After seven years teaching and coaching at the Holderness School, he has spent 30-plus years dedicated to the development of competitive junior skiing in New England at the Ford Sayre program at both national and regional levels. He has also been actively involved with the Junior Olympics. Donahue grew up in Essex Junction, went to Middlebury College and currently lives in Thetford.

PAUL JOHNSTON: PIONEER OF PIPES AND PARKS Paul Johnston accumulated many firsts in his 30 years in the ski resort industry, most notably as vice president of Stratton Mountain Resort, where he opened the slopes to snowboarders and hosted the U.S.

Mogul maven Hannah Kearney showing her medal-winning freestyle moves, above. Below, young fans at the 2017 Killington World Cup. Courtesy US Ski and Snowboard; Lower right, Alex Klein

HANNAH KEARNEY: MOGUL MAVEN There are only a handful of skiers in the world who can match Norwich native Hannah Kearney’s blistering record. Growing up in the Upper Valley, Hannah learned to ski at age two when her parents strapped a horse halter on her and guided her down the slopes. At age 9, she joined the Waterville Valley, N.H. freestyle team. By 16, she was doing backflips.

During the 2010/11 and 2011/12 seasons alone, the freestyle mogul skier won a record-setting 16 World Cups in a row, eclipsing Ingemar Stenmark’s record for the longest winning streak in any discipline.

After stumbling on a jump in her first Olympics in 2006, Kearney came back with a vengeance to win a gold medal in Vancouver in 2010 and a bronze in Sochi in 2014, all while taking classes at Dartmouth. She went on to graduate in 2018 from Westminster College in Utah, after racking up eight World Championship medals, three gold; and 10 F.I.S. World Cup crystal globes. In total, Kearney has stood on World Cup podiums 43 times.

Kearney credits part of her success as a skier to doing ski ballet as a kid: “My success comes from the heart of the sport which is that you had to recover at all costs, be really strong, well balanced but also agile and light on your feet,” as she told NBC in January 2018.

Open of Snowboarding, starting in 1985. Under his direction, Stratton brought in specialized grooming equipment, including a pipe grinder, and was able to introduce halfpipe events at the 1998 U.S. Open. As the number of riders at ski areas quickly grew, Johnston was instrumental in helping other resorts navigate best practices for instructors, equipment and liability. He also worked at Bromley Mountain in the 1970s, installing snowmaking and the first alpine slide.

JANET AND BRAD MEAD: PICO’S FOUNDERS Pico Peak founders Janet and Brad Mead opened their ski area in Rutland on Thanksgiving Day 1937 with a rope tow on Little Pico. In 1938, Sunset Schuss opened on a hike-up basis, and Karl Acker arrived from Switzerland as the ski school director.The Meads installed the first T-bar in the U.S. in 1940. After Brad’s tragic drowning in a boating accident in 1942, Janet ran the ski area until 1954 focusing on youth programs. Their daughter Andrea Mead Lawrence succeeded internationally in ski racing, winning two Olympic gold medals in 1952.

COMMUNITY AWARD: KILLINGTON RESORT Killington Resort and president Mike Solimano will receive the first Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum Community Award. The award recognizes “a group or organization that is making a significant and unique contribution to further Vermont’s place in skiing and snowboarding history.” Killington brought Mikaela Shiffrin and the world’s top women slalom and giant slalom racers to Vermont by hosting the F.I.S. Alpine Women’s World Cup in 2016 and 2017.

In its first year, the Killington World Cup outdrew any other women’s World Cup event in attendance, bringing more than 30,000 spectators over two days.

Thanks to superb race management, a slopeside vendor village and free concerts and ski films, the following year exceeded that number and 2018’s event, to be held Thanksgiving Weekend is expected to as well.

FIRST TRACKS AWARD: KELLY BRUSH DAVISSON This year, Kelly Brush Davisson will receive the second annual First Tracks Award, which honors exceptional and ongoing contributions to skiing or snowboarding in Vermont by someone under 35.This award is given in memory of Ian Graddock, a Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum Board member and lifelong skier who passed away in 2016 at the age of 35. A Middlebury College ski racer, Kelly suffered a spinal cord injury in 2006 in a collegiate ski race.

Soon after, Kelly and her family founded the Kelly Brush Foundation, which started as a commitment to ski racing safety and has expanded to helpingpeople with spinal cord injuries lead an active lifestyle. Since then, the Kelly Brush Foundation has raised more than $4.5 million and helped more than 621 people in 47 states. Grants have gone to everything from helping skiers get adaptive equipment to providing safety netting at races such as Killington’s World Cup. PAUL ROBBINS AWARD: PETER OLIVER Waitsfield’s Peter Oliver will receive the Paul Robbins Journalism Award in recognition of his contributions to ski writing. Oliver is the author of seven books, including Stowe: Classic New England and The Insider’s Guide to the Best Skiing in New England and more than 150 feature articles for Skiing, Ski, Outside, SkiVermont, Powder, Ski Area Management, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, USA Today and many other publications. n

LINDSAY SELIN PHOTOGRAPHY

ARCHITECTURAL + INTERIOR PHOTOGRAPHY

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THE GREEN MOUNTAIN CALENDAR SEPTEMBER 21-23 | Killington IDF Skate and Luge World Cup, Killington Top skateboard racers and lugers return to race at speeds of upwards of 70 mph on skateboards and 83 mph on luge. Don’s miss the party Saturday night with live music and a barbecue, or the race on Sunday. killington.com 22 | Peru Fair, Peru The Peru Fair features a pig roast, music and family entertainment, Vermont crafts, cloggers, antiques, art exhibits, Vermont artisan demos, clowns, magicians and more. perufair.org 22 | Magic Mountain Volunteer Day, Londonderry Help clear glades and do other work to get Magic Mountain ready for ski season and get a free lunch and refreshments. magicmtn.com 22 | Vermont Wine and Harvest Festival, Mount Snow Savor wine from Vermont vintners, local farms and artisans and chefs as well as art. mountsnow.com 23 | 8th Annual Vermont Wildlife Festival, Mount Snow See birds of prey, reptile rescues and a live wolf demonstration plus presentations by the Deerfield Valley Sportsmans’ Club and the American Museum of Fly Fishing. mountsnow.com 29 | Pumpkin and Apple Celebration, Woodstock Apple tasting, cider pressing, pumpkin bowling, apples-on-a-string, pumpkin and apple ice cream, wagon rides, and cooking apple butter. billingsfarm.org 30 | 26th Annual Vermont 50, Mt. Ascutney This race benefits Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports and offers 50-mile mountain bike race, a 50-mile ultra run, a team relay and a kids fun run. vermont50.com 29 | New England Craft Beer Open, Sugarbush A golf tournament for beer lovers: sample local brews at each hole. sugarbush.com

6 | Harvest Faire, Killington Celebrate fall in the mountains with food, live music, craft beer, pumpkin painting, horse drawn hay rides, a bounce house, apple launching and stein hoisting. killington.com 6 | Community Day, Sugarbush A weekend of fun filled with outdoor activities and food. Enjoy scenic lift rides, pumpkin carving, pancakes and live music. sugarbush.com 6-7 | Annual Craft Show, Mount Snow Get a jump on their holiday shopping at Mount Snow with over 50 vendors including local artisans, specialty food makers and more. mountsnow.com 7 | North Face Race to the Summit, Stratton Stratton invites runners to challenge themselves in a 2.18-mile uphill race to the summit for over $2,000 in prize money and awards. stratton.com 7 | NESFest, Northeast Slopes Northeast slopes hosts an afternoon of live music, food and fireworks with Patrick Ross and Hot Flannel and Jeremiah McLane Cajun Dance Party. northeastslopes.org 7 | Allen Clark Memorial Hillclimb, Mad River Glen This annual grunt-fest and grueling time trial has become a cycling rite of passage in the Mad River Valley. Gain 1,600 vertical feet in 6.2 miles as you summit Appalachian Gap. madriverglen.com 7 | Wrecktangle Regional Championships, Killington Contestants get two runs to post their fastest single runtime through Killington’s new adventure obstacle course, the Wrecktangle. killington.com 7-9 & 13-15 | WitchCraft, Killington A spooky week-long celebration with a haunted house, haunted hikes, hayrides, pumpkin painting, beer garden, a haunted maze and live music. Also, ride the chairlift or try the alpine coaster, zip line, sky ropes course, and more. killingtonwitchcraft.com

OCTOBER

11 | 29029, Stratton Run/walk/crawl up Stratton Mountain. Take the gondola down. Repeat 17 times until you climb 29,029 feet, the height of Mt. Everest. A running festival, too. stratton.com

5-8 | Columbus Day Weekend Celebration, Stratton Stratton Resort moves into fall over Columbus Day weekend with activities like the Annual Craft Brew Festival, Chili Festival, hayrides, mountain yoga, and much more. stratton.com

13 | 9th Annual Bean and Brew Festival, Jay Peak Jay Peak’s annual Bean & Brew Festival features locally roasted coffees coupled with New England brewed beers, live music, and playing lawn games. jaypeakresort.com

6-7 | Green and Gold Weekend, Mad River Glen Don’t miss live music, fall foliage chairlift rides, barbecues and bike and foot races in this annual kickoff to Mad River Glen’s ski season. madriverglen.com

13 | NENSA Fall Rollerski Classic, Camp Ethan Allen Opt for either a 5K or a 10K loop in this fun fall event hosted by the Mt. Mansfield Nordic Club and Ethan Allen Biathlon Club. nensa.net

6 | 20th Annual Stark Mountain Hill Climb, Mad River Glen Earn your views in this foot race to the summit of General Stark Mountain. Proceeds benefit the Stark Mountain Foundation and trail work on the Long Trail. madriverglen. com

13 | Trapp Mountain Marathon, Stowe Trails around the Trapp Family Lodge host half and full marathon distances at the height of fall foliage. This is a 2016 USATF-sanctioned event. All finishers get a custom glass filled with von Trapp beer. trappmountainmarathon.com

6 | 7th Annual Gulp and Gallop 5K, Mount Snow A fun run for “athletic” beer drinkers. 5K race consists of four laps around the base area. After each lap, participants have their choice of water or a cup of beer before heading back onto the course. 21+ only, crazy outfits encouraged. mountsnow.com

13 | CircumBurke Challenge, Burke Mountain Choose between 27- and 50-mile mountain bike routes in this Northeast Kingdom classic at Burke Mountain. This tough annual race moves through rugged forests and hills and includes an enduro race. circumburke.org

6 | Fall Into Winter, Okemo A celebration of the transition of seasons with live German music, hayrides, games, pumpkin painting, German food, German beer tasting, apple cider and hot chocolate. okemo.com

13-14 | Eastern States Cup Downhill Finals, Mount Snow The series returns for its 9th year at Mount Snow. Test your skills against the northeast’s best riders, or come cheer them on with great spectator viewing along the course. mountsnow.com

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10-14 | ITVfest, Manchester This event showcases the world’s best independently produced television shows, web series, multimedia and short films. itvfest.com 19-22 | Vermont’s Stay to Stay Weekend Book a 3-night stay at one of the participating lodging in four cities around Vermont , you’ll have access to networking receptions, employers and meetings with people who can facilitate a move here. vermontvacation.com/staytostay 27 | Vermont Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame Banquet, Killington Spend an evening at the Killington Grand recognizing key figures in the state’s rich ski history with films, a silent auction and dinner. VTSSM.com

NOVEMBER 1 | 6th Annual Vermont Backcountry Forum, Rochester This year’s statewide community forum about backcountry skiing will feature the first ever Vermont Backcountry Film Showdown, along with a potluck, cash bar, raffle and backcountry project updates from the Catamount Trail Association and RASTA. rastavt.org 17 | New England Ski Museum Annual Meeting and Dinner, Shirley, Mass.

The NESM honors Nashoba Valley Ski Area founder Al Fletcher, Sr. with the Spirit of Skiing Award. newenglandskimuseum.org 17 | The Big Kicker, Waitsfield Kick off the 2018/2019 ski season with Mad River Glen and Sugarbush to celebrate their 70th and 60th anniversaries, respectively with an epic freestyle party at American Flatbread. sugarbush.com

WHAT’S SHOWING THIS FALL? MountainFilm Festival Tour

The MountainFilm Festival features incredible storytelling about outdoor adventures around the world. This year’s festival features a slew of films (location hosts choose which they show), including one about sailing in Antarctica, and another about Kai Jones, a Jackson Hole local who is already making a name for himself as a 10-year-old big mountain skier. Then there’s Drop Everything, which features pro skier Michelle Parker shredding big mountain lines with elegance in Alaska and Follow Through, a feature about ski mountaineer Caroline Gleich’s exploits in the Wasatch. Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center: Sept. 22, UVM Davis Center: Nov. 2, Vermont Law School, South Royalton: Nov. 1, The Big Picture Theater, Waitsfield: Nov. 3, Dana Auditorium, Middlebury: Nov. 4. mountainfilm.org

Far Out

This year’s film by Teton Gravity Research follows skiers to one of the most remote and unexplored (by skiers) mountain ranges on the planet: the Albanian Alps.

Getting there required riding, skis strapped to pack, on horseback. Other featured locations include the Purcell Mountains (think pillow lines), Kamchatka, the Slovenian Alps, Jackson and more. Starring Sage Cattabriga-Alosa,

16-18 | Craft Vermont, South Burlington The DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel (formerly Sheraton Conference Center) in Burlington hosts an art and crafts show with vendors and exhibits showing techniques, materials and finished products. vermonthandcrafters.com 23 | Trot it off 5K, Okemo Run or walk this 5K fun run, perfect for anyone looking to burn a few extra calories post-Thanksgiving feast. okemo.com 23 | Turkey Hangover Hillclimb, Mount Snow Burn off some of your Thanksgiving dinner with this fun run from the base of the Grand Summit Express to the summit. Prizes for best costume. mountsnow.com 23-25 | Annual Putney Craft Tour, Putney Glassblowers, potters, jewelers, painters, woodworkers and weavers—even artisan cheesemakers and wine makers—welcome visitors into their studios to discover one-of-a-kind handcrafted objects. putneycrafts.com 23-25 | Audi FIS Women’s World Cup, Killington Skiing greats from around the world (including Mikaela Shiffrin and Lindsey Vonn) take to the Superstar trail in this FIS slalom and giant slalom event. The weekend also features movie premieres, live music and lots more. killington.com

DECEMBER 14 -16 | WinterWondergrass, Stratton The West’s biggest winter music festival comes to Stratton, bringing three days of top bluegrass acts, crft brew tents, jam sessions and more. winterwondgergrass.com

Angel Collinson, Jeremy Jones, John Collinson, Hadley Hammer, Griffin Post, Elyse Saugstad and more. Higher Ground, Burlington: Oct. 20. tetongravity.com

Face of Winter

Warren Miller Entertainment’s 69th feature film is a tribute to the legend himself, who passed away in January 2018. For this episode, some of the world’s best skiers, including Kaylin Richardson, Dennis Risvoll, Marcus Caston, Michael “Bird” Schaffer, got together to ski some of Miller’s favorite locations across Europe, British Columbia, Chile, Iceland and the world. Expect big mountain lines, cliff drops over crevasses and a “celebration of a life lived in high places” and everything big mountain skiing. Snowshed Conference Center, Killington: Nov. 24, The Flynn, Burlington: Dec. 7, Okemo Mountain School, Ludlow: Dec. 15. warrenmiller.com

Hoji

Canadian Eric “Hoji” Hjorleifson stars in this Matchstick Productions film. Hjorleifson is known for keeping a low profile off his skis, ditching his cell phone for weeks at a time to chase storms. This fall, you can follow him. He’s also one of just three skiers to ever be the subject of a feature-length film by Matchstick. The others are legends Sean McConkey and Seth Morrison. Check vtskiandride. com for updates on dates and locations. skimovie.com

All in

Matchstick Productions is also rolling out its first ever film to feature as many female athletes as male athletes. With big name big mountain skiers like Angel Collinson, Tatum Monod, Cody Townsend, Wiley Miller and John Collinson, and powder shots from Alaska, Washington, Japan and South America, this film is bound to be epic. According to Matchstick, the film is driven by a “talented group of hard-charging women who wanted to disrupt the maledominated ski film formula... this isn’t your typical ‘women can shred too’ film, this is a kick-ass ski film that just happens to feature as many women as men.” Expect high action, stunning scenery segments and lots of personality.

Dates and locations to be announced. skimovie.com

Zig Zag

With everything from urban street edits to gnarly backcountry backflips and harrowing big mountain lines in the Alps, Level1’s 19th film is a celebration of everything whimsical and rule breaking about freeskiing.

The flick features the talents of Parker White, Laurenet de Martin, Sami Ortlieb, Chris Logan, Will Berman, Keegan Kilbride, Will Wesson, Thayne Rich, Peyben Hagglund, KC Deane, LJ Strenio, Khai Krepela, Kim Boberg, Ahmet Dadali, McRae Williams, Wiley Miller and more. Dartmouth College Winter Sports Club: Oct. 20. level1productions.com

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THE GREEN MOUNTAIN CALENDAR 14 | Founders Day, Mount Snow Celebrate Mount Snow’s unique and colorful history with presentations and a pop-up museum about the mountain’s past. mountsnow.com

Mount Snow hosts their 18th annual Oktoberfest with plenty of oom-pah music, 25 German and domestic breweries and schnitzel plus games and activities for the kids. mountsnow.com

15 | Vertical Challenge, Okemo Okemo kicks off this annual popular and fun regional downhill race series, free and open to all ages and abilities. okemo.com

Dec. 8 | 24th Annual Smuggs’ Brewfest Part 1, Smugglers’ Notch Local and regional craft beer tastings and food with a DJ. smuggs.com

15 | SugarBash with The Grift, Sugarbush Get down and funky at Sugarbush’s 60th annual birthday celebration with The Grift, serving up 60 years of music starting with the 1960s. sugarbush.com

BEER FESTS Sept. 21-22 | Oktoberfest Vermont, Burlington A Bavarian themed festival and celebration with food, beer, traditional music, and lots of games and contests. oktoberfestvermont.com Sept. 22-24 | SIPtemberfest, Mad River Glen Vermont’s “Best Little Beer Fest” offers an intimate craft beer tasting experience with short lines and opportunities to chat with local brewers. siptemberfest.com Sept. 22 | von Trapp Brewing’s Annual Oktoberfest, Stowe Trapp Family Lodge and von Trapp Brewing invite you to the 9th annual Oktoberfest for fun, food, and music. vontrappbrewing.com Sept. 29 | Killington Brewfest, Killington Enjoy Vermont’s famous autumn foliage while listening to live music, enjoying a wide range of foods and over 125 of the finest craft beers in the region. killington.com Oct. 6 | Brewfest, Stratton Mountain Enjoy more than 100 regional and Vermont brewery beers to the tune of live music at southern Vermont’s tallest peak. stratton.com Oct. 7 | Harpoon Octoberfest, Windsor The Harpoon Brewery in Windsor hosts their Octoberfest filled with Harpoon beer, oompah music, keg bowling, fall foliage and a Harpoon race. harpoonbrewery.com Oct. 7 | Oktoberfest, Sugarbush Bavarian food, drink, stein hoisting, keg tossing, football and other games all to the tunes of the Reformed Mad Bavarian Brass Band North. sugarbush.com Oct. 6-7 | 21st Annual Oktoberfest, Mount Snow

SKI SWAPS Sept. 28-30 | Pico Ski Club Annual Sale and Swap Equipment drop-off: At the Pico Retail Shop on Sept. 22 from 3 to 5 p.m.; Sept. 22 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.; and Sept. 26 from 4 to 6 p.m. At the Pico Base Lodge on Sept. 27 from 4 to 6 p.m. and Sept. 28 from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. picoskiclub.com Oct. 5-7 | Killington Club Monster Ski and Bike Sale Equipment drop-off: Sept 29 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.; Sept. 30 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Oct. 4 from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.; Oct. 5 from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Oct. 6 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Ramshead Base Lodge. Sale hours: Oct 5 from 5 to 9 p.m.; Oct 6 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; and Oct. 7 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. killingtonskiclub.com Oct. 12-13 | Colchester Ski Sale Equipment drop-off: Oct. 12 from 4:30-7 p.m. Sale hours: Oct. 13 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Colchester High School gym. colchesterskisale.weebly.com Oct. 20 | Montpelier Rec. Department Ski and Skate Sale Equipment drop-off: Oct. 19 at Montpelier High School from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sale hours: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the high school. montpelierrec.org Nov. 10-11 | Waitsfield Ski and Skate Sale Equipment drop-off: Nov. 10 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Nov. 9 from 4 to 7 p.m. at Waitsfield Elementary School. Sale hours: Nov. 10 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Nov. 11 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. waitsfieldschool.org Nov. 16-18 | Okemo Mountain School Ski and Snowboard Swap Equipment drop-off: Nov. 10, 11 and 14 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Sitting Bull restaurant at Clock Tower Base Lodge. Sale hours: Nov. 16 from 4 to 7 p.m.; Nov. 17 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Nov. 18 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. okemomountainschool.org Nov. 17-18 | Cambridge Area Rotary Ski and Ride Swap Sale Equipment drop-off: Nov. 17 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sale hours: Nov. 18 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Nov. 19 from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Cambridge Community Center. rotarycambridge.org

Join us each month in the heart of Stowe for an informal forum (and a beer) with top experts on topics such as:

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THE BEST NEW SKIS | BACKCOUNTRY HUTS SNOWBOARD PHOTOGRAPHY | LEGENDS FROM THE TENTH MOUNTAIN DIVISION | VERMONT’S ICONIC SKI PATROL LOST VERMONT SKI AREAS AND MORE. For a full schedule visit VTSSM.COM, or follow the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum on Facebook.

62 Fall 2018 vtskiandride.com

The Green Mountain State is home to some of the best breweries, wineries, cideries and distilleries in the world. And most invite you to stop by their pubs, restaurants and production houses for a tour and to sample their goods. For more information, links and maps to each location check out www.vtskiandride.com.

610 Route 7, Middlebury, VT 802-989-7414 www.dropinbrewing.com

Drop-In Brewing is Middlebury’s small, independent, locally owned brewery, and is home to The American Brewers Guild Brewing School. Our Tap Room is open 7 days a week serving sample flights, pints, and selling cans and growlers to go. You can find our beer on draft in restaurants and bars across Vermont, and our cans in retailers that carry craft beers. For more information, check out www.dropinbrewing.com, or call us at (802) 989-7414.

von Trapp Brewing 1333 Luce Hill Rd. Stowe, VT 802-253-0900 www.vontrappbrewing.com

von Trapp Brewing is dedicated to brewing the highest quality Austrianinspired lagers with a Vermont twist.

Experience “a little of Austria, a lot of Vermont,” in every glass. Plus come visit our new bierhall at the brewery! sponsored content

6308 Shelburne Rd, (Route 7) Shelburne, VT 802-985-8222 www.shelburnevineyard.com

Taste, tour, and enjoy our award-winning wines as we welcome you and share our adventure growing grapes and making wine in VT’s northern climate. Located in charming Shelburne, just south of Burlington. Open daily, all year, 11-5 NovApr; 11-6 May-Oct.

46 Log Yard Drive, Hardwick, VT 802-472-8000 www.caledoniaspirits.com

Caledonia Spirits is a craft distillery in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Raw honey distinguishes our Barr Hill vodka, Barr Hill gin, and Tom Cat barrel aged gin by imparting a pure and soft botanical essence into each bottle. All of our spirits reflect our deep connection to the land and Vermont’s agricultural heritage.

Open daily 12-5 for free tours and tastings at the distillery.

52 Seymour Street Middlebury, VT

11 Cabin Lane Waterbury, VT

802-897-7700 www.whistlepigwhiskey.com

WhistlePig showcases the tremendous flavor potential of rye while maintaining a smooth and balanced profile, identifying it with the most acclaimed whiskeys in the world.

3597 VT-74, Shoreham, VT 802-897-2777 www.champlainorchards.com Open daily 9-5. July-Nov.

Visit us in Shoreham or find us at your favorite craft retailer to try our award winning, orchard-made ciders. All our ciders are made onsite with our ecologically grown apples and our orchard is solar powered.

Warren, VT 802-496-HOPS www.lawsonsfinest.com

Lawson’s Finest is an award winning small artisanal brewery located in Warren, VT, producing an array of hop-forward ales, specialty maple beers, and unique creations of the highest quality and freshness.

Find our beer at lawsonsfinest.com.

VERMONT BEER, WINE, CIDER + SPIRITS

DRINK VT

The Chairlift Q+A

THE LOGGER RETURNS An annual classic, Rusty DeWees’ show “The Logger” caricatures just about every type of “Vermonter,” from old-timers to flatlanders. On tour this fall, he takes aim at skiers—because he is one.

Do you consider yourself a Vermonter?

I was born outside of Philadelphia but we moved here in 1968. My dad drove a Greyhound bus and my mom worked as the business manager at The Stowe Reporter for 30 years. I went through high school in Stowe, worked in construction and did some logging. I’m not a Vermonter but I’m darn lucky I’ve gotten to know a lot of true ones.

You also lived in New York.What was that like?

In my 30s I headed to New York and lucked into a gig working for William J. Doyle, who had a gallery and sold estate antiques. Pretty soon, I was his righthand guy and having lunch with Gloria Vanderbilt at the 21 Club and going to parties in East Hampton with Ina Garten and the like. I never had any formal theater education but that taught me a lot and I was able to break into acting in New York.

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You recently got a call for a movie that’s filming here, right?

A couple of years back two women from Vermont (I’d played at their high school years ago) called and said they had written a role for me as a general store owner in this movie. I figured that, as Hollywood goes, nothing would come of it. But I got the part and they’re here now, casting Soulmates, a buddy movie about two close friends in a small town where a big syrup company moves in. Ryan O’Neal is in it and the role I play is the general store owner. The best part is there’s a joke written for me: “You know why all the trees in Vermont lean east? Because New Hampshire sucks.” According to the script, Adam Sandler (who’s from New Hampshire) then says, “Hey, that’s not funny.”

What have been your favorite movie roles?

Well, I did some episodes of Law and Order, and I once got to take a knife away from Brad Pitt, but that scene was cut. I really like working with Kingdom County Productions’ Jay Craven. I think my role of Harlan Kitteridge in his A Stranger in the Kingdom was my favorite.

You’re performing in Rutland the weekend the World Cup comes to Killington. Your cat’s name is Mikaela and you’re a fan of ski racing. How does that fit into the show?

My cat skittles down the stairs so fast she looks like she’s running slalom gates so I changed her name to Mikaela, after Shiffrin. I grew up skiing at Stowe and went to school with Tiger Shaw [the former Olympic skier who now runs U.S. Ski and Snowboard]. In my show, I poke a little fun at the World Cup crowd there with lines like “That crowd’s so white it makes the snow look beige” and “betcha at Killington they even got solar panels on them portalets.” —L.L.n

Photos by Paul Rogers/Stowe Photography

F

or 22 years actor, comedian and writer Rusty DeWees has been pulling on a pair of old boots and a torn shirt, chugging from a jar of maple syrup and conjuring up a way of speaking that you might still come across at a general store north of Calais (pronounced “callous,” if you didn’t know). His shows at small town theaters and opera houses run the gamut from the profane to the profound; his act dances between Jim Carrey-like gyrations, flirtations with the audience and musings on life as it was when the roads were mainly dirt, everyone listened in on the party line and there were still more farmers in Vermont than farmers’ markets. As Rusty, now 57, will say, don’t ever try to call yourself a Vermonter—that takes generations.

But after watching “The Logger,” you do feel a little closer to the Green Mountain state. For upcoming shows, see rustydewees.com.

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