SKIMO GOES OLYMPIC
Long before alpine racing existed, there was ski mountaineering: skin up, ski down, repeat. In 1924, the first Winter Olympics included skimountaineering and the sport continued for three more Olympics. For years, the Mad River Valley Mountaineering race (shown at right) challenged skiers to skin up and down a course that took them, at one point, from Mad River Glen to Sugarbush. Jay Peak also hosted an uphill/downhill. In July, the International Olympic Committee approved skimo for inclusion in the 2026 Games. The Games will include 5 separate skimo events, including a relay, a sprint (uphill, a hiking section and a descent through gates) and a longer event with a mass start that will have racers ascend 4,300 to 6,200 vertical feet as they move through checkpoints. While the Mad River Valley and Jay Peak events have been retired, if you want to try your hand at skimo, the Northeast Rando Race Series is coming back to Vermont this season with races scheduled at Magic Mountain (Dec. 18), Burke (Jan. 19) Middlebury Snow Bowl (Feb. 5), Brandon Gap (Feb. 12), and Bromley (Mar. 5).
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That’s what Vermont will pay you to move here to work, whether it’s as a remote worker or for a job with a local business. The New Worker Grant Program and the Remote Worker Grant Program cover up to that amount in relocation expenses (see thinkvermont.com for details). According to the Vermont Futures Project, Vermont is nearly 11,000 people short of the number of new workers it needs every year to keep up with job openings and at 3%, the current unemployment rate in Vermont is one of the lowest in the country. It is similar to what it was pre-Covid but since the pandemic, resorts have had a harder time bringing in seasonal workers from abroad. Staffing has been an issue throughout the state and in many towns, restaurants and other businesses have had to cut back on hours. So please be patient if your burger arrives late, and tip well.
Fall 2021 vtskiandride.com
Photo top by John Atkinson, bottom courtesy of Renoun.
$7,500
Tattoo These Skis
Vermonter Zoë Myers would earn our respect for any number of things. For starters, she’s a teleskier and former ski patroller at Mad River Glen. Then consider the fact that she built her own tiny house (pictured here) in Warren, has woven her own pack baskets out of an ash tree she harvested and turns wooden bowls. But Myers’ main work is as a tattoo artist with The Perch Folk in Waitsfield— emphasis on the word “artist.” Her designs are intricate, often inspired by nature: trees with flowing roots and branches, flowers, birds in flight. Recently, she combined her passions to create a custom graphic, “Arc of Petals,” that will appear on a limited edition set of Renoun’s Endurance skis as well as on cans of a new “Arc of Petals” release from Burlington’s Foam Brewers, a 6% IPA. Renoun will be raffling off a pair of the skis and co-hosting a release party with Foam Brewers in Burlington on Nov. 5, along with their “Vermonters Day” special.
