Vermont Ski + Ride 2022 Holidays

The

A Screaming Yes

AN OLYMPIC

A New Era?

Vermont’s ski scene is at a crossroads as ski areas get acquired, ski towns change and snow is even more of a premium and vanishing resource. Still, there’s good news.

This season marks the start of a new era in Vermont’s ski history. This past fall, Jay Peak—formerly one of the state’s independently-owned ski areas—was purchased from the receivership by Pacific Group Resorts. Stowe Mountain Resort instituted paid parking for the first time in its 85-year-history. The oldest ski area in the country, formerly known as Suicide 6, emerged with a new name, Saskadena 6, that honors Vermont’s Abenaki heritage. And Killington opened its new K1 lodge, at 58,000 sq. ft., the biggest base lodge in New England.

Change isn’t always easy. But it is a sign of health that ski areas are looking to the future. Yes, it’s easy to complain about the paid parking at Stowe and at Mount Snow, also owned by Vail Resorts. Yet a percentage of the fees from parking are going toward improving mass transportation and buying new energy-saving public buses— both of which will reduce the carbon impact of traffic. Killington’s new lodge also incorporates multiple sustainability initiatives. Across the New York border, Gore Mountain has erected the largest solar array of any ski area in the country, thanks in part to funding that came in advance of the World University Games.

“When we start to see the end of something important to us, we tend to hang onto it even harder,” Bill Burrell writes in his beautiful essay on p. 42, “A Screaming Yes.” For Burrell, that meant both reducing his carbon footprint and maximizing his time on snow. Both are things we should all think about doing. —Lisa Lynn, Editor

CONTRIBUTORS

Mark Aiken. p. 50

Award-winning freelance writer, ski pro at Stowe and a member of the Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA) Eastern Region educational staff. Mark Aiken co-authored the PSIA manual Teaching Children Snowsports.

Bill Burrell, p.42

A former chemist and National Writing Project Institute Fellow, Bill Burrell teaches his middle-school students in Essex, Vt. to become critical consumers and creators of scientific literature, news and information.

Dave Trumpore, p. 34

A professional photographer and former World Cup mountain bike racer, Dave Trumpore travels the world to shoot cycling and motocross events. A UVM grad, he calls Killington his home base in Vermont.

SOCK

PERFORMANCE

VT SKI RIDE +

EDITORIAL

Publisher Angelo Lynn angelo@vtskiandride.com

Editor/Co-Publisher Lisa Lynn editor@vtskiandride.com

Creative Director David Pollard

Contributors: Brooks Curran, Dan Egan, David Goodman, Ali Kaukas, Bud Keene, Brian Mohr, Lindsay Selin, Doug Stewart, Jeb Wallace-Brodeur

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Photo Credit: Lindsay Selin

FIRST TRACKS

WHAT’S NEW AT SKI AREAS AROUND VERMONT, AND BEYOND.

The Beast’s New Lair

IT’S BIG: 58,000 square feet, with 900 seats and 56 % larger than the previous lodge. It’s beautiful; clad in wood, metal and glass siding with floor-to-ceiling glass windows that look out on Superstar. And it’s finally open. After just three years of construction by Middlebury-based firm Breadloaf, Killington’s new K1 Lodge was slated to open in time for the World Cup, Thanksgiving weekend.

Killington’s new K1 may not be the biggest in the U.S. (Mammoth Mountain’s base lodges— 143,000 sq. ft and 106,590 sq. ft., respectively give the California ski area that title) but it dwarfs anything in New England and boasts the first escalator in Rutland County.

At the entrance to K1, just opposite the gondola, skiers and riders are greeted by sidewalks that are snow and ice-free, thanks to embedded snowmelting technology that does away with the need for sand and salt. On the base level facing the parking area is a retail shop, Killington Sports, as well as a rental and ski tuning area and bag check. The first floor also houses a first aid area, restrooms and a family changing/breastfeeding room. For employees, a separate area has more than 100 lockers and showers, too. Ticket windows and ticket pick-up boxes are also indoors now.

Up a flight (you can take the escalator) is the huge new food court that features an open-hearth pizza oven, salad bar, soup station as well as the usual grill and beverage stations. Grab a tray and head for a high-top or low table. There’s also a bar with 8 draft lines and a full-service co ee bar with espresso drinks, pastries and breakfast treats.

It’s a far cry from the low-ceilinged, somewhat dark lodge that was the site of a raucous demolition party last spring, complete with a chance to gra ti the walls. Sure, that lodge was fun, and this one will be too. It’s just a little more suave and grown-up.

That’s the number of bidding rounds that it took before the gavel fell and Jay Peak Resort was sold to Pacific Group Resorts for $76 million. PRG, which owns Ragged Mountain in New Hampshire and four other ski areas, had a leading bid of $58 million. Two other bidders o ered initial bids of $60 and $61 million, respectively. The sale was slated to be finalized by the end of 2022. There are no plans for changes this season, general manager Steve Wright says. Current ski passes will be honored, Indy Pass included.

A New Venue

The other lodge story for this season is the rebuild of Bolton Valley Resort’s Timberline Lodge. Completed over the summer, the Lodge got a quietly elegant facelift and an addition. On top of being an o -the-beaten-track place to warm up at lunch, it’s already become popular as a wedding and event venue, thanks to sunset views, a patio with firepits out back and catering.

Killington’s new K1 base lodge opens this season, the biggest in the East.

RETAIL WEED IS LEGAL NOW

Dave Silberman has been an attorney for 20 years. He also serves in the elected role of High Bailiff for Addison Count. An unpaid position unique to Vermont counties, the role of the High Bailiff is to oversee the county sheriff and step in if needed.

Custom Goggles?

Is $450 a) The early-bird price for a season pass at the Middlebury College Snowbowl, b) The cost of a season parking pass at Stowe, or c) The price for Smith’s new custom-fitted goggles? The correct answer is d): All of the above. Smith Optic’s latest I/O Mag Imprint 3D goggle is custom-made to fit your face. Using the FaceId app on an iPhone, scan your face. Smith then creates a goggle frame that fits it exactly, thanks to 3D printing. The lenses magnetically snap onto the frames and are easily swapped out.

A 2023 World Cup Goes North of Border

Don’t worry, the Killington Women’s World Cup isn’t going anywhere. The good news is that for those who want to follow the White Circus, as the World Cup circuit is known, a new eastern venue is being added. From Killington, the women tech racers will head to Mont Tremblant, Quebec, for a new event. The sport’s governing body, the FIS, has committed to placing two Giant Slalom races at Mont Tremblant on the calendar for the next three years starting in December 2023. “This type of event is part of our company DNA and it is important for us to help internationally promote the athletes, skiing and Tremblant,” said Patrice Malo, President and Chief Operating O cer of Mont Tremblant Resorts and Company LP. “We are confident our destination will meet the expectations of the teams and spectators alike.” Mont Tremblant is owned by the Alterra Mountain Company, which also owns Stratton and Sugarbush in Vermont and issues the Ikon Pass. The resort is accessible by bus from Montreal and is a 3.5-hour drive from Burlington, Vt.

There’s a certain irony to that title now. On October 1 when retail cannabis sales went legal in Vermont, Silberman (right) and his business partner, Middlebury College grad Michael Sims (left), opened the doors of FLORA in an elegant historic building in the heart of Middlebury.

“Buying weed here should be normal now,” says Silberman who helped advocate for Vermont to join 13 other states, including Colorado and Massachusetts that have legalized sales of recreational marijuana. As per Vermont law, all cannabis products sold in Vermont must be made from marijuana that’s locally grown and processed here by Vermont-based companies.

In appearance, FLORA is more upscale boutique than head shop. Its offerings give a sense that cannabis could hit the state like microbrews did, with each town offering a specialty. Examples include Blueberry Mac Muffin (20% THC) grown in Bristol, Vt. by Doh Hey Smokieez LLC or Kush Cake, an indica hybrid cultivated by VTGRN in Starksboro. The shop also sells gummies and edibles.

Retailers have also opened in Bennington, Rutland and Burlington and more are expected to come online in 2023. The challenge now is finding salespeople.

FLORA has already posted a job opening for a “budtender” so Silberman can escape to make a few runs at the Middlebury Snow Bowl with his kids.

Find Elevenate skiwear at Alpine Options, Mountain Ops & Valley Bike and Ski Werks

Ski Touring for Tots & Babes

Want to get your kid into backcountry skiing? This year Bolton Valley Resort is o ering backcountry gear for kids, thanks to a rental fleet of Dynafit “Youngstar” boots (which come in sizes as small as 21.5) and skis. Bolton Valley Resort has become a de facto launching pad for backcountry skiing. The ski area’s access to extensive backcountry terrain, two backcountry huts you can book overnight from the Green Mountain Club, as well as proximity to the Catamount Trail have made it popular. In recent years, Bolton capitalized on this with a backcountry touring center that features rentals of alpine touring and splitboard gear and guided tours, as well as programs like the Bolton Babe Force, led by ski area CEO Lindsay Des:auriers, which is described as “a group of rad and talented babes looking to share our love of the outdoors with other babes.” Photo by Brian Morh/EmberPhoto

CUE THE PARKING TROLLS

Want the local reaction to Stowe Mountain Resort’s new paid parking program ($30/day or $450 for a season pass—but those sold out in under 15 minutes)? Just follow the una liated @StoweParkingLot on Instagram. As the reality of Vail-owned resort’s switch to a parking fee (from Friday-Sunday there’s a $30 parking fee for any car carrying fewer than four people) began to sink in, an account that usually makes light of everything parking-lot related had a field day. Witness posts such as an alleged retweet from Elon Musk’s Twitter account: “Decided to buy Stowe Mountain Resort to make parking free again.” Not to be outdone, @Freelot1 (run by a Smuggler’s Notch local) took a break from its often-hilarious posts about anthropomorphized tra c cones, to troll its neighbor with a few pointed jabs, including one o ering mannequins to help fill car seats needed to make a four-some Bolton Valley Resort jumped into the fray announcing that not only would its parking lots remain free, but they would also be free of asphalt. All in good jest, but thanks to parking fees, Stowe Mountain Resort is projected to contribute a 220% increase over last season to Green Mountain Transit: $136,945 in fees, plus $120,000 to match a grant to help GMT purchase two new public transport buses.

From Hair Salon to Ultimate Ski Bar?

“I get bored easily,” is how Jason Levinthal, founder of first Line and Full Tilt, then J Skis, explains his latest venture. He says it with a laugh as he describes how he happened to turn a hair salon (formerly O’Brien’s) on Burlington’s Main Street into a bar/showroom/retail outlet in collaboration with Ski the East. Gone are the hair dryers and mani/pedi stations. In their place, is a long bar where cans of beer and other drinks will be served. “There will be couches, a whole area with barn board and a classic ski-lodge vibe,” he explains. “We’ll even have a big screen where you can project your own ski movies from your phone or watch new releases.” Both J Skis and Ski the East will be selling their wares there, as well. “It made a lot of sense: Burlington’s the capital city of eastern skiing and we’ve worked with Jason before when he sponsored our early Meathead Films,” says Geoff McDonald, who, along with Chris James, founded Ski the East. Both Vermont-based brands have relied heavily on online sales. “We get a lot of people wanting to see how we make the skis so we have a whole display on our history and process,” says Levinthal. Doug Stewart, a contributor to this magazine and Stowe PSIA Level III instructor, is also managing the place.

Geo McDonald, Jason Levinthal and Chris James toast their new venture.

Skiing to Work

In the dead of winter, Jill Madden will often wake at 4 a.m. to go to work. She’ll have carefully packed the tools of her trade, a warm thermos of tea, snowshoes or her skis and skins. She’ll then drive 45 minutes from her home in Weybridge, Vt., to the trailhead and start up, her headlamp lighting the way, her black lab Cali in tow.

It’s still dark when she reaches the summit of Camel’s Hump in Huntington or Romance Mountain, near the Moosalamoo National Recreation Area. The places she heads to usually don’t have ski lifts. Often, they don’t even have trails. She makes her way up through the snow, unpacks her gouache kit, her notebook, a small linen canvas and sets up her easel.

Then she watches as the mountains come to life, dark humps becoming faceted ridges and the early morning rays etching valleys in deep magenta hues. Madden’s brushstrokes capture the magic of the movement of light across the landscape.

“I like to paint from life,” says Madden, an artist whose work has been shown across the U.S. “Photographs don’t show the true variations of hues or how the light changes or plays across a landscape,” she says. “I really like to see something as I paint it.”

Madden returns to the same spots, over and over, fascinated by how the light shifts by the minute and by the season. An Instagram post from one of her plein air sessions last winter reads: “8 degrees, -13 wind chill

For artist Jill Madden, the morning commute often involves skins and skis, or snowshoes. By Lisa Lynn

Jill Madden, top, at work on one of her winter landscapes. Bottom, Madden uses topo maps as a base for some of her paintings, highlighting a sense of place. PHOTO TOP BY CALEB KENNA; BOTTOM COURTESY JILL MADDEN

but great light.” The resulting painting captures a lightdappled scene of a birch forest, the shadows of tree trunks crossing a swath of untouched snow. It’s done in shimmering, broad, brush strokes. To keep them from freezing, Madden mixes her oil paints with a homemade medium and her gouache paints with vodka. “That works until it’s 18 below zero,” she says.

An avid backcountry skier and hiker, Madden likes to explore Vermont’s wilderness areas and her most recent exhibit at the Vermont Natural Resources Council in Montpelier, “Mapping the Wilderness,” showcases a series of works done in some of Vermont’s wildest places. Other works are currently at the Caldbeck Gallery in Maine.

“I’m really intrigued by how much wilderness there is in Vermont,” says Madden, who has explored much of Central Vermont’s Green Mountain National Forest on skis and by foot. Some of her works begin with a topo map as the canvas. “I like to find the point on the map where I am painting from and then I’ll incorporate some of the topo map features – like a lake or a ridgeline, into the landscape I’m painting.”

After graduating from Middlebury College with a degree in East Asian Studies, Madden headed to Taiwan for two years where she studied Chinese ink painting and then moved to Sitka, Alaska, to teach Mandarin and art. “In Sitka, I really started to paint and had a great mentor,” she says. In Taiwan, she met her husband, Eben Punderson, who had grown up near Middlebury, Vermont. They moved back east, first to Boston, where Madden pursued an MFA from Boston University, then to Weybridge where they rebuilt an old home and Madden raised her post-and-beam studio.

There in the studio, she’ll finish her paintings, sometimes using larger canvasses and often pulling from the scores of notebooks she’s filled while in the field.

Madden has had the opportunity to do a number of artist’s residencies. At the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson she worked with artist Lois Dodd, who became a friend and mentor. Other residencies and fellowships have taken her to Wyoming, Ireland and Iceland—all places where her work has been exhibited.

But most often, it’s the Green Mountains that call her to get up at 4 a.m, on a cold winter day. “It’s my happy place,” she says with a grin. u

Madden is drawn to paint high places, such as Camel’s Hump (far left) and Worth Mountain, above and at right, where the Middlebury Snow Bowl’s trails cut a white swath across the landscape.

PHOTOS COURTESY JILL MADDEN

Lake Placid’s Olympic Comeback

With the World University Games coming to Lake Placid in January, New York State has invested more than $500 million to upgrade its Olympic facilities and plans to welcome more than 100,000 visitors to the town. By Lisa Lynn

About two hours west of Middlebury, Vt. Lake Placid has been buzzing. Not since the 1980 Olympics has this Adirondack mountain town of just over 2,000 people seen so much action. In late October, the main road was getting a new coat of asphalt and big blocks of granite were being laid for new sidewalks. Also on Main Street, the classy Grand Adirondack Hotel opened its doors in August with stylish rooms, original artwork by fly-fisherman and artist James Prosek and a cozy bar and solarium. All fall, hotel manager and former owner Garrick Smith was busy overseeing work on a new rooftop deck and bar with breathtaking views of Mirror Lake and Adirondack Mountains, as well as finishing up the downstairs restaurant.

Down the road, the Olympic Center was completing a mind-boggling $107 million dollar renovation. That included revamping the rink where the U.S. men’s hockey team had its “Miracle on Ice” upset at the 1980 Olympic Games, beating the Soviet favorites for the gold medal. The Center was also sprucing up the 1932 Olympic ice rink, a smaller practice rink and the outdoor speed skating oval where American Eric Heiden won five gold medals in 1980.

From the new Mount Van Hoevenberg base lodge you can look uphill at the sliding tracks or down at the cross-country and biathlon courses.

PHOTO COURTESY ORDA

Also new: a second-floor restaurant with views across the speed skating oval and an expanded Olympic Museum. But, as Olympic Center general manager Chadd Cassidy explained, “Perhaps the biggest costs are in the things you don’t see, like using the trapped heat from the ice rinks’ refrigeration system to heat the outdoor walkways so snow doesn’t build up.”

“In fact, every new building project has been executed with an eye toward sustainability,” noted Jaime Collins, the communications director for the Olympic Regional Development Authority which manages the legacy facilities. Examples range from the electric Zambonis used on the ice rinks to Gore Mountain’s 14,850-panel solar array, the largest dedicated ski area solar array in the U.S.

At Whiteface Mountain, 160 new low-energy, highefficiency HKD snow guns were blasting snow across newly-widened race trails such as Draper’s Drop.

At Mt. Van Hoevenberg, site of the Nordic skiing, biathlon, ski jumping and sliding (bobsled, luge, skeleton) facilities, a brand new 55,000-square-foot Mountain Pass lodge, completed in late 2020, has been swarming with young athletes. Inside, kids were scrambling up a two-story climbing wall. On one side of the building, a bar looks out

at an iced indoor push track, to be used by bobsled and skeleton racers. On the other side of the building, a lounge area worthy of an upscale hotel looks out over a 30-row biathlon shooting range and a paved 2.5K Nordic track, designed for summer training on roller skis.

Around the center, enhanced snowmaking has made Mt. Van Hoevenberg’s World Championship-rated 5 km loop one of the earliest cross-country ski trails to open and the last to close each season. Add to that a new lodge at the base of the ski jumps and the freestyle practice facilities and there’s another $80 million in investment.

All told, the state of New York has invested more than $500 million in upgrading the aging Lake Placid Olympic facilities and town infrastructure.

Why? As hotelier Smith, whose family has been in Lake Placid for generations, explained over a beer; “A lot of these facilities were built quickly for the 1980 Games and never meant to last more than six months. We were at a point where we had to upgrade or lose them. Getting the

With extensive snowmaking on a 5K loop, Mt. Van Hoevenberg has a World Cup-ready cross-country course (top). The Olympic center revamped four indoor rinks and the outdoor speed skating oval is open to the public when events are not going on.

COURTESY ORDA

World

“We’ve hosted a lot of different national championships and World Cups for various sports but this January will be the first time since 1980 that all those sports will be happening at once in this small town,” says Tim Burke, US Biathalon coach and former University Games competitor.

University Games gave us the impetus to look ahead and think about building for the next century.” For Smith, that meant first buying and then renovating the building on Main Street that is now the Grand Adirondack hotel.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN

Scheduled for Jan. 12-22, 2023, the 31st World University Games are open to invited athletes ages 17 to 25 in 12 Olympic sports.

“The University Games feel like an Olympics in that all these athletes from different winter sports are competing at the same time,” said Tim Burke, a former World University Games competitor, as he gave a tour of the Mt. Van Hoevenberg facility. Burke, who grew up just outside of Lake Placid, was the first American to ever take the lead in the Biathlon World Cup. He now coaches the U.S. Biathlon Team. “We’ve hosted a lot of different national championships and World Cups here for various sports but this January will be the first time since 1980 that all those sports will be happening at once, in one small town,” he said.

Put on by the International University Sports Federation (FISU), the World University Games have not been held in the United States since Buffalo, N.Y. hosted the Summer 1993 Universiade (as the University Games are also called). Lake Placid also hosted the winter version back in 1972.

The FISU Games typically take place in a different city every two years, though the 2021 Games, scheduled to be held in Lucerne, Switzerland, were canceled due to the Covid 19 pandemic.

For 11 days in January, Lake Placid will be home to nearly 1,500 athletes representing 50 countries, as well as another 1,000 or so coaches, trainers, officials and other

Whiteface Mountain boasts the biggest vertical drop in the Northeast (3,430 feet) and one of the two longest trails in the country. It will host the slalom and giant slalom events at the World University Games in January. COURTESY ORDA

“Whiteface is an unbelievable training ground for ski racers,” says former Olympian Tommy Biesemeyer, a UVM grad who now coaches at Northwood School in Lake Placid. COURTESY ORDA

delegates. There will be opening and closing ceremonies, podiums, flags flying from each country represented and much of the pomp and circumstance that goes with an Olympics, albeit on a smaller scale.

The town of Lake Placid will host cross-country skiing, biathlon, Nordic combined, ski jumping, figure skating, speed skating and short track speed skating and curling— as well as the semi-finals and finals for ice hockey.

The alpine ski racing events (alpine combined, slalom, GS, super G and mixed team parallel) will be held at Whiteface Mountain and freestyle, free skiing (ski cross, slopestyle and big air) and snowboard (parallel slalom and GS, slopestyle, big air and snowboard cross) events take place an hour south, at Gore Mountain. All sports will hold events for men and for women, unlike the Olympics where the Nordic combined competition does not have a women’s event.

Unlike the NCAAs, participants represent their countries, not their universities. In other words, alpine ski racing’s mixed team parallel event could include racers from Middlebury College and the University of Colorado or other colleges or universities. Participants have to be between 17 and 25 years old and enrolled in a college or university and invited by the sport’s governing body. As of press time, qualifications hadn’t been finalized however Middlebury College ski racer Mika-Ann Reha of Canada had secured a spot and coach Stever Bartlett expects other

At the new Mt. Van Hoevenberg base lodge, you can watch the action at the indoor push track through giant windows in the adjacent bar and lounge area.

teammates will compete too.

“It’s different for every sport,” notes Tommy Biesemeyer, an Olympic downhiller who grew up in the Lake Placid area, raced for the University of Vermont as an undergraduate, and then returned to the area where he coaches at Lake Placid’s Northwood School. “This year it might be tough for a lot of the top alpine skiers in the east to compete as it happens in the middle of the college carnival season and the World Cup and no one wants to get hurt,” he notes. “But in cross-country and other events, you’re likely to see some top competitors.”

THE OLYMPIC VILLAGE

In addition to Biesemeyer who competed in the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, Lake Placid has produced its fair share of Olympians. A new quad chair is named ‘Warhorse’ for another local ski racer, two-time Olympic medalist Andrew Weibrecht—who now works at his family’s Mirror Lake Inn, an elegant resort and spa in Lake Placid. Guests at the resort can even arrange for a private ski session with the Olympian who earned a silver in Sochi and a bronze in Whistler, both in super G.

Olympic biathletes Lowell Bailey, Tim Burke and Maddie Phaneuf all came from the Lake Placid area and now are back in town coaching a new generation.

“I wasn’t alive when the 1980 Olympics were here,” says

The lounge area the Mt. Van Hoevenberg base lodge looks out on the biathlon and cross-country ski course. COURTESY ORDA

Phaneuf, 27, who competed in the 2018 Winter Games. “But the town has this Olympic spirit and expectations. As a kid growing up here, it just inspires you,” she said as we toured the Mt. Van Hoevenberg facilities.

Colin Delaney also grew up cross-country skiing on the trails at Mt. Van Hoevenberg and ski jumping. “I think I was 12 or 14 the first time I went down this,” he said as we stood at the top of the 128-meter ski jump that towers over the landscape like a skyscraper. Delaney went on to compete in Nordic Combined on the World Cup and now he too is back as a coach, helping the next generation of ski jumpers speed down the ramp in a tuck and then take off, flying the length of a football field.

As you move around town, it feels like every person, every business is in some way connected to the past Olympics and now, to the FISU Games. At Locker Five a nod to the locker the gold-medal-winning U.S. men’s hockey team used in 1980—you can rent skates and head out on Mirror Lake. In the Grand Adirondack, there’s a chatter of different languages in the lobby as international

Spectators line the bridge that leads from the base lodge at Mt. Van Hoevenberg to the biathlon practice area. It’s a perfect place to watch a mass start. COURTESY ORDA

athletes and officials from various sports come and go.

“I went to high school right there,” says Chadd Cassidy, as he stands in the new restaurant at the Olympic Center that looks out at the speed skating oval and his old high school. “I never imagined I’d be overseeing the renovation of this place now. It took a village to put on the 1980 Olympic Games. And now just about everyone in town is in some way connected to making this place a destination for sports in the future.”

That future may never include an Olympics – the event has outgrown the area. Nor may it see a World Cup downhill — the course no longer meets new standards. But in October 2022 alone, Lake Placid hosted the national championships for skeleton, bobsled push, Nordic combined, a major figure skating competition and the Spartan Trail Challenge, an ultra-distance trail run.

Yes, Lake Placid may not host an Olympics again, but you can be sure it will continue to draw future Olympians.

For more on the FISU World University Games, tickets, events and more, see lakeplacid2023.com. u

Only the surrounding high peaks of the Adirondacks rise higher than the 128-meter ski jump. Spectators can ride the elevator up to see what the view is like for a jumper. COURTESY ORDA

To protect against the elements and create a low-maintenance exterior, this Smuggler’s Notch home was wrapped with weather-proof fiber cement siding that looks like clabpoard. Corten steel is used for the stairwell (this page) and the garage (left). “The house blends in with the birches and stones. It feels one with the mountains,” says owner Sheri Davis of the home they built high in the Green Mountains.

A TOUCHSTONE IN THE NOTCH

By Lisa Lynn | Photos by Jim Westphalen

A family wanted an affordable, low-maintenance vacation ski home in Vermont . They got so much more.

Many years ago, Greg and Sheri Davis were at home in Puerto Rico when Sheri came across a book on how to ski with your kids. “We’d been planning a trip out West, but it was almost impossible to get flights,” she recalls.

That book changed their lives.

“In the book, it said if you really want to get your kids to learn to ski and have fun, take them to Smuggler’s Notch Resort where Peter Ingolvardt teaches,” she said, referring to the long-time ski school director who helped cement the ski area’s reputation as a family destination. The Davises took their son Noah, then 3, and daughter Miranda, then 5, to Smuggler’s Notch. That first trip went so well they bought a timeshare.

Flash forward and Noah is 28 and Miranda 31. They are, in their parent’s words, expert skiers and riders who now bring their children back to Smuggs for the holidays. It’s a place the whole family now calls home.

“I think we’d moved nine times in that many years,” says Greg, whose career in the medical devices field took the family as far away as Hong Kong. “We wanted a place we could always come back to – a home base where we could spend the holidays with everyone.”

For 20 years, they had a timeshare at Smuggler’s Notch Resort. “We always took two weeks around Christmas and New Year’s and everyone in our family flew in – from Minnesota, Virginia, Arizona. It became a holiday tradition,” says Greg.

“It was great when the kids were young as there’s a ton of things for them to do at Smuggs—the Fun Zone, the ski school — and everything was so close,” says Sheri. The Davises also began inviting their old college buddies to come for vacations and the timeshare units gradually got bigger and bigger. “We would all crowd in and it was a lot of fun,” Sheri remembers.

Then in 2010, the couple found some land high on the flanks of the Green Mountains. The property looked north and west with views to Canada and New York. It was seven minutes to the base lodge. “You don’t see the trails but you get this feeling you are in the mountains,” says Sheri.

The couple wanted a vacation home that could take advantage of the views yet something they could lock up and leave for months at a time. It had to be able to sleep their growing family. And it had to work on a tight budget.

The home they eventually built checked every box. The Vermont Builders and Remodeler’s Association gave it the top award in the category of Single Family Home in the cost category of $175 to $275 a square foot and it also won for energy efficiency. On top of that, as Sheri notes, “It was a true collaboration with a local architect, designer and builder.”

Harry Hunt and his brothers had grown up in the area, learning to ski race at Smuggler’s Notch and Bolton and later, Stowe. “I think you can even see our family’s farm in Bakersfield from the Davis house,” says Harry. Harry’s brother, Jesse, went on to Burke Mountain Academy and became the head alpine coach for the U.S. Ski Team, before recently returning to coach at Burke. Harry went out to Colorado and became a builder and architect before moving back to Vermont, setting up a practice focused on energy-efficient designs and building a net-zero home for his own family in Stowe. The Davises spied that house (“The Right House” was featured in the Summer 2017 edition of Vermont Ski + Ride) and drove over the mountains to see it and meet with Hunt.

Architect Harry Hunt designed the windows to frame mountain views in the master bedroom (top), living room (right) and kitchen (above). The interior palate of teals and aqua were chosen by designer/architect Flor Diaz Smith to brighten the interior. “It was Flor’s idea to break up the exterior of the house with the weathered corten steel siding,” says Hunt who often partners with Diaz Smith on projects.

Hunt works closely with Guatemalan-born architect/designer Flor Diaz Smith, who specializes in interior design. “Her son is a ski racer so one day when he was over racing at Smuggs, she came to meet us and it all just clicked,” says Sheri. “She got to know us so well that sometimes if I suggested one thing she’d say ‘You know, I like that but I don’t think Greg will.’ You know what? she was right!”

The Davises then chose a local family-owned business, the Leach brothers of Leach Construction, as builders. “They were great,” says Greg. “I knew if I called them they’d be the ones working on the house, not a subcontractor.”

Hunt designed the house to be simple and cost-effective, yet to maximize the space, the views and the site. “It’s not easy when your views are to the north, but you want to let lots of light in,” he notes.

Every window in the house serves a purpose: a bank of southfacing transom windows runs across the top quarter of the kitchen and the pantry and mudroom, where three-quarter-height walls give the downstairs an open feeling. The stairwell’s big windows pour light into the living room, upstairs hall and basement rec room. Throughout the house, square windows are positioned perfectly to frame mountain views like works of art. “Setting windows at the right places for views is something I really came to appreciate while living in Colorado where you often have to look up to see a ridgeline,” notes Hunt.

Hunt also kept doors to a minimum. “With so many classic New England houses there’s a big font door that never gets used,” he says. “And good doors—ones that are energy-efficient—are expensive.”

At the Davis house, the front door leads from a covered porch by the driveway into an entry corridor. To the right is an L-shaped mudroom with three-quarter-height walls. To the left, a small bar area, powder room and laundry room. Beyond that is an open-plan kitchen, dining and living room. The only other outside door leads to a northfacing porch where a glass roof maximizes the light.

“We originally thought we could save money by not adding on the porch,” Sheri recalls. “But Harry really urged us to do so and it’s the place where we spend so much time now. I’m glad we did.“

One of the things the Davises love most about the house was how efficiently Hunt used the space. “There is not a wasted inch of space in the entire house,” notes Sheri. Hunt mapped out all the spaces in 3D blocks and did a flow plan as part of the design process. As a result, the upstairs hallway has closets that are nearly seamlessly flush with the walls and storage spaces abound.

Most of the home was completed in 2019 but the couple, whose main residence is in North Carolina, wanted to finish the home as budget allowed. “We planned the roof, which slopes toward the south, so it can hold solar panels,” notes Greg. “It’s net-zero ready,” Hunt says.

They also took some time to finish out the basement, with Greg, an accomplished amateur carpenter, doing some of the cabinetry work himself. The huge room now holds two full-sized beds built along the west wall and two twins that double as seating on the east side. In between is a foosball table, couches and a big-screen TV.

“It’s a perfect place for when kids or guests come as they can have that whole downstairs,” Sheri notes. “ All told, I think we can sleep 12 or 14 here.”

At Christmas this year, as it has been for nearly three decades now, Greg and Sheri Davis, their children and two grandchildren will all gather at the house at Smuggler’s Notch. “Pretty soon, it will be our grandkids who are up there learning to ski and snowboard,” Greg says.

“That’s the tradition we started,” adds Sheri.

Designer Diaz Smith assembled a palette of rich teal and aqua blues, for the bathroom walls and tiles. The bright color scheme also ties in the the kitchen tiles and mudroom walls on the first floor.

Photographer Dave Trumpore is known for his mountain bike

shots but when the snow flies, you can find him exploring Vermont's backcountry terrain.

Ice climbers come to this part of Smuggler’s Notch to scale its frozen waterfalls. Vermonter Brooks Curran didn’t have to use ropes though to find this patch of heaven.

The secret to a great ski shot? “You have to be in the right place, at the right time and have the right light,” says Dave Trumpore. Trumpore, a professional photographer who spends most of the year flying around the world to capture award-winning action photos of mountain biking and motocross, makes a practice of this.

“When I’m here in Vermont, I like to get up really early with some friends. We’ll often get up at 3 am and skin to the summit to get there just at dawn. Or we’ll wait until the sun is about to set to get a shot.”

You might know Trumpore’s work from a recent Patagonia catalog. That’s his cover shot and photo spreads of mountain biking in Vermont. Or you may know his work from ads for Yeti Cycles, photos from Red Bull events, or image galleries featured on Pinkbike. Trumpore’s Instagram has more than 35,000 followers.

Though he spends half the year in Europe or South America, and also has a home in Washington state, Trumpore keeps calling Vermont home. When he’s here, his base is his condo in Killington. “It has everything – great skiing and great mountain biking right there, plus I have no trouble renting the place out on Airbnb when I’m not there,” he says.

Trumpore grew up in Connecticut, spending weekends skiing and biking in Vermont. He took to riding and was a competitive racer in the first wave of pro downhill mountain bikers, but he didn’t pursue it too seriously. “I’d basically choose a few World Cups, like the ones in Mont St. Anne, Quebec, to do as a part of a ‘vacation,’” he says.

He went to the University of Vermont and then secured a job with Red Bull. “At first I was just shooting bike racing for fun,” he says. Pretty soon, he was good enough to leave his job in beverage distribution and marketing and make photography his full-time gig.

“I lived out West for a while and that’s where a lot of my clients were but I kept coming back to Vermont. It made sense to have a home base here as I’m also in Europe a lot,” he says.

Vermont’s community is also what drew him back. “What I love about Vermont that you don’t get in Colorado is you can for a bike ride or a backcountry ski and you get back to the parking lot at the trailhead and there’s this instant community. Everyone is a friend of someone you know, or you become fast friends and pretty soon you’re sharing beers together around a campfire.”

It was through riding with friends that Trumpore met a fellow UVM grad, pro athlete and photographer Brooks Curran. “We just like to do the same things, so we’d head out and shoot together. Sometimes I’d hold the camera, sometimes he would – but he’s way better at skiing for the camera than I am,” says Trumpore.

Having a good ski model, says Trumpore, is one of the secrets to a good image. “There are some great skiers and if you see a video of them, they ski beautifully. But skiing or biking well for a still image is something else and Brooks is just good at both.”

In the last couple of winters, the pair have headed out early and stayed out late to explore Vermont’s backcountry. “For most of the places we go, you have to skin to get there.” Often, that means the crannies and frozen falls and rivers of Smuggler’s Notch, the secret glades off Sugarbush and Mad River Glen or the Jay Peak backcountry.”

“I love that you don’t usually have to worry about avalanche dan-

Curran threads the needle through a hardwood grove in the backcountry near Jay Peak.

Curran, at play on a sunny day o Little Jay. “A lot of getting a great shot is knowing when the light will hit at the right time,” says photographer Dave Trumpore.

Curran, who grew up in the Mad River Valley, was raised skiing glades like these at his home mountains, Sugarbush and Mad River Glen.

ger here,” says Trumpore. “There have been so many days after a big snowfall out West that I’ve had friends beg me to head out. I’m like, ‘Nope, it’s just not worth it.’”

That said, the Green Mountains have earned his respect. “One of my friends, Alec Stall, was killed while skiing in the Notch,” Trumpore mentions. Stall had been there skiing for a Meatheads film when the accident happened. “I’ve also been in the same area where Aaron Rice set off an avalanche a few years ago,” Trumpore says.

While many of his images may look extreme, Trumpore doesn’t necessarily seek out those shots. “The thing about shooting skiing in Vermont is you shouldn’t try to make it look like the big mountain West. “Don’t try to make it look like something else,’ I always tell people. Just make it look fun because that’s what skiing here is all about.”

Most of the time, when Trumpore clicks into his bindings, it is just to ski for fun with friends. “We’re not doing multiple takes or setting up shots. We often just have one camera among us and it’s like when the light is just right and you see a good shot, you go for it. Other times, the light won’t be right, but I’ll sort of bookmark this in my head and think “Ok, in the spring, the light will be just right.’”

It was on one of those ‘just for fun’ afternoons that Trumpore and Curran got the shots that ended up in the Patagonia catalog. “It wasn’t an assignment, we were just out there having fun,” Trumpore says with a laugh. That’s what it’s all about. u

The early birds get the turns. Curran and Trumpore caught first light on this dawn patrol mission to the ridge of Mt. Mansfield. The photo was taken at 7 a.m. Below, Trumpore’s photo of Jake Inger riding the granite in Burke made the cover of the Patagonia catalog.

A SCREAMING YESYE

The author, with his splitboards on his pack, scouts some new terrain.

PHOTO BY ALAINA HOLLIDAY

After a life-threatening scrape, he could no longer ski big mountains or deep snow. Still, when winter called, this Vermonter found a new way to say a resounding yes.

BY BILL BURRELL

I’m standing on the summit of Mozodepowadso, Vermont’s highest mountain, waiting for the morning sun to burst up and over a ridgeline in New Hampshire, just 80 miles away. I’m staring directly down Profanity Chute—the steep, snow-filled backcountry couloir I just skinned and boot packed up on the iconic Long Trail. With no summit winds rushing me, I carefully fold up my climbing skins, clip both halves of my snowboard together and wait. In silence.

A glowing orange hue slowly rises and expands across the entire horizon to the east. Faint, dark ridgelines of the Green Mountains begin to appear to the south. To the west, in the Adirondacks, the big white vertical slides of Giant Mountain begin to emerge. Whiteface Mountain appears as a lonely island above a sea of early morning valley clouds.

I block out the rising sun with both hands to study the steep narrow chute below and to assess the risks of dropping in. Jeremy Jones, the professional freestyle snowboarder and founder of Protect Our Winters (POW) has a simple rule when weighing the risks of riding steep, avalanche-prone terrain: If it’s not a screaming yes…then it’s a no.

After digging test pits to evaluate the stability of the snowpack, if he doesn’t hear that screaming ‘yes,’ he scales things back and plans instead for a day of “meadow skipping”– a term he uses to describe lower elevation, lower angle terrain for safer riding and skiing.

This morning, I too am listening for a screaming yes. But I’m not looking for signs of a potential avalanche. With below-average snowfall this season, I am instead looking for any exposed rock outcroppings that could send me into a dangerous, head-over-heels cartwheel in this hard-to-reach backcountry area. Fortunately, the mountains received some heavy snow and the chute looks safe enough to ride.

Eventually I hear that screaming “yes.” The feeling is almost euphoric as I drop in. Wet sluffs of new snow and some hard chunks of old snow chase me as I carve across and down the steep chute. It’s so steep that I almost feel like I’m paragliding down into the open valley below. Within a few minutes, dense spruce and pine trees appear below me.

Exiting the bottom of the chute I ride under the shade of overhead branches and come to a wide, gentle opening. Glancing back up at the chute, now just a distant, narrow white vertical line glistening below a bright blue sky, I feel like I just rode down a big line, somewhere in the Rocky Mountains.

THAT SCREAMING YES

Sadly, this is the closest I’ll ever get again to any big mountain, higher elevation riding. In 2013, while snowboarding deep, untouched powder lines just above 12,000 feet in the Arapaho National Forest in Colorado, I was hit with life-threatening high altitude cerebral edema, HACE. I was close to losing consciousness when a friend called for a rescue. Two hours later I was being transported off the mountain to an emergency room just outside of Denver. After treatments of pure oxygen, dexamethasone and acetazolamide (and an overnight stay in the hospital), doctors ordered me to return immediately, to Vermont’s lower elevation.

Back home, during a year-long, difficult recovery from that close-todeath experience, I realized that my days of high-elevation skiing and riding had come to a sudden, abrupt end. Careful, lifelong planning of one day retiring and moving out to Colorado quickly unraveled in front of me. The vision board I had created at age twelve—an old Ford ski-bum pickup truck filled with skis and long wooden toboggans;

woodstove smoke drifting slowly up through aspens and over a small mountain cabin; and of course, endless sunny days of Colorado’s highest and finest backcountry dirtbag skiing and snowboarding (I love both)—all disappeared into…well… thin air.

I fell into a deep, sun-starved, impatient and restless funk.

That following winter, back home in Vermont, I really had no other choice but to embrace, with even more enthusiasm and gratitude than ever before, backcountry meadow skipping in the Green Mountains and Adirondacks what Bill McKibben, in his book Wandering Home, refers to as the “Verondacks. “

I experienced a renewed appreciation for Vermont’s uncrowded, untracked quiet forests, peaceful rolling valleys and, of course, snowcovered peaks. I developed an immense sense of gratitude for our open meadows, abandoned logging roads, and the off-shoot trails that lead to higher, steeper ridgelines and hidden treasures of untouched pow.

David Goodman, author and skier, writes in his excellent book, Best Backcountry Skiing in The Northeast, “Every time skiers glide from a trailhead and vanish into a winter wilderness, we feel like explorers setting off for the New World. Laying first tracks, we sense that we are the first visitors to these wild places.” And it’s true: Uncrowded New England backcountry skiing feels exactly like that.

But, as incredible as our backcountry is, I noticed, just in the last decade, that something was changing. And changing very quickly. I started seeing not only a significant decrease in overall snow depth (especially at lower elevations) but, perhaps more noticeable than at any other time in my life, a drastic change in the quality of the snowpack.

The 300-plus mile Catamount Trail, which runs from the Massachusetts border to Canada, is the longest backcountry ski trail in America.

PHOTOS COURTESY CATAMOUNT TRAIL ASSOCIATION

THE END OF WINTER

I also began noticing that, because of these changes, I could no longer ski wherever or whenever I wanted to, the way I had been for the past 30 years. Backcountry skiing, and especially lower elevation meadow skipping, is becoming harder and harder. The culprit?

Warming winters.

New England is currently the fastestwarming region in the entire U.S., with a temperature increase of 4.5 degrees F since 1970. The Green Mountain state is now among the 10 fastest-warming states in the country, according to the climate science group, Climate Central.

Burlington, is also the seventh fastest warming city in the country with a 4.5° F increase since 1970. Often, during the summer, it is 10 degrees warmer in Vermont than it is 300 miles south in the concrete, heat-absorbing metropolis of New York City.

Of the four seasons we experience in Vermont winter is warming the fastest…even faster than summer.

Perhaps the worst thing for skiers and other backcountry enthusiasts in Vermont is the dramatic increase in freeze-thaw cycles.

Last April, I climbed a 2,000-foot, northeast-facing, shaded and wellprotected slope on Mount Mansfield. I dug a four-and-a-half-foot deep pit in the snow, all the way down to the ground. I took several pictures from the ground up of dark and eerie horizontal layers in the snowpack. I counted eleven layers of ice. Some, over an inch thick, were difficult to dig through.

These freeze-thaw cycles are creating treacherous conditions for backcountry skiers and riders. Crusts of ice are forming directly on top of recent snowfall, making skiing in the backcountry often impossible. And incredibly dangerous.

A few years ago I ended up in the ER, again. Unable to turn fast enough on a thick crusty layer of snow, I slammed directly into an enormous yellow birch, face first. The doctor stitching up the deep two-inch gash on my chin, a skier herself, said in a hushed, almost disappointed tone, “We’ve been seeing a lot of these this year.”

Normally in the backcountry, skiers and riders float blissfully above the covered forest floor, unimpeded by downed trees and logs scattered beneath several feet of snow. Just in the past few years, however, I’ve heard more and more stories of skiers breaking a leg, sometimes both, after skiing under logs and fallen trees hidden just a few inches below the shallow snowpack’s surface.

Historically, during the winter months, our mountain streams dry up as all precipitation gets locked up and stored as ice and snow. Now, with so many thaws occurring, Vermont mountain streams are often running full with rain and snowmelt—sometimes all winter long. Many skiers and snowboarders are falling, sometimes headfirst, into the hollow tunnels and wells formed by those running streams that meander under a shallow snow cover.

In 2017, after a recent snowfall, a snowboarder was found upside down in one of these deep, unfrozen stream tunnels, in-bounds at

From open meadows to steep glades, there’s something for every type of skier and every kind of ski on the Catamount.

PHOTO COURTESY CTA

Stowe Mountain Resort. Unable to free himself from his snowboard bindings and just inches above an unfrozen stream bed, he died of asphyxiation.

Porter Fox, in his latest book, The Last Winter: In Search for Snow and the End of Winter, has traveled all over the world documenting the widespread loss of our cryosphere—those regions on Earth that are covered in snow and ice. These regions pretty much control our ocean’s currents, water cycle, global temperatures, and climate. What he learned and wrote about— especially how our cryosphere controls the rest of our planet’s climate systems— I found so frightening and nauseating that I had to read the book in small doses.

HOLDING ON

When we start to see the end of something important to us, we tend to hang onto it even harder. About halfway through last year’s dismal winter, I went out and bought an ultra-light tarp tent, a well-insulated sleeping pad, and a new down sleeping bag. I brought my metal-edged touring skis up from the cellar and dusted off my three-pin plastic Scarpa telemark boots.

Then, hauling a 40-pound backpack filled with water, food, a stove and all my new gear, I set out searching for winter. Instead of seeking out deep hidden pow stashes higher up, I meadow skipped my way up and down the Green Mountain’s spine, seeking out winter at lower elevations.

Often, waking up at dawn in my van or tent, I’d skip breakfast and rush out to a few inches of newly fallen snow, knowing that it may be all gone within a few hours. When there was enough snow, I spent incredible weekends kicking and gliding through the quietest, most peaceful and beautiful alpine meadows, rolling farmland, valleys and ridge lines, finding places that I never even knew existed.

I learned that Vermont has some of the best, low-elevation

meadow skipping in the world. Much of it passes through public and private landholdings and offers some of the most breathtaking views and winter scenery in New England. In fact, Vermont lays claim to the longest established backcountry ski trail in North America, the iconic Catamount Trail.

In his book Skiing With Henry Knox, the Vermont skier, author, trail designer and dry stone mason Sam Brakley writes about his incredible 2015 supported thru-ski of this entire 315-mile trail. He spent 15 solid days and nights skiing (sometimes, due to a lack of snow, walking) his way from the Massachusetts border to the Canadian border.

In Vermont Sports Magazine I had read about another skier, Aiden Powell who, in 2021, under rare and ideal late-winter conditions, accomplished a supported through-ski in just fourteen days, two hours.

After reading about these two tough, hardy Vermont skiers I became fascinated with the idea of thru-skiing the entire length of Vermont. At a whopping 315 miles, the trail is actually two times the full length of Vermont given all the twists, turns, ups, and downs. And with over 35,000 feet of total vertical elevation gain, the trail gains close to ten times the height of Vermont’s highest peaks.

You have to love winter to accomplish something like this and I, like so many other Vermonters I know, simply love the cold and the snow. I’d be ok with having winter all year long. My mind and

SKIING THE CATAMOUNT TRAIL

In the early 1980’s, a University of Vermont geography major named Steve Bushey began mapping a backcountry ski route from Massachusetts to Quebec. In 1984, Bushey, friends Paul Jarris and Ben Rose, were the first people to ski the length of Vermont on what would become the Catamount Trail. Soon after, the Catamount Trail Association (CTA) was born. Today the CTA volunteers continue to maintain the 300-plus mile long Catamount Trail which is broken into 31 sections, each skiable in a day. On the CTA website (catamounttrail.org) you can find maps, route descriptions, equipment recommendations, and other information.

This winter the CTA will again host a number of multi-day tours covering sections of the Catamount Trail. Participants should be competent backcountry skiers with appropriate gear, and ready to ski 7 to 14 miles along the spine of the Green Mountains through varying conditions. Skiers are expected to provide their own equipment and food and are responsible for their own lodging and transportation (the CTA website provides food and lodging suggestions for each section). Multi-Day Tour participants can sign up for as many or as few days of a tour as they want, and CTA membership and a small donation are required to reserve a spot. The CTA also o ers single-day tours for those wanting to explore beyond the Catamount Trail, or one of the growing number of backcountry zones.

2023 CTA MULTI-DAY TOURS

Tour #1 Jan. 13-16. Sections 5-8: Kelley Stand Road, Stratton to Greendale Road, Weston Tour #2 Jan. 20-23, Sections 1-4:

Massachusetts border to Somerset Reservoir, Stratton Tour #3 Jan. 28-Feb 5, Sections 9-12 S, 12N -15: Greendale Rd., Weston to Route 4; Route 4 to Widow’s Clearing, Ripton Tour #4 Feb. 4-7, Sections 20-23: Camel’s Hump Road, Duxbury to Edson Hill Manor, Stowe Tour #5 Feb. 17-20, Sections 24-27: Edson Hill, Stowe to Craftsbury Outdoor Center, Craftsbury Tour #6 Feb. 24-27, Sections 28-31:

Craftsbury Outdoor Center to Canadian border Tour #7 Mar. 3-4, Sections 16 & 19

Widow’s Clearing to Bridges Trail, Ripton; Route 17 to Camel’s Hump Rd. Tour #8 March 5-6, Sections 17-18: Bridges Trail, Ripton to Lincoln Gap, Lincoln.

body come alive in winter. I laugh more, sing more and dance more— especially just before and during a snowstorm. I love the quiet, muffled sounds—even in the cities. I love that sensation of kicking and gliding, in almost total silence, through our forests and up into our mountains.

THE IMPACTS OF ECOGRIEF

In the wild, organisms can be classified by how they perceive and experience winter. Based on the Greek word for snow, chion, this classification includes the chionophobes (“snow fearers”), the chioneuphores (“snow tolerators”) and the chionophiles (“snow lovers”).

In Winter: An Ecological Handbook, authors James Halfpenny and Roy Ozanne propose that the classification system can also be used to

describe our own interactions with winter because “humans can vary from “lovers of winter” to those that “fear or even hate it.””

Like many chionophiles witnessing this loss of an entire season (and our entire cryosphere) I find myself passing through various stages of grief. Ecogrief—the well-documented sense of loss from experiencing or learning about environmental destruction and climate change—is a fastgrowing phenomenon, especially among younger people.

It’s not just the loss of backcountry skiing that I grieve. It’s the impact that a loss of winter will continue having on the rest of the world. Every single day the headlines are about droughts, forest fires, floods, climate migration, immigration, loss of species habitat, etc. All of which are happening in Vermont.

While a warming winter presents First-World problems that, for backcountry skiers (it is, after all, a predominantly white, privileged, male-dominated sport), might mean fewer days of skiing, it is a whole different story for people living in high-risk areas, crowded coastlines and rivers. Climate change is particularly affecting the livelihoods, work, traditions and especially the health of marginalized, poor and indigenous people— perhaps more than anyone else.

While I lament the loss of winter and what it holds for me, I can’t ignore the devastating impact that it will continue to have on the lives and livelihoods of people around the world.

Through this grief I’ve drastically changed my lifestyle in order to cut my own carbon footprint. I stopped flying nearly ten years ago. I take only micro vacations—all right here in New England. I’ve been out of the Adirondacks and Vermont only a handful of times in the past 20 years. I try to remain local as much as possible– from where and how I eat, shop and work to where and how I spend my free time.

Lately, as climate change and ecogrief directly impact my emotional well-being, I constantly think about ways to maximize my time and experiences in winter before it’s completely gone.

THE NEXT SKI TRIP

I wondered what would happen if, this coming winter, during my break from teaching middle school science, I set out to truly live in and experience a Vermont winter in a way I’ve never done before?

What would happen if, starting at sunrise, I skied all day long, and with a headlamp, continued into the darkness of night– stopping only to prepare water, eat and sleep? For two solid weeks. Straight through the entire state of Vermont.

I wondered if I could pull it off: sleeping outside every night; melting snow and treating surface water for constant re-hydration; building fires; carrying a 40-pound pack with multiple battery banks to keep electronics charged for navigation; and of course skiing for 1012 hours, every day, all in less than two weeks, non-stop.

And, to truly experience winter with the greatest attention to my surroundings, what if I did it all alone, with no support from family or friends? Without warm lodging or meals along the way? As far as I know, no one has ever done a self-supported thru-ski along the Catamount Trail before. To do it safely requires the utmost attention to risk assessment, safety, logistics, trail finding, frequent hydration and a massive daily caloric intake.

The current fastest known time, or FKT, for skiing the Catamount Trail, is Aiden Powell’s 14 days, two hours— with support.

I would attempt an FKT, totally self-supported—meaning I could have no outside help or support.

Friends ask me why, if I want to experience and enjoy such a trip,

PHOTO COURTESY BILL BURRELL

would I want to do this in record time? The truth is, with a full-time job, there is no other way for me to accomplish this—I have to do it in under two weeks.

So in February 2023, while friends and family fly off to warmer destinations to escape the cold, dark days of New England, I will stay in Vermont, skiing all day long from Sherman Reservoir on the Massachusetts border, around and over the rugged Green Mountains, all the way to the heavily forested Canadian border near Jay.

Last winter, on some sections of the Catamount Trail, there were 16 days that lacked sufficient snow for me to train. With less and less snow, I wonder why I would ever want to attempt a self-supported thru-ski on North America’s longest backcountry ski route. To do this properly, and especially safely, takes an incredible amount of training and pre-planning.

At this point, I’m going to take that risk and hope that winter brings enough snow.

If an FKT attempt fails, perhaps more importantly, if nothing else comes of this, I will record and capture what happens when a winterloving chionophile sets out on a quest– a quest to move swiftly through a deep, New England winter; sleeping, eating, and meadow skipping 25+ miles per day, totally submerged in a cold and snowy winter.

To this die-hard, cold-loving chionophile, I hear, at least right now, a loud and persistent screaming yes.u

Author Bill Burrell plans to see how fast he can ski the Catamount Trail this winter, in pursuit of fastest-known-time (FKT) honors.

Hard Goods & Soft Goods. Great Gifts from VT.

Looking for a gift from a Vermont brand for yourself or someone else? Here are 8 great ideas.

Vermont is home to some of the techiest of innovations in skiing and riding; Burton has been a legend in snowboarding and its splitboard lives up to its family’s reputation. Renoun has introduced new materials to ski construction. Now Sloggn is rethinking what a car rack could be. But there are also plenty of warm, cozy stocking stuffers out there. Here’s the best of this year’s soft and hard goods from companies based here in the Green Mountain state.

SKIDA’S HIGH PILE HATS & MITTS

A graduate of Middlebury College and Burke Mountain Academy, Vermont ski racer Corinne Prevot founded Skida to make hats for her teammates. Skida’s new High Pile Hats and Mittens are made of recycled Polartec fleece – two timeless styles with an eco-twist. The Mittens feature a touch-screen palm and both styles have a patch that features a signature Skida print. Skida.com

QUEEN CITY DRYGOODS’ VERMONT HOUSE SHOES

After years of making custom shoes, Matt Renna founded Queen City Dry Goods. The brand’s Vermont House Shoes ($150) are designed to be easily slipped on when you come in from the snow. The low-cut loafer is made in Vermont by hand from buttery soft saddle leather, molded suede soles, merino wool insoles and internal cushion foam midsoles. Queencitydrygoods.com

BERNIE MITTENS

If you were smitten by the mittens that Senator Bernie Sanders wore to the 2021 Presidential inauguration, there’s good news. School teacher Jenn Ellis. who hand-knit those mittens for Sen. Sanders, is now working with Vermont Teddy Bear Company to sell Bernie Mittens. Each pair ($49.99) is unique and made from retired sweaters and finished with warm fleece made from recycled plastic bottles. A portion of the proceeds from the mittens goes to support Outright Vermont. Vermontteddybear.com

RENOUN’S ENDURANCE 98 SKIS

Designed to take on Vermont’s variable terrain, Renoun’s Endurance 98 ($899) is a versatile tool skiers are lining up for this winter. Engineered to be playful and poppy, the ski’s aspen and metal framework help you keep your composure on even the toughest conditions. This unique ski also incorporates VibeStop™ Technology to actively reduce vibrations and smooth chatter for yours knees and joints. “I haven’t taken aspirin since getting my Renouns,” says Bill V, a proud owner in 2021/22 season). VibeStop™ Technology is a patented technology exclusive to Renoun. Renoun.com

SLOGGN’S CAR DECK

Vermonter Kitter Slater remembers loading up the car with everything but the kitchen sink for family vacations. With Sloggn’s car deck and accessories, he set out to simplify that process. The Sloggn Base Deck ($200) fits into a trailer hitch on the back of the car with accessories that allow you to carry skis and boards, a Yeti cooler or bikes. For most cars, you can still open the hatchback. Sloggn.com

BURTON’S SPLITBOARDS

If you like to earn your turns on a snowboard, and like those turns buttery soft, the Burton Family Tree Hometown Hero Camber Splitboard ($939) is both sti enough and agile enough in the front and sidecountry terrain but loves to float on the fresh stu The Split Channel mounting system makes for smooth transitions from uphill to downhill. Burton.com

DARN TOUGH’S SKI SOCKS

Winters last a lot longer when you venture north. You need warmer gear, including cold-weather socks. Darn Tough’s over-the-calf women’s Due North ($29) ski socks are midweight with cushion to pack the heat. Breathable construction atop the foot regulates your climate for all-day rideability with a healthy no-slip grab. Dial in extra durability in high-wear areas and the Darn Tough unconditional lifetime guarantee to back it up, and you’ll be ready for the extra-long haul. Darntough.com

US SHERPA’S KNITS FROM NEPAL

US Sherpa’s Thame Hat, Yeti Mitten and Sherpa Socks are made with 100% sheep wool and lined with Sherpa fleece for maximum comfort and warmth. They are part of Vermont-based US Sherpa’s extensive line of functional, natural fiber products handcrafted in Nepal for the active, caring and outdoor lifestyle. Owner Ongyel Sherpa founded US Sherpa in Burlington in 2005 and works with over 300 knitters, primarily in the Kathmandu region, providing sustainable jobs in an economically challenged region. US Sherpa also arranges trekking opportunities in Nepal for the adventurous traveler. Thame Hat and Yeti Mittens, $29.50, Sherpa Socks $39.50. ussherpa.com

BY JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR

In Balance?

Even the best skier can improve with a little training in balance.

By Mark Aiken

Former pro skier Darian Boyle charges at her home mountain, Sugarbush’s Lincoln Peak. Note Boyle’s body position (forward and centered on her skis) compared, with the vertical lines of the trees on the side of the trail.

PHOTO

“If you don’t have balance, you don’t have anything,” says Kristi Robertson, longtime Stowe pro and Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA) Eastern Region Examiner. “Before you think of any other skills, you have to be in balance.” Forget edge angles, rotation, carving, skidding, timing, or rhythm. Instead, ask yourself: Am I balanced over my skis?

Coaches in many sports talk about an athletic stance or “ready” position. In skiing, however, balance is not about a single position you stand in. Rather, because skiers are in constant motion over always-changing terrain, balance becomes a series of adjustments –some significant, others subtle. Skiers are always on the move; therefore, in order to stay in balance, they continually adjust.

A pro once asked me: “Did you pay full price for your skis?” Answer: “I earned every penny I paid for my skis, and I assume you did too.” He responded: “Then

use your whole ski!” Fore and aft balance a ff ects the part of the skis on which a skier applies pressure. If you lean too far back, you apply pressure to just the tails of your skis; if you lean forward, you apply pressure only to your ski tips.

You want to take advantage of the skis’ full value, using everything you paid for – the entire length of your skis and not just the tips or tails. Therefore, your goal when it comes to balance should be to position your center of mass (located around your navel) over your base of support (the feet).

Skis are designed to distribute your weight throughout their entire length, but you have to help them by centering yourself over your feet. Then, you’ll get what you paid for.

Of the three joints in your lower body that flex and extend – your ankle, knees, and hips – the ankle joint is smallest. But when it comes to balance, subtle ankle

movements have the greatest impact of the three (isn’t it great when the little guy packs the biggest punch?). If you flex (or close) your ankle joint, your body moves forward. If you extend (or open) your ankle, your body moves back. These very small movements – opening and closing your ankle joints – impact your balance on skis in a major way. Here are some tips to help train your ankle joint:

Drills for home Using a rubber exercise band, practice flexing and extending your ankle joint. For flexion, wrap the band around a stable table leg in your home. Sitting, wrap the band over your toes and pull your toes towards your shin (as shown at left, Photo A). For extension, hold the band in your hands, wrap it under your foot and point your toes away from you (Photo B). “I try to keep my ankles flexible and strong,” says Robertson. “The muscle in front of the shin the anterior tibialis – can get sore skiing (in the early season particularly) because there just isn’t as much pressure on it in running or walking as there is in skiing.”

A drill for on the hill: Simply shu ffl e your skis back and forth as you slide across the snow. As you make these movements, in your mind shine a spotlight on your ankle joints. As you shu ffl e, the ankle joint, your back leg flexes. On your front leg, the joint opens. “This can help you become more kinesthetically aware,” says Robertson. For advanced skiers, ratchet up the di ffi culty in the drill by continuing to shu ffl e as you ski through a series of turns.

What to watch on video. Here’s your assignment: hand your smartphone to your friend and have them shoot a video of you skiing. Be sure to ski past your videographer so they get a side view. Later, at your favorite après-ski spot or in front of your fireplace, watch your video. Here’s what to watch for: in the side view, how does your body line up with the trees along the side of the trail?

Even on a steep slope, as trees grow, their leaves, branches, and trunk stretch skyward toward the sun. In other words, trees grow straight up. You, on the other hand, should be standing directly over your base of support (your feet) and your body should form a 90-degree angle with the pitch of the slope.

Compare your body to the trees in your video’s side view — the moment when you ski past your videographer. While the trees grow straight up, your body should lean well downhill from them. Your body should form a right angle to the pitch of the slope. If it does not — if your body is parallel to the trees – you are leaning back; therefore you are using just the rear end of your skis. In this case, your ankle joint is open, and you should be thinking about firing the anterior tibialis muscle to close your ankle and move your center of mass forward.

In the early days of ski season, ahead of all else, think about balance. And don’t stop as the season progresses. Being in (or out of) balance a ff ects everything you do on skis. “Balance is your foundation,” says Robertson. “It allows you to build on and utilize all of the other skills you need in order to perform.” u

Mark Aiken is an award-winning freelance writer, a ski pro at Stowe and a member of the Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA) eastern region educational staff He co-authored the PSIA manual Teaching Children Snowsports. He lives in Richmond with his wife, kids, dog, cats, and nine chickens, all of whom ski except the cats and chickens.

These two easy excercises that you can do with a rubber excercise band will help give you the flexibility and strength to stay balanced over your skis.

The 2022 Hall of Fame

road and installed three double chairlifts on three slopes spanning 963 vertical feet. There were nine trails, a ski school, night skiing, and a hotel that could sleep 144 people. A year later, there was even a disco with strobe lights in the lower level of the base lodge. “That was a rockin’ scene,” DesLauriers recalls in one of his “Story Time” video interviews archived on Boltonvalley.com.

By the second season, there were also new glades, a heated pool, and a skating rink. The mountain was known as a familyfriendly area and from its opening hosted a children’s after-school ski program.

Among some of the kids who grew up skiing Bolton Valley were Ralph’s’ five children. The two eldest, Rob and Eric, went on to star in dozens of ski movies as extreme skiers. Ralph continued to expand and improve the resort he founded until 1997 when he sold it. In 2017 the family re-purchased Bolton Valley: Ralph and his younger three children, Lindsay, Evan, and Adam who now follow in his footsteps and run the resort.

Ralph may very well be the last ski area founder alive today who still owns and operates the resort they built, demonstrating an incredible life-long commitment to the Vermont ski industry.

BETSY PRATT Mad River Glen Visionary

For two decades, the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum has been honoring “athletes, pioneers and special contributors to Vermont skiing and snowboarding who promoted and/or contributed to the sport of skiing or riding in Vermont.” It also presents special awards; the Paul Robbins award for ski journalism, the Bill McCollum Community award for an organization, and the First Tracks award, to an emerging star in snowsports. While the First Tracks award was not presented this year, the others were given out at a ceremony at Bolton Valley Resort. Here’s who this year’s winners are:

RALPH DESLAURIERS Founder of Bolton Valley Resort

On Christmas Eve 1966, Ralph DesLauriers, son of a Vermont dairy farmer, opened Bolton Valley ski area on former timber land his father had purchased. DesLauriers built the access

Betsy Stratton Pratt was not a likely owner for what became one of the most iconic ski areas in the country. She grew up in Greenwich, Ct. and after attending Vassar College, moved to New York City and worked for the Ford Foundation. Her sister, Sally, talked her into coming to Mad River Glen for a ski weekend in 1954. There she met Truxton Pratt, a member of the Montclair Ski Club. They soon married, buying a ski house in North Fayston on their honeymoon.

Mad River Glen was founded in 1947 by Roland Palmedo, who had previously developed Stowe. He and trail designer and long-time general manager Ken Quackenbush developed Mad River with an eye to be less commercial than Stowe: a skier’s mountain, with trails designed to follow the natural contours.

In 1972, Roland sold Mad River to a group of investment bankers and skiers led by Trux Pratt and Brad Swett. When Trux passed away

The Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum annually honors Vermont snowsports greats. Here’s who made the 2022 Hall of Fame.

Ralph DesLauriers, top, estimates Bolton Valley helped more than 10,000 kids to learn to ski. After working for Time Inc. and the Ford Foundation, Betsy Pratt set Mad River Valley on course to become the first co-op owned ski area. PHOTOS COURTESY VTSSM.

in 1975, the ski industry was going through tumultuous times. Betsy Pratt took the reins at Mad River, carefully guiding the mountain to preserve its unique character. Rather than bulldoze the terrain and coat the mountain with artificial snow, as most Eastern ski areas were doing by the 1980s, Pratt fought to preserve and protect the mountain in its original state.

She and marketing expert and MRG skier, Gerry Muro developed the “Mad River Glen, Ski it if You Can” marketing campaign. The red and white bumper stickers turned Mad River Glen into one of the most recognizable brands in the ski industry. The plain meaning of the slogan was, “ski it when there’s snow,” but many also read it as a competition (ski it if you’re good enough), or a bucket list item (ski it if you get the chance). She also encouraged telemark skiing, which is still taught on the mountain, but famously denied snowboarders access.

Mad River Glen flourished. By this time, Pratt had also purchased the Mad River Barn, just down the hill from the ski area. Her next challenge was transferring ownership of Mad River Glen to a new generation who would also appreciate and expand on the mountain’s conservationist ethos. She did this by selling skiers on the idea of the first and only cooperatively-owned ski area in the country. She talked about it everywhere: in the lift line, on the chair lift,

in the Basebox lodge, and even at the grocery store. The transfer of the ski area to the Mad River Co-op finally took place in 1995.

Pratt continued running the Mad River Barn and being Mad River Glen’s biggest cheerleader until she retired in 2012 and moved to North Carolina. Today, she still enjoys watching hikers, snowshoers, and skiers on Mad River Glen’s live webcams.

JIM HOLLAND - Ski Jumper and Entrepreneur

One of the founders of the outdoor gear online retail behemoth, Backcountry.com, Jim Holland might not be a household name unless you follow ski jumping.

A seventh-generation Vermonter, Holland grew up in Norwich, Vt., across the river from the Dartmouth ski jump in Hanover, NH. There, Holland and his older brothers all learned to ski jump and all went on to be Olympians. Jim and his oldest brother, Mike, were Olympic jumpers and Joe was a Nordic Combined athlete.

In 1987, during a training jump at Lake Placid, NY, Jim

Jim Holland helped revolutionize the sport of ski jumping before founding Backcountry. com, the online retailer for outdoor gear and apparel.

PHOTO COURTESY VTSSM

1184 WILLISTON RD, SOUTH BURLINGTON, VT

If you have ever considered opening a ski shop in South Burlington, Vermont on the busiest road in our state, this is your opportunity.

e building has wonderful visibility, all new pavement, landscaping and interior paint, as well as new carpet replacement

is beautiful building was a former ski shop for 58 years. It is located in a great location between the University of Vermont and the Burlington International Airport.

e building looks like the iconic ski shop and we would love to have it remain in that capacity, if possible. It has been a very sucessful ski and sport shop for a very long time.

suffered a massive fall when his skis hit an ice patch while approaching take-off, something modern-day hill formats and preparation protect against. At age 19, he had four broken vertebrae and was facing back surgery. Many thought Holland’s ski jumping days were over. Instead, he went on to win six National Ski Jumping Championships and compete in two Winter Olympics.

Before the Olympic Winter Games in Albertville, France (’92), Holland drastically changed his technique. Instead of jumping the traditional way with skis straight and body extended forward, he turned the tips of his skis out like a “V” and sailed farther than he ever had before—the technique that is now common. His 12th place finish there was among the top performances ever by a U.S. jumper. He also jumped at the Winter Games at Lillehammer, Norway in ’94.

In 1995, Holland retired from ski jumping and, after graduating from the University of Vermont, headed west to Park City, Utah. Inspired by his passion for ski mountaineering, he and his childhood friend from Norwich, John Bresee, created Backcountry.com just as internet commerce was growing. After immense success, they sold their majority interest in Backcountry.com in 2007. Holland remains involved as a minority shareholder and holds a seat on the board of directors.

In 2007, the U.S. Ski Team abandoned ski jumping and Holland stepped in as the sport was unraveling. With no National Team, Holland helped start and fund USA Nordic Sports, a nonprofit in Park City that runs men’s and women’s national jumping and Nordic combined programs, keeping the sport alive.

Today, even as Holland confronts and combats Parkinson’s Disease, he continues to support the sport of ski jumping, including charitable support to Ford Sayre Memorial Ski Council’s jumping program.

After retiring as a downhill racer, Rip McManus helped develop the FIS points system that’s used worldwide for ski racers today.

model: @bethy_the_vt_hiker

Authentic Sherpa Brand. Functional natural fiber products, handcrafted in Nepal for the active, caring and outdoor lifestyle.

Logo Meaning: Mt. Everest skyline on top & Mt. Mansfield on the bottom. Red for the national color of Nepal, Green for the Vermont state color & blue is US Sherpa where we meet.

RIP

MCMANUS

- Olympian, Announcer, and Movie Star

At an early age Rip McManus was enrolled in Rutland, Vermont’s Pico Peak Junior Program, a multi-year comprehensive ski school. McManus excelled at ski racing with the Pico Peak Ski Club. He joined the Rutland High School Ski Team and went on to set the record for the Pico Downhill Derby. McManus deferred his admission to Denver University to join the European Ski Racing Circuit.

During the off-season, McManus made Stowe his training base. He joined Stowe’s ski lift tower installation crew, volunteering for the high-risk work. Mount Mansfield Ski Corporation’s Sepp Ruschp took an interest in Rip and so did Mt. Mansfield Ski Club. McManus and his friend Billy Kidd were featured together on the cover of the Club’s magazine in November 1963.

Stowe innovator, Joe Daley tasked McManus with developing the early chartbased version of the International Ski Federation (FIS) and World Cup point system that rapidly ranked ski racers at the end of each race.

McManus raced for the Denver University Ski Team and then enlisted in the Army to race worldwide within the International Military Sports Council for the United States Army Alpine Ski Team. After winning the North American National Championships, he was named to the 1964 U. S. Alpine Ski Team and raced with the team during the 19631964 season. At the 1964 Innsbruck, Austria Winter Olympics, he and his teammates cheered on Vermont’s Billy Kidd and Jimmie Heuga as they made Winter Olympic alpine ski racing history as the first American men to win Olympic medals.

Following the Olympics, McManus finished his enlistment in the Army, married and went to work for a series of ski companies: Head Skis, Lange Boots, Olin Ski Testing, and his started a mail-order racing gear business.

McManus worked in the sound booth with Jim McKay at the 1968 Grenoble, France Winter Olympics and worked with Robert Redford in 1969 as a cast member and ski racer double in the American sports film drama, “Downhill Racer”. With a twinkle in his eye and a mischievous grin, McManus went through life promoting the growth of the ski industry until his life was cut short by a traffic accident in 1982.

PHOTOS COURTESY VTSSM

GREG MORRILL - Paul Robbins Award - Ski Historian Greg Morrill received the 2022 Paul Robbins Award for excellence in ski and snowboard journalism. He got hooked on skiing in college at the University of New Hampshire, and upon graduation in 1968 he moved to Vermont for a job at the IBM Burlington facility. This decision was made in large part due to the easy proximity to the slopes

Morrill retired after 31 years at IBM and promptly began teaching Computer Science for 11 years at Saint Michael’s College. After retiring for a second (and last) time, Greg began writing about skiing history and nostalgia in a weekly Stowe Reporter newspaper column during the ski season. His Retro-Ski column is built around weekly trivia questions, which test readers’ knowledge of skiing history. Greg maintains a blog at Retro-Skiing.com which contains all his trivia and related columns.

His 2014 book “Retro-Ski: A Nostalgic Look Back at Skiing” follows his trivia format where each chapter asks and answers a question related to the history of skiing or snowboarding.

CATAMOUNT TRAIL ASSOCIATION Bill McCollom Community Award

The Bill McCollom Community Award recognizes a group or organization that is making a significant and unique contribution to further Vermont’s place in skiing and snowboarding history. The 2022 award goes to the Catamount Trail Association.

The 300+ mile Catamount Trail began with a dream three adventurous young Vermont men, Steve Bushey, Paul Jarris, and Ben Rose had in 1982 of skiing the length of Vermont. In 1984 Steve, Ben, Paul, and sometimes Jim Painter and some others, strapped on their skis and skied from one end of Vermont to the other establishing the preliminary route that would birth the Catamount Trail Association. Thanks to their work and countless volunteers and supporters, the Catamount Trail was completed in 2002, and is the longest backcountry ski trail in North America.

Today the CTA maintains 300+ miles of backcountry ski trails and provides access to backcountry recreation. through conservation easements and the acquisition of public land.

The CTA has also increased access to Vermont’s backcountry and pioneered programs to expand equitable access to skiing, regardless of skier’s income or background. Launched in 2011, the Ski Cubs program provides over 500 youth the opportunity to experience outdoor winter recreation via cross-country ski each season, with a focus on partnering with underserved and New American communities.

To see past recipients visit vtssm.org u

Ski historian Greg Morrill (above) wrote the book Retro-Ski and is a co-president o fthe Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum. The Catamount Trail Association (below) has helped establish Vermont as a backcountry haven.

5-bedroom, 3.5 bath classic farmhouse in Brandon, Vt. is ideally 20 miles from Pico, Killington Middlebury College Snowbowl, and about 45 miles to Sugarbush. Includes a separate rental apartment two slate-roof barns. Newly renovated with 24-inch-wide plank floors, large dining and living rooms with working fireplace, newly-tiled bathrooms, two separate work spaces; good cable service and Wi-Fi. A huge main barn with loft, a large workshop and two-car garage; plus a separate 20x15 barn. Sits on 4-plus acres.

This 3.5 bath farmhouse in Brandon, Vt. is located 20 miles from Pico, and the Snowbowl, and about 45 miles to Includes a separate rental apartment and two slate-roof barns. renovated with 24-inch-wide floors, and rooms with bathrooms, two separate work spaces; cable service and Wi-Fi. A main barn with loft, a and two-car garage; a separate 20x15 barn. Sits on acres.

VTSKIANDRIDE.COM/BRANDONSKIHOUSE

Best Choice in Orthopedic Care

Winter months in Vermont brings out the best in all of us with abundant outdoor activities. While you enjoy the Green Mountains, the team at Mans eld Orthopaedics is here for you o ering expert care and a great patient experience.

In addition to renowned surgeons, our team of expert orthopedic providers include podiatrists, physician assistants, nurse practitioners as well as a caring team of nurses, and medical assistants.

Don’t let injuries or chronic pain keep you from hitting the slopes or trails. We are here for you!

Superb orthopedic care close to home.

To make an appointment with a Mans eld Orthopaedic Specialist, call 802.888.8405

Clinic sites: 555 Washington Highway, Morrisville, VT 6 North Main Street, Waterbury, VT

Our team of orthopedic surgeons: Bryan Monier, MD; Joseph McLaughlin, MD; Nicholas Antell, MD; John Macy, MD and Brian Aros, MD.

11 | Warren Miller “Day Maker” Film, Burke Mountain Resort

A killer storm cycle in the Monashees. Adaptive backcountry riding like you’ve never seen before. The ultimate grass skiing run. Alaska (twice). The latest film starring Crazy Karl Fostvedt, Michelle Parker, Katie Burrell, Hana Beaman, Darren Rahlves, Ryland Bell, Cam Fitzpatrick, Connery Lundin, and more. warrenmiller.com

11-12 |

Ski, Ride & Winter Sports Sale, Cambridge

The Cambridge Area Rotary raises money to help send all of the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students at the Cambridge Elementary school to Smugglers’ Notch Resort to partake in outdoor activities such as skiing, snowboarding, and snowshoeing. The sale also helps to provide access to reasonably priced winter sports equipment. Drop o - Fri., Nov 11, 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm; Advance Sale Fri, Nov 11, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Ski & Ride Winter Sports Sale - Sat. 9 a.m Smuggs.com

12 | Ski Swap, Rikert Nordic Center, Ripton

Frost Mountain Nordic hosts its annual ski swap at Rikert. Consignment Drop O : Friday, Nov. 11th from 5pm to 7pm Ski Swap: Saturday, Nov. 12th from 10am to 3pm. Pick Up Unsold Goods: Sunday, Nov. 13th from 10am to 12pm. frostmountainnordic.org

18-20 | Okemo Ski and Snowboard Swap, Ludlow

The best place to gear up for the winter with new and used equipment at great prices. You will find everything you need to get out on the hill this season.... skis, snowboards, boots, bindings, helmets, goggles, outerwear and more. All proceeds benefit Okemo Mountain School. okemomountainschool.org/events-calendar/skiand-snowboard-swap2022.

19 | Big Kicker, Sugarbush

Join Sugarbush, Mad River Glen, and community partners at Mt. Ellen for the kick-o the e season. Live music by The Party Crashers in the Green Mountain Lounge, bonfire, rail jam at the bottom of Straight Shot, pizza and beer tasting provided by Lawson’s Finest Liquids. This year’s Big Kicker is a benefit for Coats for Kids. Please bring clean unwanted yet usable winter jackets and donate. For your donation Sugarbush is o ering discount coupons for meals at Rumble’s Bistro and Bar. Sugarbush.com

24 | Gobble, Gobble, Wobble 5K, Stratton

This family-friendly 5K begins in the courtyard, loops around the resort, and concludes back in the Village. Sign up as a family, with your running buddy, or hang out and show support for your favorite runner Thanksgiving morning. Stratton.com

24 | Turkey Trot, Killington

The 11th edition of the Killington Turkey Trot Run/Walk starts at 9:30 a.m. at the Pickle Barrel and benefits local charities. Killington.com

25-27 | FIS Killington Women’s World Cup, Killington

A celebration of the history and passion for alpine ski racing here in the Northeast. In addition to watching the fastest female ski racers in Slalom and Giant Slalom battle for the top prize on the signature Superstar trail, the weekend is packed full of entertainment on race days including live music by Michael Franti, Vermonter Noah Kahan, Stephen Kellogg and DJ Angie Vee. Plus a vendor village. Killington.com

DECEMBER

2 & 3 | Warren Miller “Day Maker” Film, Middlebury & Burlington

This year’s Warren Miller film features a killer storm cycle in the Monashees. Adaptive backcountry riding like you’ve never seen before. The ultimate grass skiing run. Alaska (twice). Starring Crazy Karl Fostvedt, Michelle Parker, Katie Burrell, Hana Beaman, Darren Rahlves, Ryland Bell, Cam Fitzpatrick, Connery Lundin, and more. Dec. 2 at the Town Hall Theater in Middlebury and Dec. 3 at the Flynn Theater in Burlington. warrenmiller.com

3 | Cold Open Rail Jam, Stratton

This jam format consists of smaller to medium-sized features to get your tricks going. A few prizes will be awarded to those who are bringing the most stoke, picking up others, dishing out high fives, and throwing down in the park. stratton. com

9 | Earn-Your-Turns Roundtable, Sugarbush Sugarbush and the Mad River Valley Backcountry Coalition and the Catamount Trail Association bring together skiers and riders interested in uphill travel alongside land managers, ski area operators and the US Forest Service. Meet at the Castlerock Pub at Sugarbush’s Lincoln Peak base to learn about uphill travel, proper etiquette and for a panel discussion. sugarbush.com

9-10 | Wassail Weekend, Woodstock

Enjoy 1890’s holiday traditions and a cup of Wassail punch at the Billings Farm & Museum in Woodstock. Dip your own candle or make a mince hand pie. Festive holiday trees and decorationsl fill the Visitor Center and historic barn where there’s also a gingerbread house contest on display. Woodstockinn.com

10 | Wall of Fame Ceremony, Sugarbush Sugarbush inducts the 2022 class into the Wall of Fame in a fantastic evening of camaraderie and celebrations, followed by a concert by local recording artists, The Grift. sugarbush.com

9-11 | Annual Brewfest, Smuggler’s Notch Vermont has the highest number of breweries per capita and BrewFest highlights some of them, plus regional favorites and craft ciders. A DJ spins tunes and the Mountain Grille puts on a tasty appetizer bu et. smuggs.com

10 | Silver Fox Trot & Citizens Race, Craftsbury Outdoor Center

All ages compete in this cross-country ski race on the trails of Craftsbury Outdoor Center, part of the Zak series. A mass-start, freestyle race (by age group/gender class), except for the 1st/2nd graders, who will be skiing a classic race. nensa.net

17-18 | Eastern Cup Open & Rikert Nordic Grand Prix, Rikert Nordic Center

Get an early start on the season at Rikert where snowmaking on the course assures good conditions. Saturday is a Classic individual start on a 5k for U16 and a 10k Open. Sunday is a Freestyle pursuit start: 5k U16, 5k Open. Hosted by Frost Mountain Nordic. Rikertnordic.com

18 | Santa Sunday, Bolton Valley Dress head-to-toe in a full Santa Claus get-up and get a free lift ticket for the day. Santa Group Photo: 11 am, slopeside of Main Base Lodge toward Mid Mountain Lift – don’t worry, you won’t have trouble finding the Santas. boltonvalley.com

21 | Winter Solstice Celebration, Smuggler’s Notch

Gather on the Green for a bonfire with glow sticks followed by music and fireworks. Start winter with a bang! smuggs.com

31 | New Year’s Eve Hike, Stratton

The hike starts promptly at 7:30 pm from the Courtyard, as the fireworks are planned to hit the sky at 8:30 pm. After, descend the mountain and finish with a fire and hot chocolate. A spectacular way to take in fireworks from a new perspective. stratton.com

JANUARY

7 | Bogburn Classic, Pomfret

New England skiers flock to Pomfret for a classic cross-country ski race that was first held in 1986. The Haydocks welcome the community to their property to highlight their love of classic skiing in a low-key and friendly environment. Nensa.net

12-22 | FISU University Games, Lake Placid, New York

Watch student athletes age 17-25 from around the world compete for their nations in 12 Olympic sports at the Lake Placid, Mt. Van Hoevenberg, Whiteface and Gore Mountain sites. This will be like a mini-Olympics with more than 1,500 athletes participating and more than 100,000 spectators anticipated. For a full schedule of events: lakeplacid2023.com

14 | TUCK IT! Fastest Skier & Rider in the East, Magic Mountain

Skiers bomb the 1,500-foot top to-bottom slope and are ranked by the speed as they fly past the radar gun. There is a $1,000 cash prize. magicmtn.com

15

| Mad River Glen Triple Crown Family Tournament, Mad River Glen

The original father/son race dates back to 1942 when it was held on Mount Mansfield (Stowe). Now open to anyone who wants to participate. Racers complete a family-friendly GS course where a racer’s best time from two runs is counted. The time is then added to that of other family members (by blood). madriverglen.com

21-22 | Women’s Weekend Snowsports Clinic; Greens to Blues, Magic Mountain

Go from skiing green runs to intermediate blue ones with coaching by on snow trainer, Rebecca Skandera, a PSIA Lev2, AASI Lev1 instructor and Dr. Chrissy Semler. Dr. Semler is a licensed clinical mental health counselor, certified mental performance consultant, and professor listed on the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee Sport Psychology and Mental Health Registries. Magicmtn.com

18-23 | Winter Rendezvous, Stowe

Celebrating 39 years, join hundreds of LGBTQ winter enthusiasts for 5 days of world-class skiing and boarding at Stowe Mountain Resort. This fun-filled event o ers a host of outdoor activities, parties, and entertainment winterrendezvous.com

19-22 |

48th Stowe Winter Carnival, Stowe

The town of Stowe shines with over 20 major activities for both young and old, from zany sports events, the Ice Carving Competitions, ski movies, Kids Carnival Kaos and the infamous snowgolf and snowvolleyball tournaments. gostowe.com

27 | Onion River Outdoors Snowshoe Romp, Montpelier

Gather at the Hubbard Park Old Shelter for ORO’s annual Snowshoe Romp. Enjoy a candlelit trail through the woods, hot chocolate, ice cream and a bonfire. Bring a headlamp and come demo snowshoes from MSR, Tubbs, and Atlas! 6-8pm. onionrver.com

28-29 | Craftsbury Nordic Marathon, Craftsbury

Race the Classic races on Saturday and freestyle on Sunday. The 50k will be Saturday, with the Sunday race coming in around 30k. craftsbury.com

2022 vtskiandride.com

28 | Rikert Fat Bike Roundup, Rikert Nordic Center, Ripton

Guided group fat bike rides for all abilities, one set of rides in the morning, one in the afternoon, followed by bonfires and fun. addisoncountybikeclub.org

29 | Prospect Mountain XC Sprints, Woodford

Join Nordic ski racers of all ages for the cross-country ski race on the trails of Prospect Mountain. Part of the Zak series. nensa.net

FEBRUARY

1 | 101st Harris Hill Ski Jump, Brattleboro

The world’s top male and female ski jumpers compete on a 90-meter jump, and soar more than 300 feet at speeds of nearly 60 mph. The event has a festive atmosphere for the whole family with food, music, and a beer tent. harrishillskijump.com

4 | USASA Night Rail Jam, Bolton Valley

Held under the LED lights at the Hyde Away Terrain Park, conditions warranting. Boltonvalley.com

4-5 | Women’s Weekend Snowsports Clinic; Blues to Blacks Magic Mountain Go from skiing blues to blacks with coaching by on snow trainer, Rebecca Skandera, a PSIA Lev2, AASI Lev1 instructor and Dr. Chrissy Semler. Dr. Semler is a licensed clinical mental health counselor, certified mental performance consultant, and college professor listed on the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee Sport Psychology and Mental Health Registries. Magicmtn.com

11 | Kandahar, Mad River Glen

A race of a bygone era, the Kandahar channels the spirit of full mountain races that were once commonplace on the racing circuit and at MRG. The last version held in the 1980s began on Creamery, descended onto Moody’s, before taking on (Grand) Canyon. At the bottom of Canyon, racers went straight across Easy Way, over the cli on One Way, and over S-Turn Cli onto Lower Periwinkle and finished by the base of the Double. The modern version is a bit more modest but will still reward those who can ski gates as well as terrain on the trail. The trail combination and exact set to get from the start to the finish are dependent on conditions. Madriverglen.com

11

| Mansfield Nordic Club Skiathlon, Sleepy Hollow, Richmond

A Classic/Freestyle Skiathlon: Skiers switch from classic to freestyle skis midrace for men and women U16 and older (6km classic + 6km freestyle). Back by Popular Demand: “What the Heck, I’ll Try It” 5km Freestyle (your choice of technique). There’s also a Lollipop race for kids. Nensa.net

13 | Frozen Onion, Montpelier

A fun race with free fat bike demos for newcomers. Race starts/ends at North Branch Nature Center and uses the groomed trails of North Branch River Park. Multiple distance options available, and a kids’ race, too! onionriver.com

26 | 78th Stowe Derby, Stowe Ski from near the top of Mt. Mansfield’s Toll Road trail all the way to town or wherever the 20 km course runs. Also a 6K short course and 16K fat bike division. mmsc.org

26 | Stratton Terrain Challenge, Stratton Stratton Terrain Challenge returns for its second year at the Stratton Nordic Center as part of NENSA’s Popular Race calendar. With support from the Stratton Mountain School Nordic ski team, West River BKL and the Putney Ski Club, you can look forward to a fun and challenging “terrain challenge” freestyle race. We’ll be incorporating tight corners, swerving downhills, dips and loops, and plenty of ups and downs on a course that will keep your heart pumping. Nensa.net u

Classics

One is Glen Plake, the legendary Freeskiing icon, and the other is the Patrol 3D glove from the LEKI Classics collection. www.leki.com

PATROL 3D

Photo: Grant Gundeson

Coach Comes Home

Jesse Hunt, the former head coach for the U.S. Ski Team, is back home in Vermont and ready to launch a new generation of champions.

If you have watched the Killington Women’s World Cup in the past, there’s a good chance that you saw Jesse Hunt standing in the finish area, cheering on the U.S. Women’s Tech Team. Last February, after four years leading the overall team as the Alpine Director at U.S. Ski & Snowboard, and more than 20 years as a U.S. Ski Team coach, Hunt announced he was stepping down and returning to his home state of Vermont. Hunt’s new role is as Sport Director at his alma mater, Burke Mountain Academy the same school that has turned out Mikaela Shiffrin, Nina O’Brien and countless other World Cup ski racers. “There are few people with Jesse’s credentials as a competitor, coach and a program director,” said Burke Mountain Academy’s European Programs Director, Felix McGrath – himself a former Olympic ski racer.

First, what lift would you be on? A surface tow at Burke Mountain, of course. One of the reasons you see so many smaller hills like Burke or Cochran’s turn out such good ski racers is that riding surface lifts lets skiers spend more time with their skis on the snow. Riding up helps develop a feel for snow.

You’ve had an impressive career with the US Ski Team, what brought you back to Vermont? I spent 30 years in the West. It’s been a great career and I’ve enjoyed being out there. But my have the family farm in Bakersfield. I grew up here and Academy. Having a great experience there as a student drew back some of what I’ve learned.

time coaching the national team? long drought with regard to World Cup results. The experience with were the Bode Miller, Eric Schlopy group—and slalom and Casey Puckett in ski cross. We built a team that with Bode winning the overall World Cup two times.

ever gave Bode Miller? supportive environment for him and help him achieve working with Bode—I learned a lot from him.

Miller? results, it’s really hard for team members to believe they him take the steps he needed to reach the next level they could too. There were some amazing days when who was on the podium, it was Bode, Eric and Darren. group is they helped each other. They were fierce competwould share tips about equipment and race tactics and stronger.

on your wish list for the U.S. Ski Team now? earlier, one of the reasons that kids who grow up skiing so good – skiers like Ryan Cochran-Siegle or Mikaela Lindsay Vonn— is repetition. It’s about how much time snow Last fall we took the Burke team to Europe to indoor slopes and facilities. There are about 12 or 15 of worldwide now with ones in Latvia, Lithuania and even

The U.S. only has one of these, Big Snow in New Jersey that’s really a recreational area and the slope isn’t long enough for training. If I could ask for one thing it would be indoor training facility. Who do I ask for that? Santa? u

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