Vermont Ski + Ride, Holidays 2017

VT

FREE! HOLIDAYS 2017

SKI + RIDE

Vermont’s Mountain Sports and Life

THE BEST OF WHAT’S NEW Backcountry Expands Ski Hills Are Resurrected Classic Ski Bars Come Back Hut-to-Hut Gets Real A Lift Shack Becomes A Dream Home 50 YEARS OF XC AT TRAPPS

21 COOL NEW APRÈS SPOTS www.vtskiandride.com

PLUS 43 AWESOME EVENTS

Burke Vermont

It’s that simple.

Play in the snow. Carve some turns.

Enjoy dinner out. Snowshoe in the moonlight.

Snuggle by the fire. Tuck in for the evening.

Get a good night’s sleep–you’ll need it.

Because there’s more to do tomorrow.

om e Ve r m o n t

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Vis i

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Recreate. Relax. Repeat.

Burke Vermont

Burke Area Chamber of Commerce burkechamber@burkevermont.com

CONTENTS / 03.02 FEATURES PUSHING BOUNDARIES, p. 28

Vermont’s backcountry ski scene is exploding, thanks to new glades, new huts and new sidecountry programs. Here’s our guide to the new terrain.

SETTING FIRST TRACKS, p. 36

Fifty years ago, the von Trapp family launched the first cross country ski center in America.

Today, it’s stronger than ever.

BACK IN ACTION, p. 42

These six organizations want anyone, no matter their circumstances, to have the opportunity to ski or ride.

A rider takes some hefty slices out of Mount Snow’s early man-made powder.

FIRST TRACKS FIRST TRACKS | HEY LA NINA, LET IT SNOW!

COLUMNS p. 6

Photo courtesy of Mount Snow

How much snow will we see this winter? Top forecasters make predictions.

SKI TOWNS | LIVING (OR LEAVING) THE DREAM? p. 11

Can programs like this innovative one at Sugarbush save the ski town?

APRÈS | 21 NEW PLACES TO EAT, DRINK, OR DREAM, p. 15

The best of what’s new in Vermont’s ski country since last season: mouthwatering, dreamy and eclectic aprés-ski destinations.

DREAM HOME | A HOME ON THE SLOPES, p. 23 A tiny, defunct ski area gets new life as a family ski compound.

EDITOR’S LETTER | THEY’RE BACK, p. 5

Want to ski someplace new this season? Vermont adds ski areas and terrain.

COMPETITION | WHY BECOME A SKI BUM? p. 51

Why not? Here are a few of our favorite ski bum race leagues.

COACH | BORN FROM ICE, p. 54

PSIA examiner Doug Stewart’s 5 tips on managing the slick stuff.

THE GREEN MOUNTAIN CALENDAR |

p. 59

CHAIRLIFT Q/A | SKIING THE NEW ENGLAND 100, p. 64

This guy skied 100 areas in New England, and found some real gems.

ON THE COVER: Ben Friedman goes for his PADI certification at Mad River Glen. Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur

vtskiandride.com Holidays 2017 1

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THEY’RE BACK.

Vermont was once littered with little ski areas — some just a rope tow out back and others, such as Dutch Hill, with ticket booths and multiple trails.

The New England Lost Ski Areas Project lists more than 100 Vermont ski areas. Today, some of those are coming back.

Last season Magic Mountain reopened.This year, it has a line-up of events ranging from uphill skimo races to all-terrain, extreme downhills. Ascutney has reinvented itself as a backcountry playground, maintaining trails year-round and, this year, adds back a T-bar. Several years ago, Haystack became the base area for the posh, private Hermitage Club.

In southern Vermont, Dutch Hill (shown above) has been approved by the U.S. Forest Service for development as a backcountry site. And then there’s High Pond in Hubbardton, which Peter Dartley bought to create a private family compound (see “Home on the Slopes,” p. 22.)

“It’s worth a trip to get off the big hills and go to the little hills,” says Ray Laroque, a man who has made it his mission to ski 100 areas in New England in “Chairlift Interview,” p. 64. For some, that means seeking out the smaller and less crowded ski areas. For others, it’s exploring the new glades that have been legally cut in remote areas. For news on the new backcountry stashes, huts and guides, see “Pushing Boundaries,” p.28.

In the age of corporate ownership, it’s also nice to see so many Vermont ski areas still run by the families who started them. Cochran’s Ski Area is still going strong. Last April, Bolton Valley was bought back by the family that first started it, the DesLauriers; and the Trapp Family Lodge Outdoor Center celebrates its 50th year of cross country skiing as we write about in “Setting Tracks,” p. 36.

Increasingly,Vermont is catering to every type of skier. And, thanks to the six Vermont organizations we profile in “Back in Action,” p. 42, nearly every person—no matter their circumstance or disability—is getting a chance to ski or ride.This holiday season, we’ll profile each organization on our Facebook page on a Tuesday and donate $1 for every new “like” we get to each one. If you love skiing and riding in Vermont, consider matching that.

—Lisa Lynn, Editor

CONTRIBUTORS Angelo Lynn , publisher of VT Ski + Ride and The Addison Independent has yet to win a ski bum race at the Middlebury College Snow Bowl, but that hasn’t stopped him from racing every Friday, as he writes in “Why Become a Ski Bum?” on p. 51.

Since writing her senior thesis about hunting pythons in the Everglades, Emma Cotton has moved back north to be a staff writer for VT Ski + Ride. She loves to explore Vermont’s backcountry and her story, “Pushing Boundaries” p. 28 is a good guide to all that’s new around the state.

An avid skier, Lee Kahrs is the managing editor of The Reporter in Brandon, near where Peter Dartley is rebuilding High Pond Ski Area (p. 22).

Karhs has won 12 first place awards for her work from the New England Newspaper and Press Association.

What’s New at VTSKIANDRIDE.COM?

SUPPORT A GOOD CAUSE “Like” us on Facebook in December (Vermont Ski + Ride Magazine) and for every new “Like” and “Follow,” we’ll donate $1 to one of the organizations profiled in “Back in Action,” p. 42. GET THE NEWS FIRST Sign up for our e-newsletter for breaking news, conditions, contests and special deals. SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE Don’t miss an issue—sign up for a free digital edition. READ PAST ISSUES They are all here.

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

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When everyone else heads for the lodge? That’s the time to enjoy the weather. Brian Mohr captures a storm rider in the Greens last winter.

6 Holidays 2017 vtskiandride.com

FIRSTTRACKS HEY, LA NIÑA,

LET IT SNOW!

Three key factors will affect how much snow we get this winter.

New England’s top forecasters and meteorologists explain.

BY EMMA COTTON

Photo by Brian Mohr /EmberPhoto

I

In the past few winter seasons, Ullr—god of snow—has sent Vermonters through a bit of a tail spin. In the season of 201516, he cursed us with the strongest El Niño on record, Last season, he graced us with storms like Winter Storm Stella, when the snow piled as high has five feet in three days.

This year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration—god of forecasting—predicts La Niña conditions. Is that good?

In a normal year, trade winds push warm surface waters in the tropical Pacific Ocean west, toward Asia, allowing deep cold water near South America to rise. During El Niño, those trade winds weaken. Warm water isn’t pushed west and cold water isn’t pushed up. In 2015, that left New England with a warm, dry winter.

La Niña is El Niño’s cousin and, in many ways, its opposite. In the year or two following El Niño, those trade winds pick back up and cold air travels up the west coast of North America.

The result? Usually, the northern U.S. becomes cold and snowy.

Before you break out the powder snorkels, take this warning from Eric Kelsey, director of research at the Mount Washington Observatory in Conway, N.H.: “El Niño and La Niña’s correlation with New England temperatures and precipitation is very, very loose.” On

top of that, NOAA’s winter outlook for the coming winter season projects,with 40 percent certainty, that temperatures in Vermont will be warmer than average.

But according to Army-trained meteorologist Roger Hill, it’s still very possible that New England will see a snowy winter.

“Throwing my hat in there, I would say it will be a near-normal to slightly below normal-temperature winter, with probably better-than-average snowfall,” he says. “I don’t think the front side of the winter’s going to be all that impressive—skiing in the East will probably be much better in the last half of the season.”

Hill identifies three factors that will play into this season’s snowfall. The first, predictably, is La Niña—he expects it to be weak to moderate, and it’s likely to bring colder-than-average temperatures.

The second is the Arctic Oscillation, a circuit of wind that blows counterclockwise around the Arctic at about 55 degrees latitude north.

It has two phases: the positive phase features a ring of strong winds that keep cold air confined within the Arctic, and in the negative phase, those winds weaken and cold air percolates south. “The AO is positive right now, so that hugs in all the cold, arctic air,” Hill says. But the Arctic Oscillation varies on a weekly basis, and if it turns negative, we will probably see snow.

vtskiandride.com Holidays 2017 7

u Finally, wind coming from the Atlantic Ocean, where surface waters are warmer than average, will ramp up our winter snowfall events. “Storms are going to be big,” Hill says. “When they happen, they’re going to be volatile.”

And even if temperatures are above-average, as NOAA predicts, a disclaimer in their winter outlook shows that

warmer temperatures don’t necessarily mean less snow. It states: “While the last two winters featured above-average temperatures over much of the nation, significant snowstorms still impacted different parts of the country.”

For now, we can cross our fingers and hope that Ullr throws us the pow. n

2018 Snowfall Predictions* SCOTT BRAATEN was a forecaster at Hearst-Argyle Television and is now at Stowe.

With his intel, the Stowe team makes decisions about snowmaking, grooming and opening certain lifts and trails.

JOSH FOX has been writing the Single Chair Weather Blog, based out of Mad River Glen, since 2006.

Fox received his meteorology degree from Penn State University in 1998.

ROGER HILL studied meteorology while in the Army, stationed in Hawaii, then worked for the National Weather Service. Now, he forecasts weather for Radio Vermont and for his blog, Weathering Heights.

ERIC KELSEY is the director of research at the Mount Washington Observatory in New Hampshire, and a professor at Plymouth State University. Kelsey received his PhD from the University of New Hampshire.

When is the biggest storm of the year? And how many inches of snow?

December 27 with 20-30 inches statewide. We are due for a crippling snowstorm during the holiday week (instead of the annual Grinch rainstorm). Decembers during La Niña can be very good.

February 25. Though I think we’ll see a decent winter, it will start slowly and peak in February or early March.

February 18, 20 inches. In mid- to late-February, we should expect a series of coastal Nor’easters, especially if potential stratospheric warming events kill the polar vortex. That would get a strong energetic flow going, and with a negative North Atlantic Oscillation, a few storms should develop.

February 14, with 28 inches.

Often, our biggest storms are in February or March.

Best powder weekend?

The northern Greens do powder better than anywhere in the East. The best powder weekend will be an unassuming weekend where it snowed 4” to 6” per day in the week prior, not the weekend after a huge, hyped-up storm.

The best three days for powder will be the last three days of February, bringing back memories of the great late-February Nor’easter of 1969 which produced epic powder during the same period.

February 18, based on our track record the past several years.

There will be great pow several times this year. Sink your skis into it on February 17-18.

Area with the most snowfall?

Jay Peak. Annual snowfall increases as you head north up the spine of the Greens.

The best powder is almost always up at Jay Peak, but areas downwind of Lake Champlain will do well during our first cold outbreak. The lake will be unusually warm going into January, and conditions are highly favorable for terrain-induced powder. Sugarbush, Mad River, Stowe, Smuggs and Jay should do well again.

Jay Peak and Smugglers’ Notch.

Lake effect snows after storms will add snowpack to these two locations, in particular.

Stowe and Smuggs.

Mount Haystack will be quite good, too.

First day Mt. Mansfield snow stake measures 50 inches?

December 25, as a Christmas present.

I don’t think we’ll get this until February 1. The 50-inch threshold at Mt Mansfield’s stake is used by some to determine the “go-ahead” for woods skiing.

January 28. That’s a WAG—a Wild Ass Guess.

February 18. After the February 14 blockbuster storm, the stake will be buried.

FORECASTER

*Disclaimer: These are wild guesses, not solid science, as it is way too far in advance to predict anything real.

8 Holidays 2017 vtskiandride.com

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Ski Towns

LIVING (OR LEAVING) THE DREAM? Sugarbush’s creative Tenants for Turns program looks to solve a problem that’s plaguing ski towns around Vermont: where’s a poor ski bum to live?

Photo by Brian Mohr/EmberPhoto

BY LISA LYNN

In Waitsfield and other ski towns around the state, it’s getting harder and harder for ski area workers to find housing.

F

rom the outside, at least, Kristine Keeney, 29, is living the dream. Keeney, a community planner, moved to Waitsfield from Maine in June, 2016. Since then, she has tried to ski more than 100 days year. She skins, her job is flexible. She lives in the village of Waitsfield and can walk to the half-dozen shops and restaurants.

She has, in short, what every ski bum wants. And what ski bums —and anyone who is single and trying to make a living in a ski town—are finding increasingly hard to find.

According to a 2017 study by the Mad River Valley Planning District, the Valley will need to accommodate 459 more households to meet a projected population increase of 14 to 19 percent in the next decade.

And with rents and home prices going up, short-term rentals being increasingly offered via AirBnB and other sites, the chances of finding a place to bunk down are getting slimmer.

Already, the lack of housing is causing an outflux of young people —the types who might wait tables or load a lift at a ski resort. In fact, between 2000 and 2014, there

was a 55 percent decrease in people under 35 in the Valley.

As one respondent to the organization’s survey put it: “After over a decade of renting in the Mad RiverValley, I have concluded that is virtually impossible to find healthy, affordable, quality housing for someone with my income. I have considered leaving many, many times, but it breaks my heart to think of moving away from this amazing community so I intend to work hard, live simply and scrape by for as long as I can. Being able to own here seems more and more impossible as the years go by.The sad reality is, one day in the near future, I may have to leave.”

Aware of all this, Keeney set out to try to find solutions.

“I’d heard of this Tenants for Turns Program out West and thought, hey, why not try it here.” The program, which has been used in such ski towns as Stevens Pass and Mt. Hood, Washington and during the summer, in Jackson Hole, Wyo., rewards landlords who make new housing available to ski area employees, with lift tickets or other perks.

Keeney wrote up a proposal and took it to Sugarbush.

“They were really positive about it,” she says. The resort launched the program this fall. Landlords have to fill out an application and qualify (a relatively easy process).Their space

vtskiandride.com Holidays 2017 11

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Ski Towns

Kristine Keeney,

is posted to a website and, when a tenant signs up, the landlord has the option of receiving 10 all-mountain lift ticket vouchers, a season pass to the Sugarbush Health and Recreation Club (SHaRC), or paying $100 for a full season pass.

Hilary Grey was one of the first people to sign up for the program.

Unbeknownst to Keeney, her landlord had signed up and Grey, in her early 20s, will now be one of Keeney’s roommates. “It’s going to work out just fine.” Keeney said.

While this is one innovative program it will take more to solve the housing shortage that plagues ski towns. In early October, Rob Katz, the CEO of Vail Resorts, and his wife Elana Amsterdam pledged to donate approximately $58 million from the sale of his company stock shares to a fund that will help the mountain towns where Vail Resorts operates. The fund will allocate grants to non-profits. “We hope the grants can help make a difference by bringing people and programs together around community problems that need solutions,” Katz said.

Already, towns like Stowe, Waitsfield and Woodstock are looking at other ways of opening up housing stock. In Woodstock, people are encouraged to rent their homes during peak foliage season in the fall but after that need to apply for a conditional use permit if they plan to rent for 30 days or longer. Stowe will soon be requiring landlords to register their short term rentals, meet fire codes and pay the rooms and meals taxes, says town planner Tom Jackman.

The growth of AirBnB has been felt primarily in Vermont’s ski towns, which make up seven of the 10 most popular towns for 2017.

According to AirDNA, Killington and Stowe lead the list with 486 and 482 listings repeatedly, with Ludlow, Warren, West Dover, Jeffersonville and Wilmington rounding it out. In Warren, the occupancy rate was 21 percent with an average daily rate of $218 .

Of course, those arriving at the short term rentals bring revenue to the towns and the ski resorts: Vermont AirBnB hosts took in $17 million in 2016 alone, with Stowe alone bringing in $2,131,757.

However for ski resorts, the challenge of finding workers is real.

Vermont, like many other ski states, often relies on importing seasonal workers for six months from other countries under the H-2B visa program. Nearly 10 to 15 percent of Vermont’s ski resort employees now are here under the visa program and if Congress allows that federal law to change, resorts are going to be looking even harder for employees like Hilary Grey. n

12 Holidays 2017 vtskiandride.com

Photo courtesy Kristine Keeney

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11/9/2017 12:30:58 PM

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Après 21 NEW PLACES TO EAT, DRINK, DANCE OR DREAM Since last winterVermont’s ski country has exploded with interesting and eclectic new apres-ski destinations.

T

Photos by Kelby Cushman, top, Sarah Priestap, right

his past summer The Wall Street Journal discovered what skiers and riders who have been coming for years already knew: “Southern Vermont is slowly morphing into a sophisticated destination,” a headline read.

Ummm.. we’re not sure when it ever stopped being sophisticated (didn’t Rudyard Kipling write The Jungle Book at his home in Dummerston and Fred Pabst found Bromley Mountain Resort in Peru?) But one thing that is certainly changing: the number of really interesting new restaurants, bars and hotels in ski country.

BY LISA LYNN

At the new Wild Roots, snowboarder Jayne Sully Cole and her husband serve the freshest farm fare they can find.

SOUTHERN VERMONT A southern Vermont icon is about to come back. Peru’s Ryan Prins bought Johnny Seesaw’s, the first ski lodge in America, at auction in 2015. Since then, he and his partners have been quietly rebuilding the lodge and cabins on the 6.8 acre property next to Bromley Mountain and hope to reopen later this winter.

John Ivan Sesow, a Russian lumberjack, built The Wonder View Log Pavilion as a dance hall in the 1920s using only hand tools. He lost it, legend has it, in a poker game. In 1938 Bill and Mary Parrish bought it and converted “Johnny Seesaws” into one of the country’s first ski lodges.

It went on to host the likes of Charles Minnie Dole (who founded the National Ski Patrol), aviator Charles Lindbergh and Gerald Ford. During the 1970s it was the site of wild nights around the circular fire pit and it made it onto the National Historic Register. It closed in 2015 and since fell into disrepair.

Prins and his team are working hard to retain the authentic character while rebuilding the lodge and guest cabins. The round hearth is going to stay and as much of the original building as can be salvaged, will be reused. They hope to open later this winter, under the name Seesaws with a 60-seat restaurant and several guest cabins. Also in the plans are a distillery and coffee roaster and shop, and possibly a bakery, as well.

vtskiandride.com Holidays 2017 15

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Photo by Lindsay Selin; Rendering courtesy Seesaws

(formerly executive chef at Okemo and The Inn at Weathersfield) has become a partner in Free Range. Tostrup, who has worked at Bouchon and appeared on Emeril Lagasse’s cooking show will be dishing out local, farmfresh fare with an ethnic twist.

Just north in Ludlow, Eliza Greene and Justin Hyjek of Homestyle Hostel—a place that has a near-cult following (see vtskiandride.com/ poshtels/) are renovating an old Victorian building across the street as Main + Mountain, a hip motel.The motel will feature the same, clean design elements that inspired Homestyle but have en-suite bathrooms.

Hyjek is already known for mixing a mean cocktail, but he has recruited Vermont Bartender of the Year, Matt Farkas, to run Main + Mountain’s bar. The term “motel” is a misnomer. The building is classic Victorian on the outside and superbly modern on the inside. The couple hopes to open Main + Mountain on December 15.

For dinner in Ludlow, head down the road to Mama’s, which opened in October. Abby and Rogan Lechthaler, who own The Downtown Grocery, have reinvented the old Mama Valentis’s into a classy, familyfocused restaurant and take-out spot with homemade pastas, cured meats, and a bar. There’s no website, no phone, no reservations. But there is a killer cured-meat cone, squid-ink pappardelle with shrimp and fennel sausage and, of course, meatballs.

For something a little fancier, head to Chester where Jason Tostrup

Two sneak peeks of good things to come: Ludlow’s Main + Mountain (top)and plans for Seesaws in Peru.

CENTRAL VERMONT Woodstock is never short on good places to eat and stay and the lynchpin of the town, The Woodstock Inn, is upping its game. The Inn has been undergoing a series of renovations to the rooms and public spaces and will be adding a demonstration kitchen and culinary gardens.

In town, Matt Lombard, formerly of posh Twin Farms, has turned the former Osteria Pane e Salute’s space (where he worked most recently) into Mangalitsa. Mangalitsa takes “local” seriously, working with farms in the Upper Valley such as Fat Sheep Farms. The restaurant opened this past fall and is already getting rave reviews for dishes such as fried quail with polenta, soy-braised pork belly and house-made tortellini.

Set between Woodstock and Ascutney, Fat Sheep Farm in Hartland is a working 60-acre farm that this season is offering five newlybuilt cabins. Todd Heyman, a former lawyer in Boston and Suzy Kaplan, a former zookeeper, bought the farm in 2016 and have been raising sheep, chickens and goats and selling their product to local restaurants and farm markets.

The five “cabins” —more like small houses— are fresh and comfortable, come with kitchens and linens and a chance to help out on the farm or to enjoy the farm-fresh eggs and produce.

Starting at around $1,060 for a week for up to four, they are a bargain.

Royalton is not exactly a ski town. But if you are headed north or south on I-89 there’s now a reason to get off at Exit 3 (other than the legendary Worthy Burger). Sommelier Jayne Sully Coyle (a Vermonter) and her husband Josh Walker were diehard snowboarders in Vail before moving back to Vermont a few years back. This past summer they opened Wild Roots in a 200-year-old brick tavern (formerly Fox Stand Tavern). Their NECItrained chef Peter Varkonyi turns out seasonal local specialties like rabbit on a bed of grits with pickled garlic scapes and homemade

vtskiandride.com Holidays 2017 17

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pappardelle. “We are pretty much sourcing everything we can from local farms,” says Cole.

And across the state, if you’re headed down to Middlebury after a ski at the Middlebury Snow Bowl (newsflash: the college-run ski area will finally offer beer this winter at its cafeteria) or a Nordic outing at Rikert, save some energy. You can now head to town to ride the mechanical bull (set in the midst of a padded red vinyl playpen) at The Rough Cut BBQ (formerly 51 Main) which opened in November. If you want something a little fancier than BBQ, head across the town green to Coriander for a “Charles de Gaulle” sirloin steak or a Georgia Mountain Salmon, marinated with maple soy and a drizzle of Rheaume Family Sugarworks birch syrup.

18 Holidays 2017 vtskiandride.com

Stowe’s Rusty Nail goes Mexican (above) and Free Range in Chester (below) gets a new top chef.

NORTHERN VERMONT If you want to truly sample the best of Vermont, The Taste Place, in Waitsfield is the new place to do so. The pet project of Robin Morris, who started the food incubator, the Mad River Food Hub, it’s an emporium with more than 100 local products, including more than 50 Vermont cheeses, as well as local brews and spirits, charcuterie bread and baked goods.

Since its official launch party last March, Shepherd’s Pub has been pulling locals and visitors into its space in downtown Waitsfield (just near, coincidentally, the Mad River Woolery). Some come for the live music and weekly dart tournaments (Thursdays), others come to sit by the fireplace and tuck into one of the savory meat pies (or the amazing vegetarian one— mushroom-walnut bourguignon). Either way, a meal in the barnboardtrimmed room with rustic wood beams overhead is just plain cozy.

Up the mountain at Sugarbush, Timbers Restaurant at the base has morphed into the more casual Rumble’s Kitchen (named in memory owner Win Smith’s Bernese Mountain Dog who passed last season).

Aprés-ski favorites include lobster wontons and chickpea fries and pork belly tacos or you can dig into a grilled lamb kebob with a cucumber yogurt mint sauce.

In Waterbury, the former Arvad’s has had a compete makeover and is now Allium, serving a creative menu that goes anywhere from Taco Tuesdays (half-priced!) to a pulled barbecue jackfruit (yes, you read that right) to a torched tuna ceviche to Wagyu hangar steak. With such popular staples as Prohibition Pig across the street, and the legendary Hen of the Wood at the gristmill up Stowe Street, Allium adds a new dimension to this growing foodie town.

The food scene is spreading north, too, with Waterbury Center’s Zenbarn drawing folks to the old Tanglewoods for nearly nightly shows featuring anything from jazz and acoustic trios to political discussions to yoga workshops. The tagline “building community from soil to soul” holds true.

Just north on Route 100, Vermont Artisan Coffee Roaster’s new headquarters not only serves killer cappuccinos and baked goods in its stylish coffee bar, but also offers behind-the-scenes tours and Coffee School for future roasters and baristas.

In Stowe, the biggest news is the return of the much-loved Rusty Nail nightclub with a Mexican restaurant, Tres Amigos. New owners Chad Fry and Mark Frier have a great track record with The Reservoir in Waterbury and The Bench, just down the Mountain Road in Stowe.

The Bench’s current chef started this fall cooking up Mexican favorites such as queso fundido, empanadas and tacos of all sorts. It’s a welcome addition since The Cactus Café closed. The Rusty Nail Stage features some of the best local talent such as trippy Mellow Yellow and Zach Nugent’s Disco Dead.

There are also more opportunities to buy local. Adding to the Stowe Public House (local beers, cured meats and cheeses) which opened last winter, Pete’s Greens, Stowe Seafood and Commodities Market, The Butchery is coming to town.The Waitsfield butcher will feature cuts of meat from local farms. And for even more farm-fresh fare, head north to the new Morrisville Coop (Mo-Co), which will also feature soup and sandwich specials and baked goods. It’s local at its best. n

ifts From Vermont

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e like to shop locally all year round. But when it comes time to pick out holiday gifts, we make an extra effort to find the best of what Vermont has to offer. Check out the merch — both new and old — from some of the best 802 brands. You're sure to impress with one of these picks — or maybe a few!

GIVE YOUR FAVORITE ATHLETE THE BEST OF THE BEST.

FERRO ESTATE + CUSTOM JEWELERS Stowe, VT — (802) 253-3033 — ferrojewelers.com

Vermont Snowflake Pendants: Custom made in white gold and diamonds, these beautiful snowflake pendants come in a wide variety of designs and prices (including an exclusive design made for the Vermont Ski Museum) and make the perfect holiday gift. A member of the American Gem Society, Ferro Jewelers has been in business since 1947 and has stores in Stowe and Woodstock. Snowflake Pendants start at $275.

URSA MAJOR DARN TOUGH SOCKS

Northfield, VT — (877) 327-6883 — darntough.com

New for Fall / Winter 2017, the Men’s Mountain Top Over-The-Calf Light Ski Sock is the ultimate combination of warmth and breathability. Built with 3 integrated ribbing zones to eliminate slipping or bunching, your feet will stay warm while also being breathable! As always, Darn Tough’s socks are built to last with a 100% guarantee and all are made in Northfield, Vermont!

Mountain Top Socks, $24.

Waterbury, VT — (802) 560-7116 — ursamajorvt.com

This wonderfully rich, yet fast-absorbing face cream, provides deep hydration and nourishment to soothe and replenish weary skin. Use it for intense daily hydration, as a “wrinkle-busting” night cream or anytime your skin needs extra TLC. Works great for all skin types; especially recommended for anyone recovering from prolonged exposure to the elements.

Golden Hour Recovery Cream, $48.

RENOUN SKIS

Burlington, VT — (802) 778-9330 — Renoun.com/vt

RENOUN’s Z-90 (pictured) is your performance, carving ski in every condition. RENOUN’s HDT technology brings you unparalleled stability and control on any slope: early morning corduroy, trees, bumps and late-day crud. Vermont native and RENOUN founder Cyrus Schenck was introduced to the concept of a non-Newtonian polymer while at Clarkson University, founded Renoun in 2012, and three short years later (2015) RENOUN captured the coveted worldclass ISPO GOLD Award in Munich, Germany in recognition of its pioneering technological design. The Z-line is best if you ski the entire mountain, yet love the heart and soul of a carving ski. It has 300 percent less chatter than the typical carving ski, and it’s backed by a 100-day guarantee and no-questions-asked return policy, as well as a limited two-year warranty. RENOUN also has an all-mountain ski, the Endurance. Online only. RENOUN’s Z-90, $1,295.

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CONCEPT2

Skida Headwear & Accessories, founded in 2008 by ski racer Corinne Prevot while she was at Burke Mountain Academy and Middlebury College, believes in local production, limited edition products, and a fresh perspective. The original Vermont Collection is still produced locally in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, while a new cashmere line is produced in exclusively for Skida in Nepal. Their best selling insulated piece, the Alpine Hat, is the perfect weight for colder days. The printed poly-blend outer fabric is fully lined with cozy mid-weight fleece — it wicks moisture, cuts the wind, and always leaves you high and dry. Great for chilly runs, hitting the slopes, or just cruising around town. This hat goes from casual to performance without skipping a beat. $36

Since its humble beginnings, Concept2 has been making world class training products here in Vermont. Brothers Dick and Peter Dreissigacker started building rowing oars in a Morrisville dairy barn in 1976 and since then, have expanded the product line to include the Concept2 Indoor Rower, the SkiErg and the new BikeErg. Plain and simple, we love what we do, and we work hard every day to design and manufacture innovative, high-quality products. The Concept2 SkiErg provides a quality aerobic workout while building ski-specific strength and endurance. Whether you’re an elite cross-country skier looking to improve your poling power, a weekend enthusiast wanting to get into shape for the ski season, or just someone looking for a great workout, the SkiErg will help you achieve your goals. $770 SkiErg (wall mount option), additional $180 SkiErg Floor Stand (shown).

Burlington, VT — (802) 540-8100 — skida.com

DODGE SKI BOOTS

Essex, VT — (802) 662-2102 — dodgeskiboots.com

At Dodge Ski Boots, they love skiing and it drives local owners David Dodge, a former racer, and Bill Doble to make skiing more fun. That fuels their passion to make the best ski boot in the world, and the first hand-crafted graphite ski boot, which make them incredibly light and responsive. Every pair of Dodge Ski Boots is custom-fit and hand crafted at their Essex facility. Whether you're a beginner or a racer, Dodge promises their boots will be the best performing and most comfortable you’ve ever skied. Exclusive Free 3D Fitting Assessment and Money-Back Satisfaction Guarantee.

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Morrisville, VT — 800-245-5676 — concept2.com/ski

DION SNOWSHOES

North Bennington, VT — (802) 753-1174 — dionsnowshoes.com

Designed, built and used by experienced snowshoe racers and hikers, these tough, lightweight snowshoes are comfortable to wear and can adapt to a wide variety of terrain and snow conditions. What makes Dion Snowshoes unique is that they are sold as separate components. They offer several different frame sizes, bindings and cleats that are interchangeable depending on your needs. Dion's exclusive blend of performance, durability, and comfort is found in every snowshoe model they offer. By combining an innovative design with quality materials and craftsmanship, they offer a “custom” snowshoe at a “pre-fab” price. Model 121 Frame with QuickFit Binding and Deep Cleat shown.

Starting at $230; Model 122 starts at $195.

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Dream Home

22 Holidays 2017 vtskiandride.com

Photo by Lindsay Selin

The “Terminal� building, once the T-bar lift shack, now has a kitchen and large dining table.

Polished concrete floors have radiant heat.

A HOME ON THE SLOPES

So you bought an old ski area and want to live there?

The old outbuildings of a tiny, defunct ski area get new life as a family home.

BY LEE KAHRS vtskiandride.com Holidays 2017 23

S

ome people create little ski areas behind their homes. They may put in a lift, cut some trails and call it a day. Peter and Karen Dartley did the opposite: They recently bought a defunct ski area, installed a T-bar and began renovating a cluster of old lift and lodge buildings, one of which will serve as a weekend home.

Located just north of Rutland, in the hamlet of Hubbardton, High Pond Ski Area dates back to the 1940s. For more than 50 years, the tiny ski area operated on 40 acres with rope tows and a T-bar that took skiers up to 1,400 feet elevation and gave them a choice of as many as 8 runs for the 300-vertical-foot descent.

According to Jeremy Davis, founder of the New England Lost Ski Areas project, the tiny ski hill was founded by W. Douglas Burden, (the developer of Marineland in Miami and in California) as a private hill that he opened to the public occasionally. It had one of the first platter pull lifts in the early 1940s and ’50s, and one of the earliest snowmaking plants.

Later, it went through a number of owners, and was often open to the public on weekends.The area has been closed since the early 1980s.

In many ways, Dartley, 71, is following in Burden’s path. He is the former managing director of the now-defunct Pequot Capital Management, Inc., one of the world’s largest hedge funds in the 1990s. He and his wife also operate the Dartley Charitable Trust based in Wilton, Conn., an arts, culture and humanities non-profit that currently holds $4.32 million.

The couple, who live in Manhattan, has been escaping to Vermont for more than 40 years and bought a house in Ludlow in 1981. “When

24 Holidays 2017 vtskiandride.com

we bought that house, it was a pasture,” Dartley says. “Now, there’s a forest, a three-acre lake, and a windmill. It’s quiet and secluded. We love Vermont. It’s one of our passions.”

They have a five-year plan for the High Pond property, which they hope to develop as a family compound. “I used to ski, but then I had my knee fixed and I don’t anymore,” Peter says. “And I wasn’t a very good skier anyway.” However, their son Christopher is an avid snowboarder and arborist who was looking for a farm. He was the one who found the High Pond property and urged his parents to have a look.

“He has always wanted to have a sustainable, working farm,” Karen says. There is already a small lake called Walker Pond on the property, and Dartley plans to erect solar panels and a windmill, making the property as self-sustainable as possible. Their other son, Alec, is a painter and snowboards as well. So do their five grandchildren.

The couple, who have been married for 48 years, came to see the High Pond property for the first time on the coldest day of the year in February, 2016.

“And that’s the day we decided to buy it,” Karen said. “We fell in love with it.”

A LITTLE HISTORY

Many people in the area can remember skiing at High Pond as children and still have a soft spot for the old ski hill.

By the 1960s and 70s, there was a small base lodge, a warming hut, a T-bar and three rope tows, a ski shop and snack bar, and parking for 200 cars. According to the 1973 Ski Guide to the Northeast, lift

Working with architect Steve Selin, Karen and Peter Dartley (above) made the old Alpine Restaurant (right) into a one-bedroom lodge. The McKernon Grop refashioned doors with veneer from old buildings on the property, created a trundle bed (left) and installed the old ticket window (below right) in the Terminal, near a bench.

tickets were $5 for adults, and $4 for kids.

The Dartleys inherited old promotional postcards, brochures and patches when they bought the property. The back of the brochure shows a cartoon goose on skis pronouncing, “We’re not the biggest… but one of the best!”

“Every time we’re here, someone stops and wants to talk about the old days,” Dartley said with a smile. “One guy even had a lift ticket from years ago. I told him I’d look the other way and honor it for one lift ride up.”

Photos top and left by Lee Karhs; right, by Lindsay Selin

AUTHENTIC RESTORATION

Work began in earnest almost immediately after the couple bought the 330-acre parcel for $1.3 million last year.

The McKernon Group of Brandon, led by Kevin Birchmore, was hired to do the construction, and Selin and Selin Architecture in Shelburne did all of the design work. “We loved the look of the old buildings and wanted to replicate that,” says architect Stephen Selin. The team settled on trying to keep the logs on the inside of the Alpine Restaurant – a 650 square foot building that became a one-bedroom cabin.

The exterior was covered in live-edge siding. Builder Kevin Birchmore of The McKernon Group grew up skiing at High Pond —”I broke my leg there in fifth grade,” he says with a laugh. He worked hard to use as many of the original timbers as possible and to refashion doors and floors to match the distressed look of older wood.

“The whole family is really excited about this,” Dartley said with a smile as he sat in the living area of the restored Terminal building wearing a gray fleece with a High Pond Ski Area patch sewn to the left chest area. His daughter-in-law surprised everyone in the family with fleeces embossed with the old High Pond Ski Area patches.

Dartley will happily sit in the restored building and watch his sons

and grandchildren come down the mountain, just like High Pond founder W. Douglass Burden. Legend has it that the wealthy businessman built the ski area so he could watch people ski from his living room window. He was said to have owned 10,000 acres of land in the High Pond area and built a nature museum on his property, which burned to the ground in 1970.

The Dartleys’ goal was to preserve as much of Burden’s original

vtskiandride.com Holidays 2017 25

buildings as possible. The Terminal building, the former ski patrol building, the old barn and the Alpine restaurant building had all been sitting vacant for decades. Time took its toll and parts of the barn and other buildings that were too far gone were taken down.

But repurposing and rehabilitating old structures is The McKernon Group’s specialty, and a lot of the wood was reused for windowsills, doors, baseboards, and other architectural touches in the Terminal and Alpine buildings.

“It was an incredible project,” says architect Steve Selin. “It’s not easy to pick up and move a log structure [the Alpine] that old but the McKernon team did it.”

The Terminal building will act as a gathering place for the family at the base of the T-bar. It has a kitchen, comfortable seating area and a bathroom. The old ticket window is to the left of the front door, and the old T-bar wheel hangs from the ceiling. Two old wooden T-bars were turned into lighting fixtures and hang 15 feet above the main room.

The Alpine building was moved back from the road, gutted, and rebuilt into a beautiful one-bedroom guesthouse with a full kitchen, living area, and two baths. All of the chinking was replaced and the old wallboards were restored to maintain the original look of Burden’s building. “We tried to get it to look the way it looked back in the day,” Dartley says.

The Terminal building was one of a cluster at the base (top) and housed the T-bar. The old T-bars (now lights) and bullwheel hang from the ceiling of the gathering room.

26 Holidays 2017 vtskiandride.com

There was a buzz in the skiing community last fall when an online news item appeared with the headline “Defunct High Pond Ski Area Being Rebuilt.” The article was posted on the New England Ski Industry News website.

The article included photos of the new Leitner Poma lift equipment that had been delivered to the old ski hill, and mentioned that the old T-bar equipment had been removed.

Most of the excitement was around speculation that the ski area was going to be restored and re-opened to the public. But Peter Dartley says that was never the plan.

“We have no expertise and no one in the family has an interest in doing that,” he says. “It’s also prohibitively expensive for insurance purposes.”

Also, Dartley says, there is a portion of the property that is designated wetland not far from where the parking would have to be.

“The state had been very specific about wetland management,” Dartley said. “We couldn’t really provide parking.”

But overall, Dartley said, the state was very supportive during the construction process, which also involved dealing with the disposal of wet asbestos from the old buildings, as well as old diesel and oil tanks that had to come out of the ground.

“The state has been phenomenally helpful,” Dartley said.

While the Dartleys would not put a price tag on the restoration, Peter called it “substantial.”

“We could have done this for less if we didn’t want to preserve the original character and nature of the place,” he says.

“We love history,” Karen adds, “and we love projects.”

“Burden did a beautiful job of creating something here and when he sold it, unfortunately, it got really run down,” Peter notes. “We wanted to bring it back to the way it was. It’s something of a legacy project for us.” n

Photos top courtesy of McKernon, bottom, by Lindsay Selin

A PRIVATE MOUNTAIN

www.redhousebuilding.com • 802.655.0009 Timeless Craftsmanship • Employee-Owned

VT Ski + Ride | Holiday 2017 | 1/4 page ~ 3.67 x 4.69

Naturally Epic Photo credit: ©Brian Mohr/EmberPhoto

madriverglen.com

Photo by Brooks Curran

PUSHING 28 Holidays 2017 vtskiandride.com

For those willing to venture into the sidecountry in Smuggler’s Notch, there’s plenty of powder to be had.

BOUNDARIES AROUND THE GREEN MOUNTAINS, BACKCOUNTRY SKIING IS EXPLODING — THANKS TO NEW TERRAIN, NEW HUTS AND NEW BACKCOUNTRY PROGRAMS.

By Emma Cotton

vtskiandride.com Holidays 2017 29

Sometimes, Vermont can take you by surprise.

A few years back, Ben Leoni, then a student at Vermont Law School in South Royalton, took a trip up to Jay Peak. A snow squall had dusted the state in snow on Friday and Saturday, and by the time Leoni and his friends reached the parking lot Sunday morning, a few inches of white blanketed the valley.

Up on the mountain, that blanket was two and half feet deep.

“Northern Vermont gets this great northwest wrap-around snow high on the ridgelines,” Leoni says. “It went bluebird that day, and it was probably some of the deepest skiing I’ve ever had in my life, and that includes skiing in Utah.”

Leoni was up on Big Jay, a mountain that sits south of the summit of Jay Peak. It’s accessible by skin track from a parking lot on Route 242 East, or through a backcountry ski gate at the top of the resort.

Now a lawyer in Portland, Maine, Leoni has skied all over New England, Canada, and out west. He’s the star of Ski the East’s “Working for the Weekend” web series, and is considered one of the better backcountry skiers in New England. For Leoni, when the snow’s good, nothing beats Vermont.

“The Chic Chocs have more open terrain, and out west, it’s a lot more open,” he says. “But there’s something wonderful and wild about the backcountry tree skiing in Vermont. With its twisted, old yellow birches and spruce forests, it’s beautiful. The trees protect the snow from wind, so when it does snow, the tree skiing in Vermont is really world-class.”

When it comes to America’s backcountry map, Vermont is on it. “People now travel from other states seeking the backcountry experience that Vermont provides,” Leoni says. “It’s grown a ton.”

Sidecountry—terrain accessed just beyond the resort’s boundaries— has become increasingly popular, too, as skiers have been quietly cutting new glades and trails in Smuggler’s Notch, in the drainages of Sugarbush’s Slide Brook Basin, and at Mad River Glen and Killington.

In 2007, at Jay Peak, two men were arrested for cutting 873 trees to make a 60-foot-wide, three-quarter-mile long run down Big Jay—a serious environmental offense.

But in the last two years,Vermonters have pushed the boundaries—in a legal way. Miles away from any ticket office, new glades are opening up, thanks to sanctioned work being done by the three official chapters of the Vermont Backcountry Alliance: the Rochester/Randolph Area Sport Trails Alliance (RASTA), the Northeast Kingdom Backcountry Alliance, and its newest member, the Dutch Hill Association of Skiers and Hikers (DHASH), based in Readsboro, Vt. “Now with volunteer labor, participation of towns and the US Forest Service—backcountry skiing has really emerged from the shadows to being embraced by communities,” says David Goodman, author of multiple backcountry skiing guides, including Classic Backcountry Skiing: A Guide To The Best Ski Tours In New England. “I think we’re really on the cusp of a new era of skiing. We’re seeing the creation of all these new backcountry zones in Vermont, with organizations developing, what is, essentially, community-supported skiing. : .

From Bolton Valley, you can ski all the way to Stowe on the backcountry Catamount Trail.

30 Holiday 2017 vtskiandride.com

Photo by Josh Arneson/Bolton Valley

THE NEWEST BACKCOUNTRY

In 2015, Vermont became the first state in the nation to allow sanctioned trail cutting by volunteers on U.S. Forest Service land when ski glades were approved in the Green Mountain National Forest near Brandon Gap, just east of Rochester.

On February 18, 2017, the SE Group, which offers strategic planning and consulting, recorded trail data at Brandon Gap. It was a powder day and 171 people carved down a total of 20,000 vertical feet through glades created and maintained by RASTA. That weekend, those skier visits accounted for 17 percent of visits to nearby bars and restaurants, 18 percent of lodging, and 30 percent of the gear, retail and souvenir sales at local shops.

Now, volunteers all over the state are working with managers of federal and state land, and private landowners to create glades for public use. This year, there will be even more backcountry stashes than ever as organizations build on the mission RASTA first presented five years ago: “to provide safe and sustainable multiple-use trails for the enjoyment of area residents and visitors.”

In the fall of 2016, volunteers completed the first glades on Mount Hor in the Willoughby State Forest, marking the first project of its kind on state land. This year, the Northeast Kingdom Backcountry Alliance has expanded the number of glades and the range of difficulty in the Lake Willoughby area. “Last year, you were really talking three ski lines, and now we’ve more than doubled that,” said Mike Moriarty, NEKBC’s vice president. “It’s definitely exciting.”

For 2018 two lines have been added on Mount Hor—one close to the area’s parking lot, and another that branches off an existing summit trail—plus an easier, quick loop trail on the adjacent Bartlett

Ben Leoni, star of the “Working for the Weekend” series, spends a Saturday researching the deep

Photo by Tim Fater

in Vermont’s backcountry near Jay Peak.

Mountain. They have also developed intermediate glades on Kirby Mountain, on a sections of private property the owner designated for public use. “That will give us, more or less, access for all abilities, which is really exciting,” Moriarty says. “Last year, people gave us feedback that the lines up Mount Hor were pretty steep.”

Down south, near the Massachusetts border, a group of backcountry enthusiasts have banded together to reincarnate Dutch Hill, a small ski hill off Route 100 in Readsboro that closed in 1985. Last fall, the US Forest Service designated an 87-acre northern section of Dutch Hill for non-motorized winter recreation. Volunteers, calling themselves the Dutch Hill Association of Skiers and Hikers (DHASH), became an official chapter of the Vermont Backcountry Alliance and this winter, they hope to reopen the hill as a backcountry trail system.

The terrain, with a 570-foot vertical drop, will include glades and 12 former ski slopes suitable for intermediate skiing and snowshoeing. Plans even include enlarging the sledding hill that has been a local favorite for decades. The revival marks the beginning of a multi-year trail maintenance project led by the U.S. Forest Service.

In central Vermont, RASTA volunteers have polished off the last of the glades in the Brandon Gap area, now home to 20,000 vertical feet of skiable terrain.

SAFETY MEETING

If you’re not sure where you are going, go with someone who does: or a professional guide. Even in Vermont, skiers have often been lost or had to spend the night in the woods. Here are the basic rules for backcountry: 1. Know Before You Go. Know where you’re going. Never just follow tracks into the woods.

2. Wait for 50 Inches. Locals know that it’s unsafe to ski off-trail in the backcountry unless there’s at least a 50-inch base at the Mt. Mansfield snow stake. With the 100 mph wind storms that happened this fall, downed trees and branches will make woods skiing even more hazardous. To see the depth at the stake visit http://www.uvm.edu/skivt-l//depths.html 3. Be Prepared. Be sure you have the right equipment and clothing. Stowe Mountain Rescue’s Chief of Rescue, Doug Veliko carries a small day pack with six or seven Powerbars, a space blanket, compass, firestarter, headlamps and first aid kit whenever he’s in the wild.

4. Share the Plan. Let other people at home know where you’re parking, where you plan to go, the approximate distance and when you plan to return.

5. Go With Three. That way, in the case of an injury, one person can stay with the injured while another goes for help.

vtskiandride.com Holidays 2017 31

5 HUTS TO HEAD TO

Hadsel-Mares Cabin, Barton

The 650-sq. ft. Hadsel-Mares Cabin is simple with a wood stove and sleeping space for six. While there’s no electricity, running water or cell service: you’ll have a massive outdoor playground, including over 40 miles of trails in the Willoughby State Forest (including trails to the summits Mount Pisgah and Mount Hor).

Reservations are $65 per night or $45 per night if you book for more than seven days, with 30 percent off for Green Mountain Club members. greenmountainclub.org

Mt. Mansfield’s Stone Hut, Stowe, Vt.

Outfitted with a large stone hearth, a wood stove and wooden bunks that can sleep 12, those lucky enough to win the lottery and land a stay get first tracks down Nosedive or Goat at Stowe and the numerous backcountry lines off the summit. The cabin, which is used by trail keepers in the summer, has only been available for rental during the winter for $225 a night. From Nov. 1 through 17, applications for stays are taken by mail and entered into a lottery system. After Nov. 17, reservations can be made for any still-available nights on a first-come, first-served basis by calling (802) 253-4010.

“The backcountry skiing around Brandon Gap has always been awesome, and the new trails just make that experience better,” said Ashar Nelson, an architect and longtime backcountry skier who lives in East Middlebury. “The lines are well thought-out. They’re narrow but plenty steep enough, reminiscent of the side-country at Mad River, just without the lifts. They also offer a good amount of vertical in one shot.”

And RASTA is already expanding. Recently, they’ve explored adding skiable terrain near Chittenden Brook, just east of Brandon Gap off Route 73, and have brought the proposal to the U.S. Forest Service.

The area is part of the Robinson Integrated Resource Project, a 60,000-acre parcel of land that requires specific management, as directed by the 2006 Green Mountain National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan. A decision from the Forest Service is expected in the spring.

VERMONT GETS CABIN FEVER

The Chittenden Brook area may also become home to the first new hut in the Vermont Huts Association system. This past October, Vermont Huts executive director RJ Thompson made the announcement with a bang, hosting 170 people in a standing-room-only party at Outdoor Gear Exchange in Burlington—the biggest event the local outdoors store has ever seen.

Their first hut, though still permit-pending, is slated be built on Green Mountain National Forest land. With a kitchen and propane heat, it will bunk 10 people year-round. Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Waitsfield is designing and building the hut and, as long as the permitting is approved, it is scheduled to open in the summer of 2018.

Vermont Huts has proposed a second cabin in Sterling Forest, owned by the town of Stowe. The proposal, presented to the town’s select board in early November, details a hut that sleeps between eight and 15 people. It’s near the Catamount Trail, snowmobile trails

32 Holidays 2017 vtskiandride.com

Bolton Lodge & Bryant Camp, Bolton

These two cabins are set high among the alpine forests above Bolton Valley Resort’s Nordic and alpine ski trails. While the Bolton Lodge is currently under construction, the nearby Bryant Camp (pictured left) was renovated last year. It has a sleeping loft for six and features plain wooden construction. Bryant Camp is by reservation only and costs $95 on weekends, $75 during the week. greenmountainclub.org

Bell Gates Cabin, Braintree

Set into the mountains surrounding the central Vermont town of Braintree just off Route 12A is a backcountry skier’s paradise.

Thanks to the hard work of volunteers with the Rochester/ Randolph Area Sport Trails Alliance, you can explore the beautifully crafted glades off of 2,901-foot Skidoo Mountain and follow a skin-track back to the top to earn your turns all day long.

This season, volunteers built a porch where you can sit and watch skiers descend through the trees. The fully restored cabin, with a new woodstove and bunks for up to ten is free and on a firstcome, first-served basis. rastavt.org.

Merck Forest Cabins, Rupert

In southern Vermont, you can book one of eight cabins at 3,162acre Merck Forest and Farmland Center in Rupert. The cabins sleep between two and twelve and are furnished with tables, wood stoves, bunks, porches and rocking chairs. While there’s not much vertical drop, it’s a great place for a weekend of cross-country skiing or snowshoeing on over 30 miles of trails. Cabins are $50 to $75 in the summer and $65 to $90 in the fall, winter and spring. merckforest.org

The goods are there for those who earn their turns and don’t

Photo top left, Samantha van Gerbig; right, Briann Mohr/EmberPhoto

mind a few tight trees.

maintained by Vermont Association of Snow Travelers. It’s also near hiking and mountain biking trails.

Vermont Huts’ website already lists 11 bookable cabins in their network, but all of these huts are currently managed by other organizations. Their mission is to build and manage additional huts that will link the existing ones. “The goal is end-to-end, hut-to-hut adventures,” Thompson says.

To achieve that goal, the organization has been collaborating with groups around the state.“We sat down with every chapter of the Vermont Mountain Bike Association between Killington and Stowe,” Thompson says, “and we also had representatives from the Catamount Trail Association, the National Forest Service and the Vermont Department of Parks and Recreation to get input on where potential routes of connectivity may occur, and where they already are,” Thompson says.

“Based on the feedback from those local trail groups, along with state and federal government, we were able to identify approximate zones that would make sense for a new hut,” Western mountain ranges have renowned networks of backcountry huts, like Colorado’s 10th Mountain Division’s 34 huts and San Juan huts. Quebec’s Chic Chocs are home to multiple cabins, the Adirondack Mountain Club maintains huts in New York, and the non-profit Maine Huts and Trails manages a system of year-round backcountry cabins on 80 miles of former logging trails.

It has long been a dream for Vermont to establish a similar network.

Amy Kelsey, the executive director of the Catamount Trail Association, says this idea has come up over and over. “People call us all the time asking how they can ski hut to hut, and I try to cobble something together based on what’s out there right now, but it’s never the answer they really want,” she said.

If the Vermont Huts long-term vision comes through, it could allow skiers to travel in hut-to-hut style for the first time. Last winter renovations were completed at Bryant Camp, in the backwoods just off Bolton Valley Resort’s trails. From there, it’s possible to ski the Catamount Trail all the way to Stowe and the Trapp Family Lodge.

In Stowe, the Stone Hut (known for its mile-long waiting list) is a perfect example of the demand for backcountry accommodations in Vermont. In past years, the reservation system was lottery-based, and the hut would book up long before the season started.

But this year, the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, which manages the land, broke the reservation process into two phases. During Phase I, which was held from Sept. 5 until Nov. 10, the reservation system was lottery-based. Phase II, new this year, started Nov. 17 and allows reservation on a first-come, firstserved basis for any dates still available.

With the existing (albeit rustic) Beaver Meadow cabin and the proposed Sterling Forest Cabin also in Stowe and within a day’s ski, it’s possible to see how a network of trails could begin to form.

vtskiandride.com Holidays 2017 33

In southern Vermont, Dutch Hill is being revived as a backcountry site.

Bolton will host a series of events to introduce the public to backcountry, including a two-hour Intro to the Backcountry classes on Saturday mornings, a half-day group backcountry ski on Sunday mornings, and guided backcountry lessons whenever requested. Bolton will also bring back its Tuesday night ski-mountaineering, or “skimo,” race series, during which skiers skin uphill and ski downhill..

“Our goal,” Arneson said, “is to take that first-time person from saying to themselves, ‘I’m not sure how this backcountry stuff works,’ to ‘Oh, that’s what it’s all about, now I’m ready to go.’ Backcountry skiing is one of those things that will pick up momentum and continue to grow, and we’re just at the beginning of where it might be going.” n

GETTING OUT IN THE SIDECOUNTRY

As the backcountry movement takes off, resorts are getting involved, too. Most list an uphill policy on their websites, and skinning is usually allowed in some capacity for a small fee. Some mountains have designated sidecountry, like Sugarbush’s Slide Brook Basin, which has a shuttle service at its base and Bolton Valley, which offers shuttles on certain weekends to Nebraska Valley.

And this year, Bolton Valley Resort wants to push even farther into the backcountry movement.The goal, according to Adam DesLauriers, Backcountry Program Director, is to be the “first slopeside backcountry center in the East.”

DesLauriers grew up skiing at Bolton, the resort his grandfather Roland founded in 1966 and his father Ralph owned and built up until 1997 when he sold it. In April, 2017, the DesLauriers family bought back Bolton and Adam envisions it as a center and resource for backcountry skiing.

Extreme and backcountry skiing was just part of what Adam did back then, often along with his Extreme Team brothers (of Warren Miller and other ski movie fame), Rob and Eric DesLauriers, and Dan and John Egan (brothers who still guide at Sugarbush and Killington, respectively).

The brothers were known for skiing just about any terrain, fast and fluidly and the sidecountry of Bolton and Sugarbush, were their playgrounds.

Now, DesLauriers is inviting others to play there. “We want to offer professional guiding and instruction, complete rental equipment and easily accessible terrain right from the base of the alpine/Nordic ski area,” he says.

While the rise of fat skis, light touring bindings and a wider array of backcountry boots has fueled the surge in ski touring, one of the biggest barriers to backcountry skiing has been the high cost of the gear. Backcountry skis and bindings cost a pretty penny and rental gear has been largely unavailable. DesLauriers is planning to solve that by building a rental fleet of Dynafit backcountry boots, skis and bindings.

“What we want to do with our backcountry program is teach people about the equipment, about the right apparel, technique, and the rules about the backcountry to stay safe,” says Josh Arneson, the resort’s public relations director.

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TRAIL BLAZERS BOLTON VALLEY: This year, Bolton Valley is home to backcountry guides, rental equipment gear, seminars, events and more. boltonvalley.com CATAMOUNT TRAIL ASSOCIATION: The CTA helps maintain the backcountry ski trail that runs the length of Vermont and hosts the Vermont Backcountry Alliance. Memberships are $35 and family memberships are $50. catamounttrail.org.

DHASH: Dutch Hill Association of Skier and Hikers will host touring days on the first and third Sundays of January, February and March, with a group skin to the summit and lunch at the top.

Become a member of DHASH by joining the Catamount Trail Association. dhash4vt.org/ NEKBC: The Northeast Kingdom Backcountry Alliance will continue to update glades as the season moves forward. Become a member by joining the Catamount Trail Association. nekbc.org RASTA: The Rochester/Randolph Area Sport Trails Alliance hosts frequent touring days. Help out by volunteering to do trail work. Head online to see maps of glades, new updates, events, projects and more. Become a member by joining the Catamount Trail Association. rastavt.org VERMONT HUTS: Membership in the Vermont Huts Association ($35 per person, $65 for a family) gets you early booking, access to some huts and reservation discounts.

Donations fund the construction of new huts. vthuts.org.

GUIDES: Skiers new to backcountry can also hire guides through PetraCliffs’ Mountaineering School, based in Burlington (petracliffs.com), Sunrise Mountain Guides in Stowe (sunrisemountainguides.com) and at Killington Mountain Guides (killingtonmountainguides.com).

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“‘Not too fast, not too steep, not too long,’ is how Maria von Trapp (shown here) liked to do our ski outings,” remembers her daughter-in-law, Lynne von Trapp. Today, Maria’s children and grandchildren still make sure the trail system caters to all levels.

FIFTY YEARS AGO JOHANNES VON TRAPP LAUNCHED THE FIRST CROSS COUNTRY SKI CENTER IN AMERICA. NOW, THE NEXT GENERATION OF VON TRAPPS IS TAKING IT TO A NEW LEVEL.

By Lisa Lynn 36 Holidays 2017 vtskiandride.com

Photo courtesy Trapp Family Lodge

SETTING FIRST TRACKS

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50 YEARS OF NORDIC

The Trapp Family Lodge celebrates its 50 years as a crosscountry center with a variety of events, demos and parties the week of January 19-26. Join in an antique ski outing (there are prizes for best vintage gear and costumes), a torch-light ski to the Bierhall and a “Champions” dinner on Saturday. The rest of the week will include retro nights, chances to ski with the von Trapps, and on Wednesday, Jan. 24, a roll-back to 1968 prices for ski rentals and Austrian specialties at the Bierhall. trappfamily.com “One year, long after the von Trapp singers disbanded, the governor asked the family to sing at an event,” Lynne von Trapp recalls. “We did so, but on the condition that they pave the rutted dirt road up to the lodge” Johannes notes. He continues: “There wasn’t ‘Nordic’ gear then, just the leather boots and wooden skis and rottefella “rat trap” bindings which you could loosen so as to lift up the heel.” Johannes learned to ski primarily in the woods behind the house. Occasionally, the children would get tickets for a single lift ride to the top of Mt. Mansfield. “I remember skiing down Toll Road when I was age 6,” Johannes says. “I think I fell six times.”

After serving for three years as a missionary on an island off Papua New Guinea, Johannes was accepted at Dartmouth and then went on to the Yale School of Forestry. At Dartmouth, Johannes roomed with a Norwegian, Richard Fuglesang, whom he remains friends with to this

ifty years ago much of this wasn’t here. Not the chalet-style lodge, not the groomed ski trails, not the bustling Bierhall with its dirndl-clad waitresses and von Trapp’s Austrian lagers—just the family, the hills and the sound of music.

The original lodge burned in 1980 and a year later, the new lodge Baron Georg von Trapp fled from Austria (below) was built with a nod to Austrian chalets. to the U.S. in 1938 and bought the Gale Farm in Stowe in 1942. When the Baron passed in 1947, his wife Maria was left to take care of the farm, von Trapp’s seven children from his first marriage and their three: Rosemarie, Johannes and Eleonore.

Though The Sound of Music told of (and fictionalized) the family’s life in Austria, the story of what happened after they came to Vermont and how they launched the first cross country ski center in America is just as good.

Sitting recently with Johannes, 79, his wife Lynne, 71, and their two children, Sam, 45, and Kristina, 47, the stories start to trickle out. The four all chime in, each impossibly good-looking, all with the piercing blue eyes that earned Sam a role as a Ralph Lauren model.

When he grew up, Johannes recalls, skiing was as much about transportation as it was sport. “It was a much faster way to get out into the backcountry, out to timber or to the old hill farms than snowshoeing,” he says.

38 Holidays 2017 vtskiandride.com

Photos courtesy Trapp Family Lodge

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he night is so cold that trees crack and pop like gunshots in the forest.The snow squeaks as my skis glide rhythmically, forward and back, along the groomed tracks. To the east, a giant orb of a moon rises over the Worcester Range, illuminating Stowe and the valley below. In the meadows, split rail fences cast shadowy lines across the white fields.

I have covered five kilometers of the Trapp Family Lodge’s 65-kilometer trail network, blood pumping as I herringbone my way up the last climb. It is nearly 6 p.m. when I near the highest point of the trail system and the Slayton Pasture Cabin.

It is a simple log cabin, where one might normally stop for a bowl of hot soup and to warm up by the open fireplace. But it closed at 3:30 p.m. It is dark now and I know I should be off the trails.

I start the descent, adrenaline rushing on the downhill, flakes flying in the air as I brush past hemlocks loaded low with snow. I pause for a moment at the tiny stone chapel that Werner von Trapp, a member of the 10th Mountain Division who was stationed at the famous Riva Ridge battle in Italy, built. Then it is on through the forest, tunnelling through branches bowed down with snow, to the clearing above the Lodge.

Ahead, the chalet-style Trapp Family Lodge glitters with white lights. Garlands and tiny Christmas trees deck the balconies. Inside, singing will have started around the piano, the songs everyone knows.

I get the strange sensation I am living in a postcard. The only thing that would make the moment more perfect was if there were a cold lager waiting. And at the von Trapp Bierhall down the road, there is.

Johannes von Trapp and his son Sam head out for the trails beyond the Lodge .

day. “He’d come home with me for vacations and we’d ski up the ridge.

Skiing then for us was like what backcountry skiing is today and what it was to old Craig Burt and the others who skied Stowe before there were lifts: we skied up to find nice lines to ski down.”

Photo top by Paul Boisvert

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he 1960s were what Johannes calls the “motel era” in Stowe, and with new competition the Lodge needed to attract new clientele.

Johannes had returned to run the place and was looking for a way to increase interest. “In 1967, we bought some skis and put them in the barn and told guests to help themselves,” Johannes recalls. “Yes, and at first it was a massive failure,” he admits with a smile.

That didn’t deter Johannes. “I realized what we needed was a good instructor so with Richard’s help we placed an ad in the Oslo paper. “I remember it said something as simple as ‘Nordic ski instructor wanted to come to America,’” Kristina adds, with a laugh and a shrug. “It was pretty vague.” Still, they got over 300 responses. “I went over to Oslo and the first candidate I met was Per Sørlie, a charismatic Norwegian.

I hired him on the spot,” says Johannes.

Sørlie had that magic that all good ski instructors possess. Just as important, he had a brother who was in the wholesale ski business.The first four winters were heavy snow years. Within year one, the Trapp Family Lodge was doing close to $8,000 in ski rentals and lessons, and that doubled the following year. Sugarbush also opened a cross country ski center the following year at what is now Ole’s Cross Country Center, and the Mountain Top Inn, near Killington, began publicizing skiing its Nordic trails as well. Today, there are more than 350 crosscountry centers around the U.S. and more than 30 in Vermont.

“Skiing was booming at the time,” Johannes remembers. “It was what everyone wanted to do. One day I proudly told Kerr Sparks, then head of Stowe’s Mt. Mansfield ski school, that we had 26 lessons. He responded, ‘oh that’s nice, we had 1,500.’”

John Caldwell, who grew up in Putney,Vt. and skied in the Olympics in 1952, remembers what the sport was like back then: “Cross country skiing was a high-school sport, you did it for athletics on a track behind the school. It was, along with ski jumping, slalom and downhill, one of the four things you had to do to be a wintermeister. But it wasn’t something you did after you got out of high school. The idea of a recreational cross-country center was brand new back then.”

Caldwell went on to write the seminal book The Cross Country Ski Book and his children (Jennifer, Tim and Sverre) and grandchildren (Zach and Sophie, especially) have been some of the top racers in the sport, often training or competing at Trapp’s. “They’ve done a good thing with the trails up there,” Caldwell said recently. “And the best part, it there’s really good beer after.” That seems to be a theme.

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radually, the von Trapps began to add acreage to their farm and forest land, which grew from 660 acres to what is now 2,600 acres. “In the early years of Stowe, if you owned 100 acres in town you were given 100 acres in the mountains, too,” Johannes says. “It was a way of developing the hills.” He gradually was able to purchase the hardscrabble hill farms and many of the current trails — Ayers, Parizo, Slayton and Russell —are named for the farmers who once lived in tarroofed shacks on the land. Other land holdings were added via easements.

Today, more than 1,100 acres of the Trapp Family Forest is protected, via a

vtskiandride.com Holidays 2017 39

Thanks to snowmaking, the Trapp trails often hosted NCAA races and, in 2014, the Junior Nationals (top). Kristina von Trapp (right) is interviewed during the event.

conservation easement donated to the Stowe Land Trust.

The trail network grew too. At first, Sørlie would head out each morning to lay tracks for other skiers to follow. “We eventually bought a snow machine for about $100,” Johannes says. “We’d use it to tow our ‘groomers,’ essentially these big boxes, mounted on two skis and weighted down.” Today, a Pisten Bully grooms the wide trails for both classic and skate skiing, “the most expensive piece of machinery on the property outside the brewery,” Sam calls it.

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fter Per Sørlie returned to Norway, a string of characters took on his role at the Outdoor Center. They included people with as varied backgrounds as Larry Damon, a four-time Olympic cross country skier and biathlete; retail manager Dennis Reina, who went on to become an author and management guru behind the Reina

40 Holidays 2017 vtskiandride.com

Photos courtesy Trapp Family Lodge

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Trust Institute; and a man Johannes refers to only as the ‘Russian Rental Czar.’ “He was this hulk of a man who lived here in a teepee all winter with a couple of girls to keep him warm. We lived in constant fear my mother would discover this,” he says with a chuckle.

In the 1970s, Johannes persuaded Barre,Vt. native, climber and one of the early National Geographic explorers, Ned Gillette, to come back to Stowe and run the Outdoor Center.

“We were at the annual ski show in Las Vegas at the time and Gillette turned to me and said, ‘My test of whether I can work with someone is if I can drink with them.’” He was hired.

Before long, Gillette and a posse of top climbers from California installed themselves at the Outdoor Center. “They’d freeclimb the fireplace in the Outdoor Center,” says Johannes. Gillette later led the first expedition to row from South America to Antarctica.

Gillette also helped teach young Sam and Kristina to ski. “Growing up, cross country skiing was how we got up to the lodge,” Kristina says. Both Sam and Kristina are now full PSIA-certified alpine instructors.

“Kristina is really an incredible, all-around skier,” Sam says, proud of his older sister. They both lived for a while in Aspen, Colo., and did the grueling 40-mile Grand Traverse ski mountaineering race, which climbs more than 8,000 feet over two mountain passes. Sam and a teammate finished second one year.

In Aspen, Kristina met her husband, Walter Frame, who was involved in real estate development there before moving to a similar role at Stowe’s Spruce Peak Realty.

Frame later joined the family business where he and Sam share management duties.

am returned to help run the Lodge in 2007 and one of the first things he did was bring snowmaking and mountain biking to the property.Walt Frame has been working to develop the real estate and brewery. Johannes had the vision to open the bierhall in 2015 and start the award-winning brewery, von Trapp, which now produces 14,000 barrels of beer annually and ships to nine states.

Outdoor Center manager Charlie Yerrick helped build up the Trapp’s reputation for hosting mountaineering races, such as the Bolton to Trapp Backcountry Ski Race on the Catamount Trail, and hosted NCAA races and the Junior National Championships, in 2014.

Later, Drew Gelinas, a former national ski coach and instructor at the Army Mountain Warfare School in Jericho, established distance running and endurance events such as the Trapp Mountain Marathon.

Current Outdoor Center director Blake Olson is continuing the vision of making the trails a year-round playground for athletes of all types.

He’s currently working with Catamount Ultra to bring the Salomon

Sam von Trapp stops at the Slayton Pasture Cabin, whch serves hot soup and has a roaring fire.

Snowcross Relays, a cross country ski/running race, to Trapps on Jan. 6.

He’s looking at bringing new endurance events to the trails this summer.

Johannes shakes his head in wonder at all of this, and smiles. “I always thought that cross country skiing should not be about competition but about getting out in nature and enjoying the woods,” he says. “I envisioned backcountry skiing the way people are doing it now, simply going out and exploring the terrain.”

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oday, there is a new generation of von Trapps skiing up the old logging roads. Kristina and Walt’s two daughters, Annie and Stella, ski to school, occasionally, from their house. Sam married Becky Fu, a lawyer from China who helps with special projects. Their first son, Wolfgang, was out skiing with Sam before he was two years old. The, second, Johannes “Hansi” von Trapp was born in November.

“We learned so much about balance by cross-country skiing when we were really young that when we started to downhill we were already strong skiers. It’s something that I wish all kids could learn even before they alpine ski,” says Kristina.

Now, in the three households (they all live within a half mile of each other) there are new traditions and old. On Christmas Eve, the family gathers at the Lodge, as they have done every year since Maria was alive, to sing. And on Christmas day, they have what Kristina calls “a progressive dinner,” which might include meat from the Scottish Highland cattle that graze in their meadows, venison from the family hunters (Sam or Johannes), sap from the sugarhouse, or vegetables from the gardens—and, of course, von Trapp beer.

But what makes this dinner special are the times when the snow covers the trails and the family skis from house to house.

The farm, the family, these hills and trails are still very much alive. n

vtskiandride.com Holidays 2017 41

Vermont Adaptive’s main mission is to get disabled athletes back out there. In the winter, they offer skiing, and in the summer, athletes can choose from yoga, rock climbing and mountain biking.

42 Holidays 2017 vtskiandride.com

Photo courtesy of Vermont Adaptive

IN VERMONT, SIX ORGANIZATIONS ARE MAKING SURE THAT EVERYONE, NO MATTER THEIR CIRCUMSTANCES, HAS AN OPPORTUNITY TO SKI OR RIDE.

BACKIN ACTION

By Emma Cotton

vtskiandride.com Holidays 2017 43

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t’s a January night and 15-year-old Sean (real name withheld) is flying down the slopes of Bolton Valley on his snowboard. Confident and alert, you would never know that he strapped in for the first time six weeks ago. And given the ear-to-ear smile on his face, you would never guess that back home, Sean’s life isn’t easy.

Sean had a tough upbringing in the Northeast Kingdom. His parents were in and out of prison, and he was passed from family member to family member as a result. When he was three years old, he was abused by his uncle. He was transferred to foster care, where he spent the next eight years.When he was 11, he was assaulted by a trusted caregiver.

That year, Sean was arrested for an assault against a classmate who had bullied him.

He was taken to a juvenile justice diversion program, and then, finally, enrolled in a residential treatment program where he could work through the decade-plus of trauma he had endured.

Lucky for Sean, that treatment program is a long-time partner of the Chill Foundation.

Jake and Donna Carpenter, founders of Burton Snowboards, started the non-profit Chill in 1995 with the goal of connecting youth to boardsports. Chill operates programs across North America, but in Vermont, the programming is broken into six sessions. In summer, kids stand-up paddleboard (SUP) on Lake Champlain. Fall, they skateboard at Talent Skatepark in South Burlington. Winters, they snowboard in the evenings at Bolton Valley and, also operate a day program at Stowe.

The sessions are held every week for six weeks in the summer and fall, and twice per week during the winter. Each week participants and their chaperones (who come to Chill with the kids from their schools and treatment programs), practice one of Chill’s six themes: patience, persistence, responsibility, courage, respect and pride. A short lesson, focused on the theme, precedes the riding.

On top of that, each participant sets up sport-related and personal goals for the session. They might want to cooperate better with their parents, or they might challenge anxiety by riding the chair lift for the first time.

“If you’re in residential treatment, you’re staring at the same four walls all day long,” says Alex Bornstein, Chill’s executive director.

44 Holidays 2017 vtskiandride.com

“You’re talking to the same people, the same kids, the same counselors, and you don’t have an opportunity to practice what you’re learning. Say you have an anger management issue—out here, you’re getting frustrated trying to learn a new sport. You’re meeting new kids, getting told what to do by new adults. Being out on the mountain, you get to apply the things you’re learning in treatment.

Chill is incredibly unique because we foster an environment that allows that to happen.”

Chill staff members don’t know why the participants have landed in their programs, and they don’t ask. Instead, for six weeks, kids get special attention from adults who focus more on their progress than their troubled backgrounds.

“I didn’t know how to put on snow pants, and the boots were really complicated, but it seemed like everyone was there just to make sure I had a good time,” Sean said. “No one had ever paid attention to me like that,

and it made me want to try my best on the mountain.”

Sean just completed his first full year as a Chill kid—he’s done all three sports in all seasons—and he’ll be on the mountain again this winter. Time spent as a participant varies based on the location and the organization, but most kids can spend up to three years in Chill before becoming a mentor, at which time they coach the other kids in the program.

When a participant’s time at Chill is over, they join a nation-wide network of Chillers, and can meet up with other past participants who live nearby. Currently, Chill is working with mountains to offer discounted lift tickets and rental gear to current and past participants.

Chill is one of many on-snow programs in Vermont to make snow sports accessible to those who otherwise wouldn’t have an opportunity to ski or ride. Some, like the Kelly Brush Foundation and Vermont

Kids in the Chill Foundation program (which exposes kids from a variety of backgrounds to action sports) ride the Magic Carpet in Stowe. This winter, the Foundation hopes to have have 1,500 participants nationwide.

Thanks to more than 400 volunteers, Vermont Adaptive is putting disabled skiers back onto powder runs.

Adaptive, give disabled athletes sports equipment designed specifically for their disabilities, making it possible, for example, for wheelchair-bound athletes to ski, hike, bike and board.

The High Fives Foundation gives grants to help athletes recover from injuries. Former pro snowboarder Kevin Pearce started Love Your Brain to help others who have suffered traumatic brain injuries heal, and Special Olympics Vermont gives those with intellectual disabilities a shot at competing on national and global stages.

In Vermont, Chill’s participants are, as Bornstein puts it, “kids who have been neglected in some way, or face huge challenges that are outside of what most teenagers experience. For some,” he says, “it’s their own doing, but for the vast majority, it’s just circumstance or bad luck.”

Chill, headquartered in Burlington, is growing—during 2017’s spring and summer season, it exceeded every metric that the organization uses to track its progress. This year, Chill expects to see 1,500 participants nationwide, and they’ve worked with 22,000 since the program began in 1995.

Chaperones say that Chill is truly helping the kids. “Sean is reaching milestones that his treatment team didn’t think were possible, given where he started,” his chaperone said. “We have to credit the Chill program for helping him see himself in an entirely new way.”

Sean thinks the program is working, too.

“Before Chill I only thought about what

was right in front of me,” he said. “Tomorrow didn’t exist. Now I know there is a whole world open to me if I can work through my challenges and be open to new opportunities.”

As the holiday season approaches, if you want to give back, here are six good causes.

CHILL FOUNDATION

Backstory| Stowe’s Jake and Donna Carpenter founded Chill in 1995 as their company, Burton, started to boom. “It was time for us to give something back,” Jake says.

“We realized that things you need to learn to snowboard, like patience and courage, could apply to [kids’] lives, so it became a youth development program,” Donna adds. Chill operates in 17 cities across North America. In some, like Chicago, the organization mainly works with kids from low-socioeconomic areas. In Vermont, Chill works with kids who have been neglected, have mental health issues, or whose family life is dangerous or unstable. Get Involved | Chill wouldn’t be able to operate without two things: volunteers and donations. “The more donations we have, the more youth we serve, hands down,” Bornstein said. chill.org.

HIGH FIVES FOUNDATION

Backstory | Warren’s Roy Tuscany was training to become a professional skier when he overshot a jump in Mammoth, Calif., in 2006.

The fifth-generation Vermonter flew 130 feet into the air—and the landing exploded his t-12 vertebra. At the hospital, he was told he would

never walk again, but after 43 days of physical therapy—and a recovery fund through which friends and family raised more than $85,000— Tuscany began taking small steps. When he stepped back on skis in March of 2008, he decided to pay it forward. The foundation now strives to be a “safety net” for winter sports athletes through three programs.

The first, an empowerment fund, gives grants directly to service providers for expenses in nine different categories ranging from living expenses to health and travel.

The second allows High Fives athletes to heal in a private environment at the CR Johnson Healing Center in Truckee, Calif., at no cost. Finally, a program called BASICS helps recovered athletes speak openly about the mistakes that led to their injuries.

High Fives has raised $4.5 million for injured athletes in 26 states, and this September, announced its largest grant cycle ever, giving more than $110,500 to 22 recipients. The program has helped others like Roy Tuscany, including Max Elles, who broke his back snowboarding at Killington in 2012. Though Elles was initially paralyzed from the waist down, he has since been able to walk and even snowboard. Get Involved | As the Warren, Vt. office looks to expand, volunteers will be needed to help with events and organization. Donations are always encouraged, and if you’d like to have some fun while donating, you can always check the calendar at highfivesfoundation.org for rail jams, movie premiers and more.

LOVE YOUR BRAIN

Backstory | In 2009, world-class snowboarder and native Vermonter Kevin Pearce was training for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Park City, Utah. He tried a maneuver called the cab double-cork for the first time and, coming down, struck the lip of the halfpipe, leaving him with a traumatic brain injury. Now, Kevin is back on his snowboard and has a new goal: to raise awareness about traumatic brain injuries and send the message, ‘love your brain.’ More than 173,000 TBIs occur in athletes who are 19 years old or younger. As many as 25 percent of those injured later report suicidal ideations or suicide attempts. Love Your Brain strives to make those numbers smaller through community outreach, prevention and support for caretakers and athletes. Get Involved | The Love Your Brain Foundation hosts several

vtskiandride.com Holidays 2017 45

Kelly Brush is back on the mountain and with her foundation giving grants in 47 states, hundreds of others are too.

programs designed to shift the stigma that comes with a traumatic brain injury.The foundation encourages those inspired by Pearce’s story to host yoga classes, and share The Crash Reel, an award-winning documentary about Pearce’s injury and recovery. loveyourbrain.com.

KELLY BRUSH FOUNDATION

SALOMON SNOWCROSS RELAYS WINTER TRAIL RUN/NORDIC SKI RELAY RACE. 01.06.18, SAT. 10 AM

PRESENTED BY

TRAPP FAMILY LODGE, STOWE, VT

REGISTER AT HTTPS://WWW.SKIREG.COM/SALOMON-SNOWCROSS

46 Holidays 2017 vtskiandride.com

Backstory | In 2006, Charlotte,Vt.’s Kelly Bush was racing for Middlebury College when she caught an edge and spun into a lift tower stanchion.

She severely damaged her spinal cord, fractured a vertebra in her neck, and her lung collapsed. After a 10-hour surgery, two weeks in the hospital and two and a half months of rehabilitation, she faced a new reality: life in a wheelchair. But Brush was determined to continue skiing.

At Middlebury, she began carving turns with a monoski.

The year of her fall, the Middlebury Ski Team raised money for Brush during what is now the annual Kelly Brush Ride: a 100-mile bike ride through Addison County. The ride has grown to be one of Vermont’s largest fundraisers. “In 2006, the ride was 100 percent of what we did,” said Zeke Davisson, Kelly’s husband and the Foundations executive director. “In 2017, it was 800 plus riders, we raised $550,000, and that was only about half of what we will do this year.”

Now, Kelly, a pediatric nurse practitioner in Burlington, regularly skis with her family (her mother was an Olympic racer) and husband and her daughter Dylan.

The Kelly Brush Foundation now has two causes. It works to make the racing slopes safer—this year, it even committed $40,000 to improving safety on the Audi FIS World Cup course in Killington.

But first and foremost, the organization aims to get people with disabilities, like Kelly, out there. “We’ve given grants in 47 states on the adaptive sports side,” Davisson says. “We’re not just trying to help people buy equipment, we’re also trying to inspire people with spinal cord injuries, to let them know that it’s possible to be active and get that part of their life back.” Get Involved | Donate at kellybrushfoundation.org, volunteer at next year’s Kelly Brush Ride (held in September), or attend the foundation’s annual, local fundraising event: Inspire!Vermont, held in May, which Davisson calls “more fun than a cocktail party.”

SPECIAL OLYMPICS VERMONT

Backstory | For 50 years, Special Olympics has been working to create “inclusive communities where children and adults with intellectual disabilities live with dignity.” The best way to do that, the organization believes, is through sports. In the winter, SOV trains athletes in alpine skiing, cross country skiing, snowboarding and snowshoeing. This year, that training will culminate at the 2018 Winter Games, held on March 18 at Pico Mountain. As of October, the Vermont organization also has a new CEO: former Vermont gubernatorial candidate Sue Minter—a former competitive figure skater, Ultimate Frisbee player and diehard backcountry skier. Get Involved | The programs at Special Olympics run on volunteer power. There are two volunteer classes with varying levels of commitment: “A” group volunteers often go on to regularly coach or instruct athletes, and “B” volunteers can help for a single day or a few hours at an event. On Dec. 9 at Sugarbush, Vermont Adaptive will train Special Olympics instructors for the winter season, and volunteers will be needed at this year’s Winter Games, March 18 at Pico Mountain. specialolympicsvermont.org

VERMONT ADAPTIVE

Backstory | Vermont Adaptive, founded in 1987 at Ascutney Mountain Resort, was the first disabled skiing program in Vermont that worked with people of all ages and abilities. Three years ago, the organization moved to Pico Mountain in Killington and now averages 3,000 outings per year. The organization provides adaptive sports gear for the disabled and designs programs to get them active. “When you have a disability, it’s about being able to quiet your mind. Learning a few of those practices and then being able to bring them back into daily life— that’s our goal,” says marketing director Kim Jackson. Get Involved | Vermont Adaptive is looking for skiers and riders to volunteer as instructors this winter. If you’re looking to donate, Nov. 28 is a great day to do it, as Vermont Adaptive is participating in the worldrecognized charitable giving campaign, #GivingTuesday. Two donors have already pledged to match donations up to $40,000. You can also give donations in lump sums, or with a particular intent: for example, one day of skiing, including a lift ticket, instruction and equipment, costs approximately $120. vermontadaptive.org n

Special Olympics Vermont trains athletes in alpine skiing, cross country skiing, snowboarding and snowshoeing.

vtskiandride.com Holidays 2017 47

NORDIC

centers of vermont Rikert Nordic Center, Ripton

NORTHERN VERMONT Ski Area

Total Terrain

Machine Skating Typical Season Tracked Terrain

Town

Phone

Website

Blueberry Lake

31 km

31 km

31 km

Dec-March

Warren

802-496-6687

blueberrylakeskivt.com

Bolton Valley XC

100 km

15 km

15 km

Dec-April

Bolton Valley

802-434-3444

boltonvalley.com

Catamount Family Center

35 km

35 km

35 km

Dec-March

Williston

802-879-6001

catamountoutdoor.com

Craftsbury Outdoor Center

105 km

105 km

105 km

Dec-March

Craftsbury Common

802-586-7767

craftsbury.com

Edson Hill

10 km

10 km

10 km

Dec.-March

Stowe

802-253-7371

edsonhill.com

Hazen’s Notch

65 km

60 km

60 km

Dec-April

Montgomery Center

802-326-4799

hazensnotch.org

Highland Lodge & XC Center

40 km

40 km

40 km

Dec-March

Greensboro

802-533-2647

highlandlodge.com

Jay Peak Nordic & Snowshoe Center

20 km

--

--

Nov-April

Jay

802-988-2611

jaypeakresort.com

Kingdom Trails

45 km

20 km

20 km

Dec-April

East Burke

802-626-0737

kingdomtrails.org

Memphremagog Ski Touring Foundation

35 km

35 km

35 km

Dec-March

Derby

802-334-1357

mstf.net

Morse Farm Ski Center

25 km

25 km

25 km

Dec-March

Montpelier

802-223-0560

skimorsefarm.com

Ole’s Cross Country Center

48 km

50 km

45 km

Nov-April

Warren

802-496-3430

olesxc.com

Sleepy Hollow Inn & Bike Center

35 km

30 km

25 km

Dec-March

Huntington

802-434-2283

skisleepyhollow.com

Stowe XC Ski Center

75 km

35 km

35 km

Dec-April

Stowe

802-253-3688

stowe.com

Stoweflake Resort

5 km

5 km

--

Dec-April

Stowe

802-253-2232

stoweflake.com

Three Stallion Inn Touring Center

35 km

10 km

17 km

Dec-March

Randolph

802-728-3475

threestallioninn.com

Trapp Family Lodge XC Center

160 km

55 km

55 km

Dec-April

Stowe

802-253-8511

trappfamily.com

The Nordic Center is the gateway to Bolton Valley’s legendary backcountry terrain. It offers guided tours, lessons and rental equipment to get you out to enjoy some of the best Nordic skiing and snowshoeing in New England. Bolton has a 100 km Nordic trail system with 15 kilometers of groomed trails.

Trapp’s XC Center is celebrating 50 years!

Come experience one of the premier Nordic centers in the East, featuring 160 km, with 55 km of tracked and skating terrain. Plus a full retail shop and rentals, and professional instruction. Don't miss Slayton Pasture Cabin for a warm lunch and a roaring fire in the hearth.

Rikert's 55 km of trails wind through old forests, farm fields and past Robert Frost's summer cabin. The Center offers a full service rental shop and ski school, plus fat biking! Jump on early season skiing with 5 km of snowmaking.

Open 7 days a week and home to the Middlebury College Panthers.

boltonvalley.com • 802-434-3444

trappfamily.com • 802-253-8511

rikertnordic.com • 802-443-2744

4302 Bolton Valley Access Rd • Bolton, VT

700 Trapp Hill Rd • Stowe, VT 05672

106 College Cross Road • Ripton VT

G

Grafton Trails, Grafton

Bolton Valley, Bolton

Blueberry Hill, Goshen

Trapp Family Center, Stowe

Landgrove Inn, Landgrove

SOUTHERN VERMONT

Snowmaking

Ski Area

Total Terrain

Machine Tracked

Skating Typical Season Terrain

Town

Phone

Website

Blueberry Hill Outdoor Center

50 km

--

--

Dec-March

Goshen

802-247-6735

blueberrytrails.com

Brattleboro Outing Club

33 km

25 km

20 km

Dec-March

Brattleboro

802-254-8906

brattleborooutingclub.org

Grafton Trails & Outdoor Center

30 km

30 km

30 km

Dec-March

Grafton

802-843-2400

graftontrails.com

Hildene, The Lincoln Family Home

20 km

14 km

--

Dec-March

Manchester

802-362-1788

hildene.org

Landgrove Inn

15 km

15 km

15 km

Dec-March

Landgrove

802-824-6673

landgroveinn.com

Mountain Top Inn & Resort

60 km

40 km

40 km

Nov-April

Chittenden

802-483-2311

mountaintopinn.com

Okemo Valley Nordic Center

22 km

22 km

8 km

Dec-April

Ludlow

802-228-1396

okemo.com

Prospect Mountain XC

30 km

30 km

30 km

Nov-April

Woodford

802-442-2575

prospectmountain.com

Quechee Club

25 km

25 km

12 km

Dec-March

Quechee

802-295-9356

quecheeclub.com

Rikert Nordic Center

55 km

50 km

40 km

Nov-April

Ripton

802-443-2744

rikertnordic.com

Strafford Nordic Center

30 km

20 km

30 km

Dec-March

Strafford

802-765-0016

straffordnordicskiing.com

Stratton Mountain Nordic Center

12 km

12 km

12 km

Dec-March

Stratton Mountain

802-297-4567

stratton.com

Trade Winds Farm

7 km

4 km

7km

Jan-March

Shoreham

802-897-2448

skiattradewindsfarm.com

Timber Creek XC

14 km

14 km

14 km

Dec-March

West Dover

802-464-0999

timbercreekxc.com

Viking Nordic Center

39 km

35 km

30 km

Dec-March

Londonderry

802-824-3933

vikingnordic.com

Wild Wing’s Ski Touring Center

25 km

25 km

--

Dec-March

Peru

802-824-6793

wildwingsski.com

Woodstock Inn Nordic Center

50 km

50 km

50 km

Dec-March

Woodstock

802-457-6674

woodstockinn.com

Grafton Trails & Outdoor Center has 30 km of multi-use trails, available for recreation, fresh air, and outdoor adventure in every season. The rental shop has everything you need from skis and snowshoes to fat bikes and tubes. Get on the trails for a day or make it a getaway and stay at The Grafton Inn.

Blueberry Hill Inn and Outdoor Center is located in the heart of the Moosalamoo National Recreation Area. Surrounding trails provide rustic access to some of the state's best hiking, skiing, snowshoeing, trailrunning, biking, and overall enjoyment of our beautiful and bountiful natural surroundings.

graftontrails.com • 802-843-2400

blueberryhillinn.com • 802-247-6735

800-824-6673 • 802-824-6673 www.landgroveinn.com

783 Townshend Road • Grafton, VT

1245 Goshen Ripton Rd • Goshen, VT

132 Landgrove Rd. • Landgrove, VT

• • • •

Located on 32 acres in a pristine valley 19 uniquely decorated rooms On-site restaurant open 5-7 nights/week 15km of groomed and tracked nordic trails with skating

Expansive Okemo Mountain Views 5BD / 6BA | Private Road on 5.8 Acres | One Mile to town of Ludlow | Unique Post & Beam Architecture Alison Cummings | Managing Broker | TPW Real Estate (o) 802-297-9405 | (c) 802-236-7564 ahc@tpw.com | www.TPWRealEstate.com

[ MANSFIELD

O R T H O PA E D I C S

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Experience when you need it most: Bryan C. Monier, MD & Saul Trevino, MD Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Specialists “I joined Copley Hospital because I wanted to work with this team.

They are collaborative, committed to excellence, to cutting-edge work, and dedicated to getting patients back to doing the activities they love.”

BRYAN C. MONIER

AO Trauma Fellowship: John Hunter Hospital, Newcastle, Australia Foot and Ankle Fellowship: University of Washington and Harborview Medical Center in Seattle Residency, Orthopedic Surgery: University of Vermont Medical Center Medical Degree: University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio School of Medicine Bachelor of Arts: Williams College in Massachusetts Conditions treated: arthritis, bunions, fracture fixation, foot reconstruction, ankle instability, and sports related injuries of the foot and ankle. He is also trained in total ankle replacements.

Orthopaedic Surgeon Bryan C. Monier, MD joins Copley Hospital as Dr. Saul Trevino transitions to a non-operative clinical practice.

To make an appointment with a Mansfield Orthopaedic Specialist at Copley Hospital, call 802.888.8405 ARTHRITIS CARE | FOOT & ANKLE CARE | HAND, WRIST & ELBOW CARE | HIP & KNEE CARE SHOULDER CARE | JOINT REPLACEMENT | FRACTURE & TRAUMA CARE | SPORTS MEDICINE

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COMPETITION

BY ANGELO LYNN

WHY BECOME A SKI BUM? All you need to join a ski bum race league is a few hours during the week, a pair of skis, and a thirst for après-ski parties.

Photo by Jerry Leblond

I

’m scrambling to get out of the office and up to the Middlebury College Snow Bowl. At 2 pm on a frosty Friday I speed the 17 minutes from town to the Snow Bowl parking lot, toss my ski pants on over my khakis, exchange loafers for ski boots, grab my gloves, helmet, skis and poles and head for the lift.

I’m usually late, but I have it timed to get my two runs in before the course is pulled at 3:15.

I skate off the lift, stop a moment to tighten my boots, shake the day’s lethargy out of my bones, and head down the top half of the Allen.

“Afternoon, Ronnie,” I greet the starter, who deadpans his usual response. “See you just made it, again. Better get going if you want a second run.Three of your teammates have already clocked in, and you’re going have to be on your edges to beat your daughter…You got a clock, racer ready, go.”

I hate the way I start.

I always imagine I’ll rock up on my poles, ski tails lifted high and then explode out of the starting gate with guns blazing. I’ve studied how the pros do it a thousand times and one day, I think, I’m going to nail it. In my dreams.

I waste a half second prematurely tripping the wand and sputtering down the ramp, leaving me to pole and skate frantically to build speed through the first gate and into the second. I try to clip each gate with my shoulder tucked low and forward, remembering to anticipate two turns ahead, picking the straightest line, keeping on edge — hands forward. Soon, there’s an icy stretch. Gates are coming faster and faster. Hang on down the steep! Shoot, shoot, shoot, I almost missed that gate. I jump back on the edges. Don’t get behind, there you go, pick it up, up, clip the gates. I straighten the line through the finish, and bam, done.

I catch my breath and hear the announcer call out the time: 33.48. Ugh. The top three were 28 and change; a few

in the low 30s, and me in seventh out of 23 that day. Not too bad for a kid who grew up in Texas and Kansas and rarely skied until he was 20. But I know I can do better.

I first learned about racing at Steamboat Springs as a 23-year-old ski bum in the 1970s when I worked as a liftie for a season, then as part the NASTAR race crew for the next two winters. Only I didn’t race, much. I ran the timing equipment, set up the start and finish, and got to race (well, kind of) only occasionally with the pros — Hank Kashiwa (1975 World Cup winner), Billy Kidd was sometimes around, but mainly it was Moose Barrows (1968 Olympic downhiller). My highlight? Well lots. I got to help Moose with the Cowboy Downhill each year and partied with the world’s top bull and bronco riders (that was fun), and I skied with Billy Kidd several times when we were both a lot younger.

But what I remember most was a brief time when Hank was there training. He let me hang around — timing his runs and carrying one or two pairs of his skis slung over my shoulder — white PRE’s, probably 200 cm, with heel-less Spademan bindings — as he tested different cambers and flex; things I barely knew about. During those weeks, I tried following on his heels down a course set with slalom gates (at his suggestion), but I’d get going too fast and blow out of the course every time. Still, I was stoked just to be skiing with him, and soaking up any tips he offered.

Not long after, he left to go on tour, I ended up with a free pair of test-model PRE skis and those Spademan bindings — and I was on Cloud 9, determined some day to learn to race.

But I never got any good. I did learn how to ski, but jobs are jobs and most of my time on the racecourse was in the timing shack.

Years later, we moved to Vermont. My three daughters

Polly Schmid gets serious in the A division at Killington’s Dos Equis ski bum races, held every Wednesday starting in January.

vtskiandride.com Holidays 2017 51

started racing with Middlebury Ski Club as 5-year-olds, and they each kept at it through high school — each captaining her high school ski team — with me faithfully following every race I could for the better part of eight years. I watched them get better and better with me on the sidelines, until the last left for college.

So there I was, in my early 50s, a racer wannabe for all those years. Then, 12 years ago, the Middlebury Ski Bum League was resurrected, and offered me my chance at greatness.

Well, at least that’s the story I tell at après ski.

For most of us, the ski bum league is what gets us out of the office and up on the slope. It’s the thrill of trying to do better, to go fast, to carve a solid turn without your edges slipping. It’s the challenge of weighting the ski so it arcs and shoots you across the turn and into the next one so fast you have to be quick or you’ll be back in your seat and then it’s all hell to pay.

But it really doesn’t matter how good you are at racing, how old you are, or whether you are on tele-skis, a snowboard, or your 25-year-old PREs. Most ski bum leagues have some sort of handicap system, or reverse point system, that makes the 72-year-old novice competitive (at least in scoring) with a NCAA champ.

And the reason to be part of a ski bum league is the camaMiddlebury’s ski bums celebrate the end of the season.

A LEAGUE OF YOUR OWN You don’t need to have ever skied a gate to join a ski bum league—and a few welcome weekly drop ins. Scoring is either weighted based on an individual’s handicap, or via a system that equalizes an invidual’s points regardless of ability. In short, a novice racer can often score as high for his or her team as a pro, and it’s best for teams to have mixed talents. You can join for the season (there’s usually a charge that goes toward race costs, parties and awards), and usually a ski ticket or pass at the resort is required.

Here are a few of the most active leagues in Vermont. Racing is usually for the 8 to 10 weeks between early January and March.

BOLTON VALLEY CORPORATE RACE LEAGUE. It started as a night-racing competition between Burlington-area companies, but these days most teams are a little more loosely formed, with team names such as P-tex and Patchouili. It’s a big ski bum league with 200 or so gathering each Tuesday at 6 p.m. to race under the lights. boltonvalley.com

52 Holidays 2017 vtskiandride.com

BROMLEY INNKEEPERS SERIES On Wednesday mornings (9:30 to 11:30) teams of 3 to 5 racers compete on progressively harder courses. Bromley’s race pass costs $115 per person, but that includes a full day of skiing each Wednesday, racing and the après ski party at the Wild Boar Tavern. bromley.com KILLINGTON’S DOS EQUIS SKI BUM RACE SERIES. Racers meet each Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the steeper Highline trail. It’s a challenging course that racers finish in about 30 seconds. The league attracts about 200 racers to “A” and “B” divisions and is run through the Killington Ski Club. killingtonskiclub.com .

MIDDLEBURY SKI BUM LEAGUE Each Friday, from 1:15 to 3:15, the giantslalom course is held on the lower half of Middlebury College Snow Bowl’s Allen. As with most leagues, racers pay a fee for the year ($20), and need a ski pass on race day ($25 for half-day). Middlebury College students ski free. middskibum@gmail.com

OKEMO INNKEEPER’S RACE SERIES Ludlow’s ski bum series started in 1976 and continues on Tuesdays, 10 a.m. til noon, running about 40-50 racers through the course on Wardance. competitioncenter@okemo.com STOWE SKI BUM LEAGUE Locals of all ages meet every Tuesday morning for two runs from early January through March on the Slalom Hill at Little Spruce.

The Mt. Mansfield Ski Club runs the race and it started more than 40 years ago — with a storied past that includes rivalries with the Sugarbush ski bums. Today, the dual NASTAR-like course is down Slalom Hill at Little Spruce with the best racers completing the couse in 20-25 seconds. mmsc.org SUGARBUSH Hosted by the Sugarbush Racing Club, weeky races are held on the NASTAR course on Racer’s Edge Trail each Thursday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in a dual giant slalom format. All racers should register with NASTAR and have a NASTAR number. sugarbushracingclub.com

Photo by Angelo Lynn

COMPETITION

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9/1/17 9:59 AM

Celebrate the 50th Anniversary

Celebrate 50 years of our Cross Country Ski Center! From January 19 to January 26, 2018 we’ll celebrate the first 50 years that made Johannes von Trapp’s vision a reality, and we’ll set the course for the next half century. Join us on the trails and in the Bierhall as we festively commemorate the occasion with our many friends, both old and new.

Visit trappfamily.com/activities for more details and an event schedule!

800.826.7000

Trappfamily.com

Vt Ski + Ride Fall 2017 correct size.qxp_Layout 1 10/30/17 4:32 PM Page 1 COMPETITION

CK INN & TO

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The Woodstock Inn & Resort invites you to celebrate winter with luxurious accommodations, fine dining, a full service spa & many recreational activities.

Woodstock Nordic Center offers 45km of groomed trails for skate & classic cross-country skiing. Snowshoers & fat bike riders may utilize the groomed ski trail areas in addition to a series of ungroomed trails for a more invigorating experience.

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54 Holidays 2017 vtskiandride.com

raderie: the hooting and hollering; the slaps on the back; the high fives, or merciless ribbing, and the chance to gather at the bar afterwards with likeminded souls. It’s all part of the not-so-serious culture, which, for starters says you can’t be a proper “ski bum” without taking off at least a couple hours during the workday.

We’re all part of this semi-irreverent culture that comes up with team names like “Bode Miller,” “Meat Bucket,” “Black Sheep,” “Easy Riders,” or, to keep priorities straight, “Team Après Ski.” Of the 75 or so signed up in our smallish group, there are a couple dozen former racers; a college team or two (we’d like more); a couple dozen racers in their 30s-40s, and several more like me.

“I race to satisfy my competitive nature,” says Middlebury builder and former high school racer Jed Malcolm. “It also is simply a great smalltown activity that you don’t see everywhere else, and it helps us all take advantage of where we live.”

Snow Bowl manager Peter Mackey seconds that sentiment: “It’s just good fun. There are some god racers out there, and some real novices, but they’re all having a good time. It brings people together on the hill — and off the hill.”

Many of the ski bum leagues, including Stowe’s and Bromley’s Innkeepers Series, were started by innkeepers and barkeeps as a way to get out on snow during the quiet time – weekdays. And they know how to throw an after party. The tradition at some of the leagues is to rotate the après ski parties around various town restaurants. Ours is no different: Holmes and Beale Jacobs, owners of Middlebury’s Two Brothers Tavern, helped start the Middlebury league about a dozen years ago and have been instrumental in keeping it going, but today a half-dozen other restaurants and several businesses are equally invested.

“Here it’s all very casual and it builds a sense of community and camaraderie,” says Holmes, who raced competitively for a few years, while Beale was on the ski team at Colorado University in Boulder, and has raced in the Master’s series for years.

Over in Stowe, Marion Baraw, who helped start the ski bum league there more than 40 years ago and has stayed involved, captured the essence of what ski bum racing is all about in an earlier Vt. Ski + Ride story. “If there’s anything that can bring people of all ages, incomes and professions together, it’s skiing... It’s part of the magic of the sport,” said Baraw. “I call it the Peter Pan syndrome.You never grow up. After the races, the 20-yearolds are hanging out with the 76-year-olds.”

Back in Middlebury for the after party, we’re an hour into some rollicking good times, a video of the day’s race is rolling in the background, and someone passes out the race times and the team scores. There’s the typical team bluster, trash talking along with cheers for the top individuals, prizes and local gift certificates.

And then we head back to the fold — happy to have lived the carefree life of the ski bum for a few hours, indulging in a fantasy long-shot that was never in the cards for most of us anyway.

“The best thing about skiing is you get a few runs in and hang out with good people,” says Middlebury ski bum Gordie Eaton. Now 78, Eaton was a NCAA downhill champ for Middlebury College who went on to ski on the 1960 U.S. Olympic Team and helped coach the 1968 U.S. Olympic team. “Skiers always want to have a good time and that’s what we do.” n

COACH

BY DOUG STEWART

BORN FROM ICE

If you can ski or ride Eastern ice, you can handle anything. So here’s how to manage the slick stuff.

With a wide stance, Mikaela Shiffrin shows the bottom of her skis to the side of the trail.

B

orn from Ice” is the tagline for Ski the East, Vermont’s homegrown apparel and rad ski movie company. It’s true: ice is in our DNA here, and it defines us as skiers and riders.

While we surely have days full of deep white powder, the bulk of what we do is shred on the firm stuff. This solid base literally and figuratively creates a foundation for our skiing skills. Anyone can ski or ride soft, grippable snow, but it takes skills to keep your stuff together on the firm and shiny. Since we know that these conditions are going to be a part of our early season, it’s a good idea to get your head and your gear, ready. These are my five best tips to be ice-ready.

1. AVOID THE SLICK STUFF While making good turns on ice is important, it is sometimes easier to avoid the slick spots altogether. Getting your butt out of bed early and being on the hill first thing is one of the best ways to find a better surface.

After a few hours on a crowded mountain, the light granular from last night’s grooming gets scraped off, revealing some serious ice

in a lot of the popular locations. This gets amplified if there hasn’t been any natural snow in a while. So, pick your days and get out early to minimize your time on ice.

2. DON’T BRAKE, TURN! You still end up riding some ice. So what do you do? Well, racers ski ice all the time, and it doesn’t freak them out. Why is that?

For one, they aren’t trying to put on the brakes while skiing. If you ask recreational skiers or snowboarders why they turn, they will usually say to slow down, or to brake. Racers are turning in a race course to go across the hill and make the next gate.

Turning doesn’t need to mean braking. We, too, can use our turns to take our energy across the hill and maintain flow and speed.

Continuing to move and trying to go forward, instead of locking up and trying to stop, is key to handling ice well.

For skiers, one good indicator is your pole swing. If you are making short turns and slide over ice, do you keep moving? Do you keep your skis tipping and turning? If you keep swinging your poles, you will usually keep turning your legs. Try to keep

vtskiandride.com Holidays 2017 55

COACH

DIY SKI TUNING

your poles moving the next time you make turns over an icy patch and see how this affects your legs and your skis.

3. LAY IT ON EDGE While you keep your hands and legs moving over the ice, it’s also important to be getting the skis or board on edge. The flat bottoms of skis or boards are meant to slide and the metal edges are like knives that can cut into the surface and help set your course.

As East Coasters, we ski with a lot higher edge angle to effectively maneuver icy conditions. This requires a little wider stance, and the ability to roll your boots so that you can tip the skis on edge.

The timing of when you edge is another important component. Too many skiers put their edges to work too late in the turn. The next time you are on the hill, think about what direction the bottoms of your skis are facing.

Are you making turns that show the bottoms of your skis to people down at the end of the run, or do you show the bottoms of your skis to someone standing on the side of the trail? If you can start to show the bottoms of your skis to the sides of the trail, and less to the people at the end of the run, you will get on an earlier edge, and carve through ice a lot easier. This will also create a turn that is less focused on braking, and more on going across the hill. This carving of the skis will also lend itself to faster skiing, and is the best way to operate on firm snow.

56 Holidays 2017 vtskiandride.com

4. USE THE RIGHT TOOLS While all skis will carve a turn, some skis (and boards) are better at it and can make you the boss of ice. If you find that you spend more time on groomed (and sometimes icy) surfaces than you do on soft snow or off piste, get yourself the right tool for the job.

Modern “all-mountain” skis are a little more focused on doing everything, but there are still skis that excel on the firm trails of the East. Any race ski will be ready for ice, but you can also get a recreational carver that will do the trick.

These skis have less rocker in the tip and little rocker in the tail. They also have a little extra side cut. That means that when you are on a high edge angle, riding the carve, they will come around a little faster so you don’t have to break out of the carve and skid your turns. A good carving ski will also be a little narrower (think 85mm underfoot or less) to get from edge to edge more quickly.

5. SHARPEN UP! Now, even a ski that is all about edging is going to need to have a sharp edge. As a quick crash course in tuning: your skis have a side edge and a base edge. The base edge is the part of the metal edge that sits on the snow when you set your skis down. The side edge is the part of the ski that only hits the snow when the ski is tipped up. The side edge is what needs to be sharp to hold on ice. When you tune your skis at a shop, they will sharpen both parts of the edge, but the side edge is more important for handling ice.

By increasing the bevel, or angle at which the side edge is sharpened, you can create an edge that holds even better on ice. The downside is that a more beveled edge will dull faster, and will require more maintenance to stay sharp.

Most recreational skis will come with a base bevel of 1 degree and a side bevel of 2 degrees. This is a decent starting point, but if you really want a ski to be ice ready, then a 3 degree side bevel will add some serious grip. A tune and wax at a shop is usually $30 or $40, and they can do whatever bevels you would like. A good tune will usually hold on firm snow for four or five days if you don’t bounce off too many rocks, but with a higher side edge bevel, you may lose a day or two, and that’s when it pays to do your own maintenance.

I’ve always believed that carving a good turn is essential to being an expert skier, and it is a critical skill for skiing ice. Take these tips to heart, and make this the season that you step up your game and ski the firm.

Doug Stewart, an examiner for the Eastern Division of the Professional Ski Instructors of America, is a bootfitter at Skirack in Burlington. He also teaches skiing and trains the ski school staff at Stowe Mountain Resort. n

Courtesy USSA/Reese Brown

While a good shop can do all the work you would ever need on your skis, if you ski often, you can save money by doing some of the work yourself. The two things your skis will need are tuning and waxing. Heating up the base of the skis and putting wax on them maintains the health of the base, and makes the ski slide consistently on the snow. Tuning is keeping the metal edges of your skis smooth and sharp.

The basics of tuning are to use some type of guide that will make sure your tools are staying at the correct bevel when doing the work, and to sharpen the edge every few days of skiing. A file will take off more material and really sharpen the edge, and a tool like a diamond stone will help keep the edge smooth and clean after it is sharp. You can use a diamond stone almost every day, and then break out the file when the edge starts to lose its grip.

To find out more about how to tune your own, visit vtskiandride.com/skitune/

603.359.1912 / geobarns.com

Stoweflake Mountain Resort and Spa, in the heart of Stowe, Vermont -- where over 30 shops and restaurants await -- invites families and friends to relax and reconnect while enjoying all the year-round resort and Stowe have to offer including treatments and services at the Spa at Stoweflake or the award-winning wine list at Charlie B’s Pub & Restaurant.

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Snowshoe & Cross Country Trails

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“Best extreme terrain in the east, hands down.”

— 2018 SKI Magazine reader survey

The most affordable skiing & riding in Vermont!

SKI OR RIDE FOR $15 when you purchase a Bash Badge.

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THE GREEN MOUNTAIN CALENDAR NOVEMBER

9 | SheJumps Ski and Ride Day, Stowe Women take over Stowe Mountain Resort with discounted passes ($76). Tutus, capes and costumes are encouraged. eventbrite.com

23 | Gobble Gobble Wobble 5K, Stratton Stratton Resort hosts a Thanksgiving 5K around the base area. stratton.com

9 | 23rd Annual BrewFest, Smugglers’ Notch For those 21 and older, a DJ spins the tunes and the Mountain Grille puts on a tasty appetizer buffet from 6:00 to 10:00 pm in the Meeting House. The $20 entry includes 8 samples, munchies, and a souvenir sampling glass. smuggs.com

23 | Killington 5K Turkey Trot, Killington The town of Killington hosts a benefit 5K run/walk. killingtonturkeytrot.com 24 | Tubing and Terrain Parks Season Opener, Magic Mountain While the kids play in the tubing and terrain parks, parents can enjoy the season opener of the Black Line Tavern as well. magicmtn.com 24 | Turkey Hangover Climb, Mount Snow Runners work off their Thanksgiving dinners with a race to the top of the Yard Sale trail. Prizes for the top finishers and costumes. The event is free. mountsnow.com 24-26 | Audi FIS World Cup, Killington Skiing greats from around the world (including, it is expected, Mikaela Shiffrin) take to the Superstar trail in this FIS slalom and giant slalom event. The weekend also features free movie premieres, concerts by well-known bands such as Dispatch and lots more. Spectating is free. killington.com 25 | Trot It Off 5 K, Ludlow Avid runners andwalkers burn off the calories from that extra slice of Thanksgiving dessert at Okemo’s base area. okemo.com

DECEMBER

11-12 | Test Fest, Killington Test the latest ski and snowboard gear for free at the base of Superstar Trail, then head to the after-party at the Wobbly Barn. killington.com 16 | Sugarbash, Sugarbush Celebrate Sugarbush’s birthday with a party at the Gate House Lodge including drinks, appetizers and plenty of dancing. sugarbush.com 16 | Demo Day, Mount Snow Skiers and snowboarders can test the latest gear from top manufacturers at this annual event. mountsnow.com 17 | Winter Wild, Magic Mountain An uphill event with a downhill twist. Join the wild fun on skis, traction devices, snowboards or snowshoes. winterwild.com.

27 | Grommet Jam, Mount Snow Skiers 12 and under compete in the first of three rail jams at Mount Snow. Prizes and raffles follow the competition at Carinthia Base Lodge. Following dates are 1/15 and the Grommet Jam Finals on 2/19. mountsnow.com

1 | Curious & Cool, Stowe Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum hosts an opening party from 7 to 9 p.m. for its new exhibit highlighting extraordinary and unusual objects in the museum’s collection. vtssm.org 7 | Fast & Furious: Life on the World Cup, Stowe Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum kicks off it’s Thirsty Thursday speaker series with brews and talks by some of the top World Cup racers in the state. vtssm.org 9 | Moonlight Hike, Okemo Naturalist Joe Karl guides hikers up Okemo’s Jackson Gore. Return to the fire pit at the Jackson Gore Inn to roast marshmallows. This event is free. Rental snowshoes will be available. okemo.com 9 | Rikert Fatbike Roundup, Rikert The Rikert Nordic Center hosts a day of group rides on the trail network in Ripton. Fatbikes are available for rental and the day concludes with a bonfire and a cookout. rikertnordic.com 9 | Green Mountain Skimo Camp, Bolton Valley The Catamount Trail Association, Bolton Valley and Ian Clarke (UVM student and skimo junkie who represented the US at the World Championships in Italy last season) host a one-day training camp on Bolton’s Nordic trails. The event is $35 and open to all abilities. catamounttrail.org 9 | Rails 2 Riches at Killington Resort, Killington The East’s most lucrative rail jam, Rails 2 Riches, officially kicks off the shred season for pro and amateur skiers and riders from across the US and Canada. killington.com

Ski Area OPENING DATES* November Nov. 8 | Killington Resort Nov. 11 | Mount Snow Resort Nov. 11 | Okemo Mountain Resort Nov. 17 | Stowe Mountain Resort Nov. 18 | Sugarbush Resort Nov. 22 | Stratton Mountain Resort Nov. 24 | Smugglers’ Notch Resort Nov. 24 | Bromley Mountain Nov. 24 | Jay Peak Resort Dec. 2 | Burke Mountain Dec. 9 | Bolton Valley Dec. 15 | Mad River Glen Dec. 16 | Magic Mountain Dec. 16 | Quechee Club Dec. 18 | Suicide Six *Projected —weather dependent

JANUARY 6 | Salomon Snowcross Relays, Trapp Family Lodge Compete as a team or as an individual in this winter trail running and nordic ski relay race. Demos, prizes, and good times for all who attend. The event will begin with one ski leg, then enter a transition zone where you will either tag a teammate or swap from skis to running shoes, continuing on to one trail run leg and the finish. catamountultra.com 6 | Ski The East Junior Qualifier, Jay Peak Watch future champs send it on Jay Peak’s toughest terrain. jaypeakresort.com 6 | NE Rando Race Series, Magic Mountain Two courses include a full course with 7,000 feet of vertical, and a shorter course with about 1,500 feet of vertical. nerandorace.blogspot.com 6 | Brocklebank Craft Brewing Winter Adventure Series, Strafford Strafford Nordic Center hosts this three-part brew-ski: stop mid-trail to sample local brews, then finish up in the lodge with more craft beer and a souvenir beer glass. Event repeats Feb. 17 and March 10. straffordnordicskiing.com 7 | Überwintern Fatbike Festival, Stowe Mountain Bike Vermont hosts a day of fatbike group rides, demos and hearty brews around a warm fire. mtbvt.com

vtskiandride.com Holidays 2017 59

THE GREEN MOUNTAIN CALENDAR 7 | Winter Magic Snowshoe Race, Magic Mountain Magic hosts a 3.5-mile snowshoe race around Lowell Lake State Park. Race sign up, parking, and facilities will be in the lodge. Dion Snowshoe rentals are available. magicmtn.com 8 | Pico Telemark Clinic, Pico This course, for all ability levels takes place on easy or intermediate, lift-accessed, downhill terrain (lift access included) and emphasizes skills and technique evaluation. catamounttrail.org 13 | 10th Annual Ladies Nordic Ski Expo, Rikert Rikert Nordic Center hosts this fun, social event taught by women for women. The expo offers an opportunity to receive instruction in both classic and skate skiing as well as backcountry and telemark techniques. catamounttrail.org

we all belong in the game.

19-26 | Trapp Family Lodge 50th Anniversary Celebration Week Trapps celebrates 50 years of cross country skiing with a week of outings with the von Trapp family, live music and dancing at the bierhall, antique ski and vintage clothing events, group skis, a demo day and more. trappfamily.com

Race. Coach. Volunteer.

25-27 | Telemark World Cup, Sugarbush Sugarbush hosts this 3-day event featuring world-class, international competitors.

Racers will participate in classic, sprint and parallel sprint races. sugarbush.com

Learn more at

26-28 | Smuggs Ice Bash, Smugglers’ Notch Winter’s biggest climbing event happens at the Notch and at PetraCliffs in Burlington. Sign up for free gear demos, clinics, slideshows, competitions, a party and prizes. smuggsicebash.com

specialolympicsvermont.org

SKI MOVIE RELEASES Opening December 1, 2017 - October 2018 Highlighting Unusual and Seldom Seen objects from the Museumʼs Eclectic Collection

Line of Descent

Vermont gets a taste of the legendary ski movie party scene with Warren Miller’s 68th ski and snowboard film. Line of Descent celebrates the lineage of legendary athletes through a multi-generational cast including Tommy Moe, Jonny Moseley, JT Holmes, Lexi duPont, Seth Wescott and more. The crew visits the Beartooth Pass, the French Alps, New Zealand, British Colombia and Norway. Tickets go on sale Sept. 12. Middlebury: Town Hall Theater, Nov. 29, Nov. 30 Flynn Center, Burlington: Dec. 2, Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center, Stowe: Dec. 27, Dec. 29, Jan. 5, Jan. 6, Jan. 7, Jan. 14, Feb. 19.

Rogue Elements

Teton Gravity’s latest drop explores the innate characteristics of an adventurer. “We are unequivocally drawn to nature’s rawest fury and deepest mysteries,” the synopsis reads. “These are the irreverent souls who pursue the edge.” The film takes viewers to the hotspots from last winter, including western British Colombia, France, Wyoming and Bolivia.

Starring Angel Collinson, Sammy Carlson, Griffin Post, Hadley Hammer and others. Killington, Nov. 25

Drop Everything

www.vtssm.com/exhibits

#curiousandcool

60 Holidays 2017 vtskiandride.com

1 South Main St. Stowe, VT 05672

Following last year’s artful, narrative-driven film, Matchstick Productions lightens it up with this action-comedy featuring Mark Abma, Markus Eder, Eric Hjorleifson, Michelle Parker, Sammy Carlson, Cody Townsend and more. The trailer promises a film with “120-percent more impressive, 60-percent more gripping, 80-percent louder sound effects, 100-percent more ripping women (equalling two in total) and 10-percent more soul. The Big Barn Farm, Proctorsville, Nov. 24

30 | Memphremagog Ice Skate Marathon, Newport Kingdom Games hosts 1, 5, 21, and 42K ice skating races plus a 42K untimed skate. The 1K and 5K races are free and open to the public. kingdomgames.co 30 | Craftsbury Marathon, Craftsbury This classic ski marathon is a wave-start cross-country ski race of 25 or 50K, held on a 12.5K loop with three aid stations. craftsbury.com

FEBRUARY 2-3 | Vermont Winter Carnival, Stowe Vermont’s top college racers go head to head on the race courses at Stowe. stowe.com 9-11 | Canadian Ski Marathon, Buckingham, Quebec Three days of long-distance cross-country ski touring across harsh, windswept terrain. The marathon follows a point-to-point format. Depending on which of four options skiers choose, they can travel up to 20K each day as the tour skates, kicks and glides towards Lachute, Quebec. csm-mcs.com/en 10 | USASA Boarder/Skier Cross, Smugglers’ Notch The Northern Vermont Tour of USASA hosts a BX/SX. This head-to-head race features high banked turns and jumps. Check out the action on the Sterling Mountain Practice Slope. usasa.org 17-18 | Harris Hill Ski Jump, Brattleboro Ski jumpers from around the world head to Brattleboro to compete on southern Vermont’s historic ski jump. harrishillskijump.com 18 | Winter Wild Race Series, Ascutney This year’s race will be a 3.1-mile trail run with 800 vertical feet of climbing. The course, designed by Jim Lyle, contains steep climbs, single-track, double-track, winding descents, all to be navigated by the light of headlamp. winterwild.com 23-24 | Middlebury Winter Carnival/EISA Champs, Middlebury SnowBowl & Rikert Nordic Center Middlebury College SnowBowl and Rikert Nordic Center in Ripton host NCAA’s Eastern collegiate skiing championships. middlebury.edu 23-25 | Memphremagog Winter Swim Festival, Newport If you’re ready for a chill, join in one of the 25, 50, 100, and 200 meter swims in a twolane, 25-meter pool cut in the ice on Lake Memphremagog. kingdomgames.co 24-25 | 33rd Annual Kåre Andersen Telemark Festival, Bromley Ski with some of the east’s best teleskiers in this two-day festival, chock-full of clinics and free-heel camaraderie, with a classic race on Sunday. bromley.com 25 | Winter Wild Race Series, Okemo The 3-mile course has 1022 vertical feet. It starts at the Clock Tower Base Lodge and finishes at the Base Lodge. winterwild.com

MARCH 9-11 | US National Snowshoe Championships, Prospect Mountain Prospect Mountain Ski Area in Woodford hosts the best snowshoe racers from the U.S. and around the world in 10K, half marathon and marathon races. Eight miles away, Bennington will serve as the host community. ussnowshoechampionships.com 17 | NE Rando Race Series, Bromley Bromley hosts a stop on the New England race series, including a full competitive course with 4,600 feet of vertical and a shorter recreational course with 3,600 feet of vertical. nerandorace.blogspot.com

Family owned & operated 4-season camping nestled in the Green Mountain National Forest. Snowshoeing & X-C skiing on 42 acres and miles of trails.

Best of all worlds – quiet and secluded yet convenient to major ski areas: Sugarbush & Mad River, Killington, Stowe & more!

Bring your camper or rent a quaint, cozy cabin.

4817 South 116 Rd., Bristol, VT • 802.453.3123 GreenMountainFamily.com • gmfc802@gmail.com vtskiandride.com Holidays 2017 61

DRINK VT

VERMONT BEER, WINE, CIDER + SPIRITS

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.

5520 Rt. 4, Bridgewater Corners, VT 802-672-5011 www.longtrail.com Inspired by the 273-mile hiking trail that traverses the Green Mountains, Long Trail Brewing has been a caretaker of Vermont craft since 1989. From small-batch recipes to large-scale staples like our Long Trail Ale and Limbo IPA, our brewers are committed to crafting a trail-worthy family of beers.

160 Flynn Ave, Burlington, VT 802-651-4114 www.switchbackvt.com

Find Switchback Ale—the number one selling draught beer in Vermont—at New England ski & ride areas! We are proud to be the first 100% employee-owned brewery in New England, brewing unfiltered and naturally carbonated beers in the South End of Burlington, Vermont since 2002. Visit our brewery and Tap Room for pints, flights, and samples. Tours available on Saturdays by reservation.

52 Seymour Street Middlebury, 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.

1859 Mountain Rd, Stowe, VT 802-253-4765 www.idletymebrewing.com

Our beer line-up represents a traditional take on classic European brewing with a healthy dose of the Vermont hop culture. Whether your preference is a brown or pale ale, Helles Lager or our famous Idletyme Double IPA, we have a beer you’ll love! And it’s brewed right here at our pub and restaurant.

7755 VT Route 9E, West Marlboro, VT 28 Church Street, Burlington, VT (802)-464-2003 www.vermontdistillers.com

Vermont Distillers produces the Metcalfe’s line of Liqueurs as well as other fine spirits.

Tastings are offered daily along with brand merchandise and bottles to go. Conveniently located between I-91 and Mount Snow resort with an additional tasting room located in Burlington, VT.

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.

1321 Exchange St, Middlebury, VT 802-385-3656 www.woodchuck.com

As America’s original hard cider, we have always done things our own way, forging a tradition of quality and craftsmanship with every cider batch we craft. At Woodchuck, our Cider Makers meticulously oversee the details of every cider before any bottle or keg leaves our Cidery. It’s this attention and passion for cider that ensures we always deliver a premium hard cider that is true to our roots. Enjoy the brand that started the American cider revolution. sponsored content

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!

6308 Shelburne Rd, Shelburne, VT 802-985-8222 www.shelburnevineyard.com

Join us to taste and tour and share our adventure growing grapes and making award-winning wine in northern Vermont.

Then, pick your favorite to sip on the patio overlooking our vineyard. Check our concert and event schedule online or visit Shelburne Vineyard on Facebook or plan your own special event here! Open 7 days a week, all year.

150 Main Street, Newport, VT Near Jay Peak 802-334-1808 www.edenicecider.com

Founded in 2007 on an abandoned farm in the Northeast Kingdom, Eden produces high quality ice ciders, aperitif ciders and naturally sparkling hard ciders from heirloom and true cider variety apples grown at our own and 5 other local orchards. Slow Food Snail of Approval, Good Food Award Gold Seal, Great Lakes International Cider Competition Best in Show 2015. sponsored content

8814 Route 30, Rawsonville, VT Junction VT Rt 30N and VT Rt 100N 802-297-9333 www.CraftDraughts.com An intimate shop with over 300 craft beers plus ciders, meads and two rotating Vermont taps for growler fills. A muststop for craft beer lovers traveling through southern Vermont.

5 Bartlett Bay Rd South Burlington, VT 802-658-BREW MagicHat.Net

Where ancient alchemy meets modern-day science to create the best tasting beer on the planet. Come watch our spores dance and play! Visit the Artifactory for FREE samples, FREE tours and the most unusual shopping experience!

632 Laporte Road, Route 100 Morrisville, VT 802-888-9400 www.rockartbrewery.com

Enjoy samples of our beers during your visit and have a growler filled to take home to enjoy later. We have the best selection of our beers on tap. You’ll also find great Rock Art swag, Vermont foods and wonderful items from local artisans.

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.

Pine Street Brewery Flatbread Brewpub 716 Pine Street 115 St. Paul Street 802-497-0054 802-861-2999 www.zerogravitybeer.com Visit either of our two locations for two distinct ZG experiences: The Pine Street Brewery houses a 30-barrel brew house, full canning line, tasting room, retail shop and a sundrenched beer garden in Burlington’s South End Arts District, and our original location in downtown Burlington at American Flatbread features the full line-up of ZG flagship and Specialty brews alongside some of the finest wood-fired pizza you can find. Cheers!

3597 VT-74, Shoreham, VT 802-897-2777 www.champlainorchards.com

Open daily 9-5. July-Nov. Please call ahead.

We offer guided tastings of our locallymade hard cider including our Original Hard Cider, Mac & Maple, Limited Edition Ginger Spice as well as our Pruner’s Pride and Honeycrisp Ice Cider. All our ciders are made onsite with our ecologically grown apples. 100% of our electricity is generated from our solar orchards. 2015 Winner of Vermont Cider Classic.

VERMONT BEER, WINE, CIDER + SPIRITS

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

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

The Chairlift Q+A

SKIING THE NEW ENGLAND 100 Some people ski the same places all the time. Ray Laroque has made a point of skiing as many different places in New England as he can. By Emma Cotton

If we were on a chairlift right now, which one would it be?

It would be the Red Chair at Magic.That was the first one I ever rode.

What motivated you to ski at 100 ski areas in New England?

I started skiing when I was 20.Warren Miller always said, ‘If you don’t ski it this year, you’re going to be a year older when you do.’ So I like to try at least one new ski area every year.

When did 100 become a goal?

Every good story starts with a road trip. Two years back, I went to ski Jay Peak with some friends. I didn’t really know all the guys, but we spent the whole night driving up together— two feet of powder had fallen, and we wanted first tracks. When we filed into the van for the ride home, the guys in the back started fighting over who had skied the most. All of a sudden I had eight guys pumping questions at me: ‘Have you skied here?

Have you skied there?’ My friend Mike asked how many mountains I’d skied, and I didn’t know. With a three hour ride ahead of us and nothing else to do, I started counting them. I came up with 83, worldwide.

And when did your ‘worldwide’ focus turn toward New England?

Jump forward a few years: I’m going to ski Cranmore Mountain for the first time. It was snowing the night before, and I couldn’t sleep, so I counted the areas I had skied in

64 Holidays 2017 vtskiandride.com

New England. It just so happened that I had 49 mountains in New England, and Cranmore was my 50th.

On the ride home, my friend Jeff and I started talking about whether we could ski 100 mountains in New England, but we didn’t think there were 100 left open—maybe 75. After a few years of research, we kept finding more and more.

What was it like, skiing all of those little mountains?

Many are pretty small, but they’re gems and great places to ski. It’s worth a trip to go to the little hills and find uncrowded skiing. Like the Mount Greylock Ski Club in Williamstown, Mass.—you step back in time by entering that rustic 1937 lodge. They have a rope tow gripper, which looks like two spoons hinged together with a rope attached. The rope goes around your waist, and you clip the tow gripper over the rope, squeeze it tight and hang on. It’s the only one in use in North America. At the Bullock Lodge at Wachusett Mountain, Mass., they have homemade apple dumplings and hot cider. In Maine, Lost Valley has multi-colored chairs, and Ski Mt. Jefferson makes homemade squash doughnuts. From the top of Camden Snow Bowl, you can look out over the Atlantic. In Vermont, you can ski with Olympians (the Cochran family) at Cochran’s Ski Area, or ride the fastest rope tow in the east at Northeast Ski Slopes in East Corinth. Suicide Six is the oldest ski area in America that’s been running continuously. It started in 1934 and is still going strong.

What was number 100?

Hard’Ack Hill in St. Albans, Vt. was the 100th place we skied, and that was a beautiful little hill.

For a list of the 100 ski areas Ray Laroque has skied, see vtskiandride.com/100skiareas/ n

Photo courtesy Ray Laroque

R

ay LaRoque, 60, didn’t have a mission when he started skiing at areas all over New England. The postal worker who lives in Belchertown, Mass., started skiing small ski areas to avoid paying big bucks for a lift ticket. Soon, he discovered the charm of tiny areas and began to seek them out.

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sugarbush.com

Adventure Awaits There’s something more to the Sugarbush experience than the legendary terrain variety, the meticulous snowmaking and grooming, the fabled history, and the authentic Vermont mountain setting.

Come discover what makes Sugarbush different.

For the best deals on season passes, discount tickets, lodging and more, visit sugarbush.com.

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Four unrestricted adult all mountain lift tickets. Purchase thru 11/30/17.

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