INVITATION TO A REVOLUTION

Welcome to the revolution.

You insist that you’re just a backcountry skier looking for a fresh line. But the moment you slide off into the untracked beyond, you’re an unwitting revolutionary. I’ve had a front row seat to this peaceful upheaval that has brought us to this golden era of backcountry skiing.

When the Appalachian Mountain Club asked me in 1988 to write a book about backcountry skiing in New England, I was venturing into untracked territory—and not just on skis. No one had written such a book before, because very few people were backcountry skiing in New England back then besides a small cadre of telemarkers. I didn’t tell my publisher, but I figured that 200 people would buy my guidebook, and I would be related to most of them.

As I researched where to ski, I was quickly transported back in time to the 1930s, the first golden era of backcountry skiing. That’s when the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was cutting ski trails up and down the highest peaks in the Northeast, spawning a vibrant culture that thrived around trails such as the Thunderbolt on Mt. Greylock in Mass., the Teardrop on Mt. Mansfield in Vermont, the Wildcat Trail on Wildcat Mountain in New Hampshire, and many others. As quickly as this subculture appeared, it vanished, as skiers were lured away from the backcountry by the siren song of chairlifts springing up on many of the Northeast’s high peaks.

Classic Backcountry Skiing was published in winter 1988-89 and, to my surprise, it had a wide audience. I chronicled the budding ski renaissance, as skiers brought the CCC ski trails back to life and they ventured further afield into the steep terrain of New Hampshire’s Presidential Range, Katahdin in Maine and Mount Marcy in New York. Sturdy telemark gear and technique enabled skiers to go far and ski everywhere in these wild places.

The backcountry skiing renaissance grew throughout the 1990s as a thriving subculture pushed the boundaries of skiing away from resorts into untracked frontiers. Telemark skiers led the charge, but snowboarders and alpine skiers soon followed. Alpine touring gear was still largely limited to western skiing. I knocked AT gear in my early guidebooks as being too cumbersome for the rolling terrain of the northeast. Foolish me.

As I’ve traveled the Northeast over the last few winters researching my new guidebook, Best Backcountry Skiing in the Northeast, everything has changed.

In the last decade, innovative AT gear and splitboards have transformed the backcountry and lowered the barriers to entry. Sales of backcountry ski equipment have soared. Now a solid resort skier can backcountry ski—provided they learn backcountry skills and avalanche awareness (see avy course listings at Backcountry Magazine and at avalanche.org).

Backcountry skiing has evolved from a counterculture into a movement. Skiers, traditionally secretive and solitary, have banded together to do something that has not been done since the 1930s: team up with conservationists and local communities to develop and protect new backcountry ski terrain. Hundreds of people from near and far come together for festive work weekends to create what they will later ski. Community-supported skiing has spread from Vermont to New Hampshire to Maine and beyond, led by grassroots skiing pioneers such as Ridgeline Outdoor Collective in Vermont and Granite Backcountry Alliance in New Hampshire.

What began as a renaissance is now a revolution. It has changed the face of skiing.

This revolution is about more than skiing. It’s about community. When we build trails, we build connections. With the land and with other people.

Backcountry skiers are completing a circle. When the CCC traveled to struggling rural towns in the wake of the Great Depression, it didn’t merely create ski trails. It restored hope. It built a foundation for a better future. A new generation has picked up the torch that was lit by these pioneers.

Community is the antidote to isolation and conflict. It is the basis of social change. Banding together is how we tackle climate change and save winter. It is how we build peace. Community is the seed from which all good things grow.

Come to the backcountry for the skiing. Stay for the community. Build a brighter future.

Join the revolution.