Skiing Around The Mountain

By Elsie Lynn Parini

side and worked its way around the mountain. It was trial by error, but eventually he finished — with the help of townspeople, willing students and family members. I’m one of three sons, and we were all pressed into service at various times. He did this out of the absolute pure love of relating to the land,” Beeken says. “He sniffed out routes with a special feeling.”

Dr. Beeken was a medical doctor who taught at the University of Vermont. He wanted the trail to be more than just recreation, so he founded the Camel’s Hump Challenge as a benefit event. Early on in the event’s history, Dr. Beeken’s wife, Ruth, developed Alzheimer’s Disease so the Camel’s Hump Challenge focused its efforts on raising funds and awareness for Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementia.

“The fundraising efforts were mighty modest at the beginning,” Bruce recalls. “It was sort of an old-school, rag-tag kind of event. It was very joyful.”

It started with wool sweaters, knickers, wooden skis and a spirit of adventure.

According to Bruce Beeken, that’s how his late father, Dr. Warren Beeken, established a trail circumnavigating Camel’s Hump.

“That’s the gear we had, so that’s what we used,” Bruce Beeken recalls. Sure, fiberglass skis and Gore-Tex were around, but Dr. Beeken (who was in his 60s by the time he was cutting the trail) didn’t see a need to upgrade from his original gear.

The first weekend in February, backcountry skiers and splitboarders set out to ski that trail for the 36th running of the Camel’s Hump Challenge — a rigorous wilderness ski touring experience where backcountry skiers traverse the perimeter of Camel’s Hump, a rigorous 13- to 15-mile loop.

“Back in the 1980s my father moved to Richmond and cast his eyes on Camel’s Hump,” says Bruce, who now lives in Bristol and makes custom craft furniture with his business partner, Jeff Parsons, as part of Beeken Parsons. “My dad developed a trail that started on the Huntington

The event stays small for several reasons including the small, private parking lot used at the start of the trail in Huntington, risk management and the variability of the snowpack.

This year, registration for the Camel’s Hump Challenge was expanded to 90 participants and has more than 50 people on the waitlist.

“We filled up in just a handful of days,” said Rob Backlund of Lincoln, who’s been an organizer of the event for seven years. “It’s a really good problem to have.” The event has personal meaning for Backlund: his mother, who taught him to ski, developed early onset Alzheimer’s and died a few years ago.

“This event is skiing for something more than skiing,” he continued. “It’s not a race; it’s not timed. It’s just a chance to go out and be challenged, to be social and to have fun.”

To be clear, this is a challenge. It’s somewhere between 13 to 15 miles and takes 6-8 hours, typically. Participants need to be “comfortable and competent on skis,” says Backlund. “There are some descents where you have to go a certain way… and the trail is tight through the forest.”

But the rewards are grand: “The trail is really a series of moments and they change,” muses Beeken, who’s done the challenge 25 times. “There’s a dramatic change of forest type and land history as you go clockwise from the west side to the north side… There’s a very intimate, fairly old, stand of yellow and white birch… A walk along a boney spine… tunnels of evergreens… cabin-sized chunks of stone… An extraordinary series of connected beaver flows… And a pure birch stand — the regeneration from a fire — where if there’s any sun to be had it’s just magic; absolutely fantastic.”

The event ends where it starts — at a barn on a classic Vermont field. A fire, soup, sandwiches and refreshments are waiting for all participants who come together and celebrate. A group of volunteer ski patrollers from Mad River Glen sweeps the trail.

Backlund is part of a “new guard” of organizers who have helped take the event online and boost participation and fundraising goals. And it’s working.

“We were struggling to raise $30,000 seven years ago,” Backlund said. “This year our goal is $81,000.”

“This event has the highest per capita fundraising of any event we host here in Vermont,” Jenna Johnson of the Vermont chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association said. “With

THE CAMEL’S HUMP CHALLENGE: SKIING FOR ALZHEIMERS

Consider training and signing up for next year’s Camel’s Hump Challenge or supporting one of the skiers or teams doing it. “There are over 13,000 Vermonters age 65 and older living with Alzheimer’s and over 26,000 caregivers who provide a total of 37 million hours of unpaid care,” says Jenna Johnson, development manager of the Vermont Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. The funds raised through the Camel’s Hump Challenge support the education programs and support groups that are offered free of charge here in the state. “Events like this challenge not only bring our community together through an activity that is woven into the fabric of our culture, but also provide a space for those who are impacted by Alzheimer’s and other dementia to do what they love in support of a cause,” she says. For more information and to donate: tinyurl.com/AlzheimerSk i, or contact Jenna Johnson jmjohnson@alz. org, 802-316-3839, ext. 8015.

around 90 skiers, the Challenge collectively raised over $94,000 in 2022. This is an incredible number and 100% of donations stay in the state of Vermont.”

“Through this growth period, it’s still all about maintaining a genuine experience rooted in tradition, the camaraderie that comes from doing something difficult for whatever reason you believe in, and maintaining this valuable trail,” Bruce Beeken says. “The Camel’s Hump Challenge is just one of those authentic and good things.” u