Vermont Ski + Ride, Fall 2017

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EPIC STORIES FROM AN EPIC SEASON FRONT ROW AT THE WORLD CUP 2018’S BIGGEST GEAR INNOVATIONS WHAT’S NEW AT VERMONT’S RESORTS

THE HARD CIDER REVOLUTION

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CONTENTS / 03.01 FEATURES THE FIRST SNOW, p. 28

An essay by poet Donald Hall.

ENDLESS WINTER, p. 32

Vermont’s most dedicated skiers and riders tell tales of last winter’s epic storms and mid-summer turns. Plus: The 500 Club.

ALICE’S HIGH-SPEED WONDERLAND, p. 40

The World Cup was Alice Merryweather’s debut last year.

This season, she’s no longer an unknown.

FRONT ROW AT THE WORLD CUP, p. 44 The best ways to watch the 2017 Killington World Cup.

World Cup racers Robby Kelley and Andrew McNealus wait for dawn to train. Stowe, May 21, 2016.

FIRST TRACKS

COLUMNS

EDITOR’S LETTER | CHASING WINTER, p. 3

COACH | PREPARE FOR AIR, p. 46

“We know ourselves by winter,” writes Donald Hall.

Olympic coach Bud Keene’ s training tips for getting air.

RESORT NEWS | THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE, p. 4

New resort owners, lifts, lodges and ticket systems are changing Vermont.

Photo by Andrew McNealus

APRÈS | CIDER HOUSES RULE,

p. 13

Vermont orchards are revolutionizing the hard cider scene.

ADVENTURES | FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN,

p. 19

Looking for a fall hike? Get a view from the top of a fire tower.

DREAM HOME | A MODERN CABIN, . p. 22

Two diehard skiers build their dream home in the Mad River Valley.

GEAR | THESE BOOTS ARE MADE FOR WALKING,

p. 49

There’s a new class of AT boots: comfortable, versatile and all-terrain. Plus: Burton’s revolutionary new Step On binding.

RETRO VT | THE 2017 HALL OF FAME,

p. 53

These 6 Vermonters have made ski and snowboard history.

THE GREEN MOUNTAIN CALENDAR |

p. 59

CHAIRLIFT Q/A | SNOWSPORT’S TOP GUN,

Meet the top dog at SIA and his hard-charging family.

p. 64

vtskiandride.com Fall 2017 1

CHASING WINTER

PUBLISHER, Angelo Lynn angelo@vtskiandride.com EDITORIAL Editor/Co-Publisher, Lisa Lynn editor@vtskiandride.com Creative Director, David Pollard Staff Writer, Emma Cotton emma@vtskiandride.com Conributing Editors & Photographers: Brooks Curran, David Goodman, Bud Keene, Brian Mohr, Doug Stewart, Jeb Wallace-Brodeur ADVERTISING SALES & DISTRIBUTION Christy Lynn, Advertising Manager christy@vtskiandride.com | 802-388-4944 Greg Meulemans greg@vtskiandride.com Dave Honeywell dave_golfhouse@madriver.com Circulation and Distribution Manager: Lisa Razo subscribe@vtskiandride.com HEADQUARTERS

“We know ourselves by winter,” writes Donald Hall in “First Snow,” p. 28. Though he wrote from New Hampshire, Hall’s words ring true for those of us who live in Vermont, too.|Take Travis Lee. On Nov. 22, 2016, before the lifts opened at Jay Peak, the University of Vermont student shouldered his skis and hiked to find snow which was building high up on the mountain. He got the goods, as captured in our cover photo by recent UVM grad Brooks Curran.| Vermont’s ski towns are filled with people who regularly log 100, 200 and even more days on snow in a year in Vermont.

Stories of how they milked an epic winter, a ski season that for some went from October, 2016, through August, 2017, are on p.32.| A gritty determination to head out regardless of conditions is what makes great skiers—and what Burke Mountain Academy grad Mikaela Shiffrin credits her success with. This Nov. 24-25, the worlds’ winningest slalom racer should be back in Killington to defend her World Cup title and we’ll be there.|It is thanks in part to U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s Tiger Shaw (who grew up skiing Stowe), that the World Cup has come back to Vermont. Between Shaw, Nick Sargent (profiled on p.

65) who runs Snowsports Industries of America, and Ski Vermont’s Parker Riehle (tapped in August to run National Ski Areas Association), Vermonters will now lead the three main organizing bodies in snowsports in the U.S. Are we surprised? No. We know ourselves by winter. —Lisa Lynn, Editor

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Stowe’s Bud Keene has been named National Coach of the Year, the highest coaching honor in Olympic sports. In “Prepare for Air,” p. 46, he shares his tips on getting air. Keene has coached ShaunWhite and Gus Kenworthy. He runs BKPRO global action sports camps.

From his home on Eagle Pond Farm, N.H., former U.S. poet laureate Donald Hall traces in words New England’s landscape and moods. His essay “First Snow,” p. 28, captures the stark beauty of stick season’s slide into winter.

In “Alice’s High-Speed Wonderland,” p. 40, Sarah Tuff Dunn, a former editor of Ski Racing, catches up with Alice Merryweather to get her take on what it is like to race on Killington’sWorld Cup Superstar course and where she’s headed next.

ON THE COVER: Travis Lee tests the snow depth on Nov. 22, 2016, with his Volkl Ones. Photo by Brooks Curran

vtskiandride.com Fall 2017 3

Slaying the slopes above Stowe after Winter

Photo by Brooks Curran

Storm Stella, last March.

THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE 4 Fall 2017 vtskiandride.com

FIRSTTRACKS Vermont’s resort landscape is changing fast.

And with new owners, base lodges, lifts, and events, this season it’s all for the better.

BY EMMA COTTON

J

ust how good was this past season? To see photographic evidence, turn to “Endless Winter,” p. 32. But in essence: it was good. Real good. With statewide Thanksgiving openings, a World Cup event at Killington that went off with a bang, and a season that boasted thigh-deep powder, it was one for the records.

It was also a season of epic changes at ski areas across Vermont. Just a year ago Geoff Hatheway led a group of avid skiers and investors in resurrecting Magic Mountain and its lifts ran again in early December, 2016. In April, Ralph DesLauriers and his family bought back the mountain Ralph and his father built up from 1966 to when they sold it in 1977.

“When I built Bolton Valley back in the ’60s, I made it my mission to give every Vermont child the opportunity to ski, Bolton Valley,” DesLauriers remembers.

Other areas also saw new leadership; Matt Lillard coming from Alaska’s Eaglecrest ski area to manage Mad River Glen; Killington veteran Tim Reiter taking over at Suicide Six and Vail Resorts’ ski school director Bobby Murphy taking the top spot at Stowe.

News that made national headlines came in February when Vail Resorts announced it was buying Stowe. And then again in April, when the news came out that Stratton was part of a $1.7-billion dollar play a group of investors made for Intrawest’s resorts.

The offer—the largest in ski resort history—came from a group formed by KSL Capital Partners and Henry Crown & Co., the owner of Aspen Skiing Company, and Squaw Valley Ski Holdings. They beat out 173 other bidders to buy Intrawest’s six ski resorts (Vermont’s Stratton Mountain, Steamboat and Winter Park in Colorado, Canada’s Mt. Tremblant and Blue Mountain) and Canadian Mountain Holidays 12 heliskiing lodges.

The group then gobbled up California’s Mammoth Mountain and its three affiliate resorts.

Then, this summer, they added Deer Valley, Utah.

The new ownership group has yet to find a name and its Intrawest and other acquisitions have yet to close. When they do, it will pit the new conglomerate directly against Vail Resorts’ 15 resorts. Given that the man at the top of KSL Capital Partners is Michael Shannon, who served as president and CEO of Vail Associates from 1985 to 1992, the competition is bound to be fierce. At Stratton, no changes in ticketing or operations have been announced yet for this season but you can be sure next season will see some big ones and new inter-mountain passes.

Are these changes a good thing? Under Vail’s ownership, Stowe’s Epic Pass is almost half this year what a Stowe season pass cost last year and provides access to 14 other

vtskiandride.com Fall 2017 5

u resorts.Vail Resorts’s CEO Rob Katz and his wife gave $100,000 to the Stowe Land Trust this past summer. And under the new management of Bobby Murphy, Stowe is already investing in parking and relaxing policies on uphill skinning. Then there is Vail Resorts’ Epic Promise for a Zero Footprint: a commitment to reaching “zero emissions, zero waste to landfill and zero net operating impact to forests and habitat by 2030.”

Vail Resorts is not alone: With an eye to the future, resorts around Vermont are making an effort to go green with fuel-efficient snow cats, energy-efficient snow guns and alliances with Efficiency Vermont.

At the same time, they are adding RFID passes (scannable tickets that allow them to better track skier traffic and skiers to track their days, their kids and more), building new lodges and adding lots to do off-snow.

Here’s what’s new for this winter season.

Ascutney Gets a Lodge

After sitting idle for five years, Ascutney Mountain is making a comeback. Last year, the mountain opened a ropetow from the base to what used to be its mid-station and created trails for mountain biking, hiking and skiing. This year, Ascutney Outdoors, the collaborative created in the vacuum the resort’s closure left, is aiming even higher.

It purchased the burned-down lodge and has begun designing a new building, the Ascutney Outdoors Center. With $430,000 already raised, the organization predicts that the building will be completed in the fall of 2018. This winter, they hope to have an Act 250 permit approved for a tubing park and increased maintenance to trails.

Bromley Renovates

In Peru, Bromley upgrades its lodge with a new roof and a resurfaced Sun Deck (all the better for aprés hangs at the on-deck firepit). Plus, it expands its rental fleet with Rossignol Experience 80 skis.

Mount Snow will double its capacity to pump snowmaking water uphill this season.

6 Fall 2017 vtskiandride.com

Bolton Valley Comes Full Circle

Burlington’s Ralph DesLauriers and his family once again own Bolton Valley Resort. Though management will remain under the leadership of Bolton Valley president George B. Potter, DesLauriers says big changes are in store: “Our guests can expect to see steady progress toward a major revitalization of the resort over the next few years.” For the coming season, Bolton plans to upgrade their snowmaking system with 15 new guns and hoses and a more powerful pump that will allow up to 40 guns (up from 25) to operate simultaneously. Bailey’s Restaurant will serve breakfast regularly on weekdays and brunch on Sundays. Finally, Bolton will return to a 9 a.m. lift opening this year and extend hours through 10 p.m. for night skiing Tuesday through Saturday. (Monday and Sunday, lifts operate from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m.)

Burke Designated a U.S. Ski Team Center

Last season Burke opened a stunning new on-mountain hotel. This season, Burke spent the summer replacing the decade-old T-bar with a new $1.5 million Poma model, a change that will afford five times the uphill capacity. They’ve also added 13,400 feet of snowmaking pipe, which will feed snow to McHarg’s Cut-Off and Upper Doug’s Drop, two trails that have never seen snowmaking until now. And Burke Mountain Academy has seen a major upgrade with the new Ronnie Berlack Center, which was recently named a U.S. Ski Team High Performance Center. It features 6,000 square feet of turf field and a 4,700-square-foot training area with a rubberized floor.

Jay Peak Adds Movie Theater and Climbing Rec Center

When you’re done skiing at Jay Peak and have hit the waterpark, this season you can settle in at a new 142-seat movie theater or check out the new Clip ‘n Climb climbing facility—both part of the new 15,000-square foot Clips and Reels recreation center. Jay Peak is also opening a new 12-plex of mountain cottages dedicated to employee housing, giving the resort the ability to house up to 150 employees.

So You Want to Ski Around?

What does it mean to have a season pass? Freedom.

Freedom from second guessing conditions and asking yourself if you really should go ski or ride. (If you have to ask, go.) And now, freedom to choose where you ski.

The trend in multi-resort season passes has exploded. All you have to figure out is which pass is right for you.

EPIC PASS

The Epic Pass ($879) has no restrictions, no blackout dates, and gets you unlimited access to 15 resorts, including Stowe, Vt.; Colorado’s Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Arapahoe Basin and Keystone; Park City, Utah; California’s Heavenly, Northstar-atTahoe and Kirkwood; the Midwest’s Wilmot, Wisc., Afton Alps, Minn.; Mt. Brighton, Mich., plus Whistler Blackcomb, BC and Perisher, Australia (2018). There’s also limited access to 30 European ski resorts including Les 3 Vallees (France), Skirama Dolomiti Adamello Brenta (Italy) and Arlberg (Austria). epicpass.com.

FREEDOM PASS

Want to ski some of the least crowded little gems from Vermont to Alaska? Consider the Freedom Pass. Passholders at any of the participating resorts, including Magic Mountain ($599) and Bolton Valley ($549), get three free day tickets at the following: New Hampshire’s Black Mountain, Dartmouth Skiway, Granite Gorge, McIntyre and Whaleback; Maine’s Lost Valley; Plattekill, N.Y.; New Mexico’s Pajarito Mountain and Sipapu; Ski Cooper, Colo. and Eaglecrest, Ak. boltonvalley.com or magic.com.

JUDGE PASS

If you like to chase snow across the Northeast Kingdom, the Judge Pass lets you ski or ride both Jay Peak and Burke with unlimited access to both with no blackout dates for $949. jaypeak.com

MOUNTAIN COLLECTIVE PASS

This year, Sugarbush is the only Eastern resort in the Mountain Collective’s all-star resort lineup. Sugarbush premium season passholders get 50 percent off tickets at all Mountain Collective resorts. And anyone can purchase a $469 Mountain Collective pass that gives two days at the ‘Bush and at each of the following 15 resorts: Colorado’s Aspen, Snowmass and Telluride; Utah’s Alta, Snowbird and Snowbasin; Jackson Hole, Wyo., Sun Valley, Idaho; Taos, N.M. and in California: Squaw Valley, Alpine Meadows and Mammoth. In Canada, the pass is also good at Banff Sunshine Village, Lake Louise and Revelstoke. Internationally, use it at: Coronet Peak/The Remarkables (New Zealand), Thredbo (Australia), Valle Nevado (Chile), Hakuba Valley (Japan), Chamonix (France) and Niseko United (Japan). mountaincollective.com

MULTI-ALPINE EXPERIENCE (M.A.X.)

With 5 days free at each of 44 resorts, (a potential 220 days of skiing) this $679 pass is a great bang for the buck. Among the 19 Eastern mountains are Vermont’s Okemo, Killington, Pico and Stratton;

plus Canada’s Mt. Tremblant; Sunday River and Sugarloaf in Maine; New Hampshire’s Mount Sunapee and Loon Mountain; and Whiteface, NY. Western resorts like Big Sky, Mont.; Crested Butte and Steamboat, Colo., and Kicking Horse, BC are also included. If 5 days per mountain won’t cut it, grab a season pass at any of the participating resorts, then purchase the MAX Pass add-on for $329. themaxpass.com

PEAK PASS

If you want to explore the Northeast, Peak Resorts offers the $799 Peak Pass with unlimited access to 7 Northeast resorts including Mount Snow; Attitash, Crotched, and Wildcat, N.H.; Hunter, N.Y.; Jack Frost and Big Boulder, Penn. peakpass.com

ULTIMATE PASS

This year, Okemo’s multi-mountain pass gets skiers and riders unrestricted access at Okemo and Mount Sunapee, N.H. for $1,409; plus single-day, nonholiday $49 tickets at Stratton. okemo.com

COLLEGE PASSES

The 4.0 College Pass ($399) gives students unlimited access to Killington, Pico, Okemo and Mount Sunapee, NH. You’ll also get 50-percent off tickets for your buddies. The Threesome College Pass ($389) offers unlimited skiing and riding at Sugarbush’s Lincoln Peak and Mt. Ellen, and Mad River Glen.

MOUNTAIN SEASON PASS

EARLY DEADLINE

7-DAY EARLY

MIDWEEK

SENIOR

20s PASS

COLLEGE

KIDS

MULTI-RESORT

BOLTON VALLEY

Sept. 25

$549

$469

$229

$189

$189

$169

Freedom Pass

BROMLEY

Oct. 15

$975

$299

$499

$875

N/A

$650

BURKE

Oct. 9

$769

$399

$499

$529

$269

$299

Judge Pass

JAY PEAK

Oct. 9

$819

$479

$599

$569

$249

$399

Judge Pass

KILLINGTON MAD RIVER GLEN

Oct. 11 Oct. 15

$1,039 $308-$771

$539 $421

$659 N/A

$669 $220

$399 Free

$619 Threesome (w/ adult pass)

MAX, 4.0 College Pass Threesome Pass Freedom Pass

MAGIC

Oct. 15

$599

$259

$399

$279

$119

$279

MIDDLEBURY SNOW BOWL

Nov. 30

$420

$255

$310

N/A

$200

$250

MOUNT SNOW

Oct. 18

$799

$599

N/A

$399

N/A

OKEMO

Oct. 9

$999

$499

$609

N/A

$399

$599

Peak Pass

$589-$649 MAX Pass, Ultimate, College 4.0

PICO

Oct. 11

$449

$349

N/A

N/A

$239

N/A

SMUGGLERS NOTCH

Oct. 31

$599

$429

$359-$549

$229

$299

N/A

MAX Pass , College 4.0

STOWE

Oct. 8

$879

N/A

N/A

$399

$459

N/A

Epic Pass

STRATTON

Oct. 10

$999

N/A

$899

$349

N/A

$349

MAX Pass

SUGARBUSH

Sept. 13

$999

$599

$749

$399-$599

$249

$399 Mountain Collective, Threesome Pass

vtskiandride.com Fall 2017 7

u Killington Builds Out Base Area and MTB Trails

Suicide Six celebrates a new llift

Folks over at Killington are preparing for the FIS World Cup, scheduled for Thanksgiving weekend (see p. 44). The $60-$70 million upgrades to Bear Mountain’s base area are still on track for construction next summer.These include new multi-family dwellings, a major remodeling of the Bear Mountain Base Lodge and a new fixed-grip quad chairlift on Killington’s South Ridge. Thanks to a $1 million partnership with Efficiency Vermont, Killington will install new, low-energy, towermounted snow guns at both Killington and Pico. This fall, Killington’s new bike trails are ready for riding. In recent years, the resort has put $400,000 into a network of more than 35 MTB trails.

Mad River Glen Upgrades The Birdcage

Mad River Glen gets a new manager, Matt Millard, and its mid-mountain lodge, The Birdcage, will get some upgrades this winter, including a new 12-foot by 60-foot deck and an airlock entrance. The Birdcage, which was originally built in 1961, is the place to get made-to-order Little Ripper hot dogs, a heap of marshmallows in your cocoa, and killer baked sweet treats (carried to the lodge every morning via snowmobile).

Eric Friedman, marketing director at MRG, says the current building was in need of this $60,000 update. “We just want people to get turned on to it,” he said. “It’s a cool vibe up there.” And down at the base lodge, General Stark’s Pub’s balcony will add a snack bar and table service, creating a quieter dining option.

Mad River Glen renovates the classic Birdcate

Magic Adds Lifts and Some Insane Events

When Magic Mountain expanded into a year-round resort by adding an 18-hole disc golf course this summer, it was just getting started on upgrades. In late August, the area gained Act 250 approval for a slew of projects. On Magic’s new to-do list for this winter season: complete the base-to-mid-mountain Green Chair lift, build a ski patrol shack, construct a mid-mountain guest services yurt, upgrade lighting for the snow tubing area and replace 1,500 feet of underground snowmaking pipe. The mountain is still waiting on Act 250 approval to expand the snowmaking pond. Magic also plans to host three new events this winter, including “Tuck It Or Suck It,” a speed skiing competition on NewYear’s Eve; “WinterFest 2018,” with Olympic-style events, a torchlight parade and fireworks; and on St. Paddy’s day, “The Ultimate Skier Challenge,” in which skiers will race top to bottom Black Line’s 1,500 feet of vertical with both freeskiing and giant slalom components.

Middlebury Snow Bowl To Host Championships

This fall, along with routine maintenance projects, folks at the Middlebury Snow Bowl replaced 2,000 feet of its underground snowmaking pipe. The Snow Bowl will host the finals and the championship for the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association on February 23 and 24. Look for new events at Rikert Nordic Center, just down the road, too.

Mount Snow Brings Out the Big Guns

With a 100-million-gallon expansion to its water storage pond, Mount Snow will definitely live up to its name this season.The $30 million West Lake Project will increase water storage for snowmaking six-fold and

8 Fall 2017 vtskiandride.com

double the capacity to pump water uphill. Jamie Storrs, communications manager, notes: “With our new system and the volume that we can pump uphill, we now have the most powerful system in the East.” The new system will allow Mount Snow to open more trails earlier in the season—where they might normally open one or two trails, they can now open three to nine—and to pile snow back on just 24 hours after a washout. With help from Efficiency Vermont, Mount Snow will also replace the last 220 of their old snow guns with energy efficient ones, making their fleet 100 percent low-E.These latest bring Mount Snow to 80 percent snowmaking coverage, with plans to expand to 100 percent.

Meanwhile, the foundation has been poured for the new, three-story, 36,000-square-foot Carinthia base lodge to be completed next summer.

At Okemo, Good Grooming Gets Better

This winter, Okemo’s corduroy could be even better than before. The resort will add two grooming machines– a Bison and a Bison X–to its grooming fleet. The Bison X will be used specifically for jumps, pipes and rails. The resort also plans to rebuild the Zaugg Superpipe Cutter, which is responsible for the care and keeping of Okemo’s 450-footlong Superpipe. Skiers and riders will see more snow on the Jolly

Green Giant trail. Okemo will also invest $17,000 to upgrade tuning equipment in the rental shops.

Stratton starts up its cat-served mid-mountain dinners.

Pico Pumps it Up

Pico Mountain is working to expand two snowmaking ponds to improve the snowmaking efficiency. They’ll also replace the trunk line for compressed air, giving Pico better air pressure higher on the mountain. The mountain will add additional tower-mounted low-energy snow guns on Middle Pike, 49er and Fools Gold.

More Fun and RFID at Smuggler’s Notch

Smugglers’ Notch is still celebrating the opening of their Fun Zone 2.0, a fun-and-games center complete with a climbing wall, obstacle course, laser tag arena, arcade and much more. This will be the upgraded Fun Zone’s first winter season in action. “Since its opening on April 1, it has been well received. We expect this enthusiasm to carry into the winter as well,” said public relations director Mike Chait.

Smuggs is also implementing RFID ticketing that can be used both on the mountain and in the Fun Zone. The new system will allow skiers and riders to reload with additional day passes.

A new lodge goes in at Ascutney

Stowe Finds Parking Spaces

Vail’s acquisition of Stowe came with a nearly 50 percent drop in season pass prices (from $1700 to about $850 if you bought early)—and with that, a presumed influx of passholders this season. Stowe’s new general manager, Bobby Murphy is already addressing this. Look for 140 new spaces, thanks to an expanded parking at the mountain’s crosscountry center and a new lot between the gondola building and the Midway Lodge. The resort is also budgeting for the removal of snow from blocked parking spots, hiring more parking staff, and designating a separate lot for uphill skiers who generally arrive early. Stowe has also been working with the Vermont Agency of Transportation to develop a bus system. To encourage carpooling, the resort may reserve frontrow parking for cars with three or more passengers. All of the above are ideas. And Stowe may see a change in its uphill policy; asking skinners to call a hotline ahead to find out where grooming will occur. Stay tuned.

Stratton Awaits Buyout, Adds to Fitness Center

Until the acquisition of its parent company, Intrawest, is completed later this year, Stratton is operating as usual. The resort has added two fuel-efficient snowcats to their fleet of 11. The cats will be used in general grooming and to transport guests to Saturday night gourmet dinners at the Mid-Mountain Lodge. Stratton also switched to electric compressors in their snowmaking guns, shaving away 40 percent of their diesel usage. This fall, the mountain will also add an outdoor hot tub and two new saunas to the Fitness Center.

Sugarbush Adds New Lifts, Passes, RFIDs and Rumble’s

This year, Sugarbush joins the Mountain Collective Pass (see p. 6).

The mountain will be replacing two double lifts with fixed-grip quads, by the start of the season. The Village Double at Lincoln Peak will be exchanged for the Village Quad, and likewise, The Sunny

Double for the Sunny Quad. Sugarbush will also replace their old ticket scanning system with RFID gates. “We expect this upgrade to make the lift line experience smoother and much more pleasant,” said communications supervisor John Bleh. In other news from the ‘Bush, Timbers restaurant closed this spring, and Rumble’s Kitchen opened in its place, named in memory of resort owner Win Smith’s beloved Bernese mountain dog, Rumble’s kitchen will serve fresh seasonal cooking.

Suicide Six Upgrades Lodge and Lifts

New manager Tim Reiter is changing Suicide Six’s snow game in several ways. He’s started by reshaping the trails and plans to invest in automated snow guns. Last December, the mountain installed a new Leitner-Poma quad lift, which director of sales and marketing Courtney Lowe described as “a gift from an angel.” That angel was a grant from the Laurance S. Rockefeller Fund, given to help maintain the historic resort, which Rockefeller bought in 1961. This year, the mountain’s base lodge has decorated its lobby with historic photos of Suicide Six founder Bunny Bertram and Rockefeller and the resort owner, The Woodstock Inn has invested $6.5 million into redoing its guest rooms and suites. n

vtskiandride.com Fall 2017 9

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Après Shacksbury’s Colin Davis samples a hard cider he created from Vermont’s lost heirloom apples. Below, Cold Hollow’s Paul Brown and his family of ski racers.

CIDER HOUSES RULE (Above) photo courtesy of Shacksbury/Michael Tallman.

(Right) courtesy of Paul Brown.

Early settlers planted thousands of apple trees in the hills and valleys of Vermont.

Today, their lost fruit is fueling a nation-wide cider revolution.

O

ver the past 17 years, Paul Brown, owner of Cold Hollow Cider Mill, has developed a simple winter routine. In the morning, he looks out his window to see if there’s new snow. If there is, he heads for the mountain. Together with his wife, a ski racer and graduate of Burke Mountain Academy, daughter Mackenzie, who skied for Middlebury College, and son Griffin, a senior at UVM who has already logged two years on the U.S. Ski Team, Brown and his family ski about 100 days every season.

BY EMMA COTTON vtskiandride.com Falll 2017 13

14 Fall 2017 vtskiandride.com

1 jigger Barr Hill vodka 1 jigger Honeycrisp Ice Cider 1/2 teaspoon maple syrup 1/4 ounce regular cider Combine and shake vodka, ice cider and maple syrup. Float regular cider on top and serve in a martini glass rimmed with cinnamon sugar.

Champlain Orchards (below) started making hard cider from their Shoreham orchard fruit nine years ago. Try their sweet Honeycrisp Ice Cider in a Styx Season cocktail (recipe above).

cider—which is said to have provided liquid courage when the Green Mountain Boys captured Fort Ticonderoga in 1775. By 1800, almost every farm in the state had an orchard and by 1922 The Boston Globe reported that the country’s largest apple orchard was located in Vermont. If you’re skiing the woods and come across a clearing with apple trees, chances are you’re standing where one of these old orchards used to be.

Nationwide, hard cider soon was everywhere—it was cheap, plentiful, and sometimes safer to drink than water, especially as cities developed. John Adams was even known to drink a tankard of the stuff with breakfast each morning to calm his stomach.

Things changed when European immigrants brought over beer recipes, which were cheaper to make and yielded fast results. But in 1920, when Prohibition became a reality, apples regained their reputation as the forbidden fruit. Those most dedicated to temperance burned their orchards to the ground. The apples that remained were grafted and mass produced for fresh eating, and the best cider apples either disappeared from the landscape or were forgotten. Hard cider was erased from the market for 60 years—until it was reinvented in a garage in Vermont.

Flash forward to 1991. A winemaker named Greg Failing was sitting in his two-car garage in Proctorsville, experimenting with fermenting apples. He shopped his concoctions, which he’d poured into wine bottles, around to distributors. But no one would take them. One such naysayer advised Failing to put the cider in 12-ounce beer bottles. When he did, the drink began to sell. Failing named his company ‘Woodchuck.’ Under CEO Bret Williams (who was also the first salesman) and COO Dan Rowell the company began to grow.

“That was a turning moment for hard cider,” said Ben Calvi, the general manager and cider maker today at Woodchuck’s parent company, Vermont Hard Cider, in Middlebury. “Ten years later, in 2001, Woodchuck was the first hard cider company to sell a million cases of cider and be nationally distributed.”

Now, Vermont has 17 established cideries that range from nationwide distributors, like Woodchuck, to local craft operations, like Citizen Cider and Stowe Cider, to hyper-local and orchard-based operations like Shacksbury and Champlain Orchards, to the wine-like cider at Eden Specialty Ciders. The category is expanding and, at the same time, cider makers are bringing the craft back to its roots.

Most of today’s mass-produced hard ciders are made with common grocery-store apples: Golden Delicious, Gala, Granny Smith and the likes.

While those sweet ciders are popular, a different kind of cider, made with an emphasis on the apple and a drier, more complex taste, is on the rise.

“Twenty years ago, the only kinds of cider Woodchuck made were the sweet ciders that are alternatives to beer,” Calvi said. “Still, 70 percent of ciders in the United States are like that. But now we have drier ciders that are really bringing out the characteristics of the apple, with balanced acidity and sugar and tannin levels, so they’re more complex. If you tasted our Addison, or our 25th Anniversary cider, it’s very different from the Amber.”

Cold Hollow is following suit. Their first hard cider on tap, called

Photo and recipe courtesy of S.P Reid/Champlain Orchards.

“If there’s any snow in the Cold Hollow parking lot, the staff’s not going to expect to see us until the afternoon,” he says.

When the skiing is done, a new day begins. Brown drives 15 minutes down the road from Stowe to the cider mill, which he’s owned since 2000. There, he’s greeted by the smell of freshly-baked cider donuts and the buzz of Cold Hollow’s many moving parts: the bakery, wine and beer tasting rooms, the restaurant and of course, the cider. The business peaks in the summer and fall, allowing Brown to sneak away during the snowy months to hit the slopes.

Cold Hollow is one of Vermont’s top attractions, boasting 300,000 happy visitors per year. But a few years back, many of them started asking the same question after browsing Cold Hollow’s non-alcoholic cider collection: “Where’s the hard stuff?”

The popularity of hard cider has risen dramatically in Vermont over the past decade, and the craving grows even more in the fall as the temperature drops, flannels become requisite attire and apples grow ripe for picking. Hard cider has been gaining traction with Vermonters for almost 30 years—ever since this state reintroduced the drink, which had pretty much vanished from American shelves for more than half a century.

First, a little history. Vermont’s love affair with cider dates back to the Colonial era, when Ethan Allen was known for the “stonewall”—a drink equal parts rum and

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At Woodchuck’s Middlebury cider house, taste from more than 20 ciders that are on tap.

Barn Dance, debuted two years ago. “We weren’t ready to just throw something out there,” Brown said. “We wanted to make sure that it was the quality that we wanted.”

And then there’s Shacksbury: a small, four-year-old cidery based in Vergennes. Founders Colin Davis and David Dolginow spend much of the fall foraging for “lost” apples, or feral apples on trees that evolved after Vermont’s Colonial-era cider boom. The two were just named to Wine Enthusiast’s “40 Under 40” list for 2017 and want to educate consumers about the fruit’s rich history. “It’s a lost way of thinking about apples,” Davis says.

Early apple trees were planted with seeds (instead of cloning and grafting, per today’s commercial practices). But apple seeds do not reproduce the exact same fruit as the tree which bore them. The seeds of a MacIntosh apple will not yield more MacIntosh apples—they’ll produce something entirely different. When Europeans first brought apple seeds to North America, they planted millions of trees, and no two were alike.

Farmers came to understand the diversity of apples. They knew which varieties to use for sauce, for pie, for cider.

Eventually, they identified the best baking apples and the best apples for fresh eating, and they cloned these species, reproducing them until the rest of the apples fell away and were forgotten.

The result? Seven varieties now dominate the grocery store apple market, and many Americans would hesitate to try anything else.

“The cider that’s most interesting to us is expressive of the fruit,” says Davis. Shacksbury has made many ciders from heirloom varieties, collecting crates of apples to make small, five-gallon ferments they send to their cider club members and offer in their Vergennes tasting room, which opened this summer.

Vermont is the perfect place to conduct such a project. Orchards were once likely prolific throughout New England andVermont’s rural landscape has created space for trees to continue to reproduce, creating new, unique varieties. Davis says the team samples apples from about 2,000 trees each fall.

“I think anyone who hikes around Vermont has noticed that there’s wild apple trees everywhere,” he says. And for those who want to discover lost apples, he adds: “I would encourage people, if they walk by an abandoned tree in October or November, to pick one.” n 16 Fall 2017 vtskiandride.com

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Adventures

FIRE ON THE MOUNTAINS

For the best views of foliage in its most fiery colors, hike above the summits of the Green Mountains and climb one of these 11 historic fire towers. By Kristen Fountain

Photo by Nathanael Asaro

E

ach fall, I hike Elmore Mountain. Last October, I was five months pregnant, but still went to climb the fire tower at the summit for the sweeping multi-hued view of the Green Mountains.

It was a weekday, mid-morning, crisp and sunny when I set out alone from Elmore State Park with two full water bottles. I decided I would go slowly and avoid the steep final section of the main trail to the summit by taking the slightly longer Ridge Trail for a 5.5-mile out and back.

During my two-hour mosey, I was passed by two solo runners, one woman in Spandex with a waist pack full of supplies, the other a man loping by in basketball shorts and a collared shirt. There were also several couples, one with a friendly black lab. I was sure that all of us had the same goal: reach the 80-year-old

crisscrossing metal tower that shoots 45 feet up above tree-line.

At the peak of fall, thousands of people climb mountains like Mt. Mansfield, Lincoln Peak or Killington— and there are few better places to see Vermont’s foliage than from the summit clearings. But if you want a different and more unique view of maples in flaming shades of red and orange, gold birches and mountain ash, hike to one of Vermont’s historic fire towers.

Located so as to maximize sight lines across the landscape, these old towers were designed to have immense views in all directions. Many are a short hike or drive from a ski area and some, such as the towers at Stratton and Okemo, are just off the summit lifts. Six (Bald, Burke, Elmore, Mt. Olga, Spruce and Stratton) are on the National Historic Lookout Register.

If you want to win fall, make the hike to the top of the Bald Mountain tower (above) or any of the 10 other towers on the following pages.

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11 FIRE TOWER HIKES

Today, only 16 fire towers remain standing and at more than half, you can still climb the full five stories for spectacular views across the Green Mountains.

For trails and maps, see vtskiandride.com.

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Burke Mountain has the second oldest fire tower site in the state.

Belvidere (2) Halfway between Stowe and Jay Peak, the Long Trail crosses Belvidere Mountain. There are several routes up but from the trailhead parking on Route 118 it’s a 5.6 mile (and 2,000 vertical feet of elevation gain) to the summit.

Burke Mountain (3) Established in 1913, Burke Mountain is the second oldest lookout site in Vermont. The 54’ Aermotor tower with its 7’ x 7’ steel cab replaced a wooden tower that was blown down in the great hurricane of 1938. From Shelburne Lodge Road, hike the Red or the Blue Trail to the summit for views to Canada and Willoughby Gap. Elmore Mountain (4) Elmore State Park, on the shores of Lake Elmore is about 10 miles north of

Photo by Nathanael Asaro

Though no longer active, these towers once played a key role in preserving the forests and farmlands. In 1910, the state legislature gave the new state forest commission authority to post watchmen on peaks on private land. Droughts over the previous decade had led to record fires throughout New England’s forests. The idea was borrowed from Maine’s North Woods where the first tower system was built in 1905.

In Vermont, Camel’s Hump hosted the first lookout, who spent the 1911 season fully exposed to the elements. His work station was a cement table with a county map, a compass and a telephone were his only tools. Over the next several years, large landowners taxed themselves to construct towers and shelters from Bromley and Stratton Mountains in the south to Mount Carmel and Pico in the west, to Burke, Gore and West Pond Mountains in the Northeast Kingdom. Dozens more followed in the decade to come.

In that pre-satellite era, having two or more observation towers in close proximity was the key to triangulating a fire’s location.

An observer would use an alidade, a stationary circular tool, to measure the angle between geodetic north and the fire. One tower’s

Bald Mountain (1) Not far from Burke, Bald Mountain is the tallest peak in the Lake Willoughby area and the third tallest in the Northeast Kingdom. A 2.1mile (one way) hike on the Long Pond Trail will put you at the summit. From there, climb the restored fire tower for views north to Canada. Nearby, the non-profit Northwoods Center has restored one of the original lookout cabins which now serves as an overnight shelter and warming hut for visitors to Willoughby State Forest.

Stowe. From the park, it’s about a 1.7 mile hike up the Fire Tower Trail to the summit. Look north from the fire tower and you can see Jay Peak and, to the south, Stowe’s Mt. Mansfield and Smuggler’s Notch’s Madonna mountain.

Spruce Mountain (5) East of the town of Barre, in Vermont’s first state forest, the L.R. Jones State Forest, there’s an easy 2.2-mile hike to a fire tower that has sat atop Spruce Mountain (3,037 feet) since it was moved here from St. Albans in 1944. Heading up, don’t miss the series of rock crevices and caves adjacent to the trail.

Bear Hill (6) You can actually drive to the base of the fire tower on Bear Hill in Allis State Park in Brookfield.

Look for the stone walls that mark the boundaries of Wallace Allis’s old farm. Allis donated the land to the state in 1928.

Mount Ascutney (7) Though its original tower was turned into a viewing platform that stands only 24feet high, the short hike to Ascutney’s summit from the base area is worth it. Unlike the Green Mountains, Ascutney is a monadnock, standing alone in the Connecticut River Valley with 360-degree views.

Okemo Mountain (8) In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps erected a steel tower at the 3,343-foot summit of Okemo Mountain. If you take the lift up or—better yet—hike the Healdville Trail (5.8 miles, round trip), you will see why. From the top you can see all the way to the Adirondacks, White Mountains and Berkshires.

Stratton Mountain (9) At Stratton you can hike to the top or take the Sunburst Six chairlift. It’s also one of the few remaining lookout cabins that is manned: former observers Hugh and Jeanne Joudry now serve as summit caretakers, working for the Green Mountain Club. The couple, well-loved fixtures on the mountain, have been living there all summer for more than 20 years.

Photo by Nathanael Asaro

Glastenbury Mountain (10) It’s a 21-mile round trip hike along the Long Trail to the Glastenbury Mountain tower in southwestern Vermont’s vast Green Mountain National Forest. Unless you’re a marathon trail runner, that kind of distance requires a very early morning and speedy travel or a more leisurely overnight in the nearby log shelter. But the views and solitude are worth it.

Mount Olga (11) Not far from Wilmington and Mount Snow, a steel tower rises from the top of Mt. Olga in Molly State Park. From the top you can see the old trails of the abandoned Hogback Mountain Ski Area and Hogback Mountain Conservation area. Hike up (it’s an easy 1.7-mile loop from the park entrance) and scout your lines as Hogback is being developed as a backcountry ski site.

From the 50-foot-tall Belvidere tower you can see Jay Peak, Mt. Mansfield and, on a clear day, New Hampshire’s Mt. Washington.

measurement could identify the direction of the fire, but a second tower’s measurement is needed to determine how far the fire was from the first tower. Additional measurements from other towers would increase accuracy. Usually, a state forester would collect the reported measurements by telephone and plot the angles on a map. The fire was where all the lines intersected.

Between the 1930s and the 1940s, there were 38 fire observation towers inhabited by paid observers in every corner of the state. But by the end of the 1960s, Vermont, like other states, stopped building new fire towers and began allowing their existing ones to fall into disrepair.

Small airplanes had become a more effective and less expensive way to track fires.

At the same time, big fires had become less common for several reasons, including changes in land use and forest management. Also, decades of successful fire suppression had changed the composition of the forest, making it less flammable. In particular, maples, birches and beeches—the trees that give Vermont is reputation for fiery foliage— had replaced red and white oaks. Oak leaves degrade slowly and provide perfect tinder.

That fall day, at the top of the Elmore tower, I tried to imagine the life of an observer from decades past. The tower was built in 1939, a year after a hurricane had downed trees around the region, increasing the risk of fire. The watchman, or sometimes watchwoman, would have lived in a small nearby cabin for weeks at a time during the summer and fall. Every morning at daybreak, he would have climbed the flights of shaky metal grate steps to the perch in the cab.

As I climbed, the wind was just right, strong enough to ruffle the leaves but not so high as to make the tower rattle and sway. I thought of my daughter and how, one day, I’d bring her to the top as well, repeating the hike she made before she was ever born. n

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MODERN

CABIN Photo Credit

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Dream Home The local stone fireplace, cedar shingles, muted gray paneling and screened porch are architect Colin Flavin’s nod to a woodland cabin— but done in an entirely contemporary style.

TUCKED IN THE WOODS ABOVE THE MAD RIVER VALLEY IS A REFUGE TWO DIEHARD SKIERS BUILT AFTER 30 YEARS OF COMMUTING FROM BOSTON. STORY BY LISA LYNN PHOTOS BY NAT REA.

vtskiandride.com Fall 2017 23

u “UP HERE, WHEN PEOPLE ASK YOU WHAT YOU DO, THEY DON’T MEAN FOR WORK, THEY MEAN WHAT DO YOU DO FOR FUN.” — Jane Goldstein

T

he first thing you see when you come to the end of the drive that winds through the woods above Fasyton is a Mad River Glen single chair. It dangles from a stand, like an exclamation mark in the middle of the circular drive—a testament to why the house is there.

In 1977, Bruce Depper was working at Ski Market in Boston when a friend convinced him to make the drive north to ski Vermont. After few good days at Mad River Glen and Sugarbush, he was hooked. “I loved skiing so much that a week after we got married, there was a big dump and I looked at Jane, my new wife, and said ‘I gotta go,’ and just left. She learned to ski pretty quickly after that.”

The couple began coming up every weekend, first sharing a house with friends and then buying a home.

Today, Jane Goldstein, a partner at one of the nation’s top law firms, skis every chance she can. She also chairs the board of the Green Mountain Valley School, the ski racing academy the couple’s daughter, Brett attended before going on to Colby College.

On winter weekends and vacations, the couple make the drive from their home in Swampscott, Ma. “As soon as I make that turn off I-89, I

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A screened porch off the living room is perfect for summer dinners. Flavin positioned the fireplace so you could see both the fire and the view of the meadow beyond.

start to breathe,” says Goldstein as she shrugs off her work blazer on a Friday afternoon.

“It’s so different up here: when people ask you what you do, they don’t mean for work, they mean what do you do for fun.”

High in the hills above Fayston, Goldstein and Depper are settling into the dream house they’ve been working on for four years. The air hints of winter, but the trees that surround the house still hold their leaves. From the driveway, terraces of Lake Champlain stone, filled with ferns and river birch, lead up to a blue stone walkway beneath the giant overhangs and the entrance of the main house.

The landscaping, by Keith Wagner of Burlington firm Wagner Hodgson, is simple, local, low-maintenance and sustainable. Like the cedar-shingled house, it blends with the surrounding 60 acres of woodland.

“Most people opt for big views of the valley,” says Colin Flavin, the Boston architect who worked with the couple to build first the guest house, and then the main home. “Bruce and Jane had lived in the Mad River Valley for a long time. They understand the culture here and wanted something less obtrusive.”

Flavin positioned the house, which sits on the north side of a hill, so that the large windows would face south and look out at a wildflower meadow and into the woods.

“The windows catch light perfectly in the The guest house’s winter when the sun is low,” notes Depper, windows, which face “but the large overhangs give us shade in the south, capture light summer and—this is the best part—let us but are protected from keep the windows open when it’s raining.” snow and rain (left).

Depper, a retired developer, knew what Rolling blinds slide he wanted and worked with Flavin’s Howard down at night and a Raley and Brendan O’Reilly’s Gristmill woodstove makes it a Builders out of Stowe to produce the vision. cozy space. The couple “We’d had another home here—that, by (lower right), sent their the way, we sold back to the same person we daughter Brett to Green bought it from 17 years ago—so I knew we Mountain Valley School. had to deal with snow coming off the roof,” Depper says as he walks around the building.

Flavin’s soaring overhangs help accomplish that. Giant fir beams created by Vermont Timberworks, out of North Springfield,Vt., frame and support the roof.

However, the beams seem to vanish inside, the structural support hidden behind the clean fir ceilings.“There’s hardly any trimwork, anywhere in the house, just clean lines,” notes Gristmill’s O’Reilly.

“For a builder, that means we had to be super precise with every border.” Even in the master bath, surfaces meet almost seamlessly: the tiles, concrete of the main floor, the sole of the shower and the stone rim of the sunken bath all flow together with barely a crack visible.

Throughout the first level, the floors are poured concrete, which

Before launching into the main house, Bruce Depper and Jane Goldstein worked closely with architect Colin Flavin to design the GUEST HOUSE (below, with the adjacent garage.) “That really allowed us to work out all the kinks,” says Flavin. The soaring roof line provides a high ceiling and lets light spill into the guest house.

In the garage, the left bay is tall enough to allow for a lift that can raise one of the couple’s cars above the other, turning a two-car garage into a three-car space. The garage also stores the family’s quiver of skis.

vtskiandride.com Fall 2017 25

Gutters on the roof spill into a contained rain garden. Local landscaper Keith Wagner focused on using native plants and local stone.

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u warm in the sun and keep the house cool in the summer when the overhangs shade the giant windows. Roller blinds magically slide down at a push of a button over the Loewen windows at night or in toobright sunshine.

The open floorplan of the main living area make it easy to entertain.

“We’ve had parties for 50 or 60 people here,” says Depper, who is the cook in the family. His office and pantry is tucked right behind the kitchen, with a second entrance near the mudroom.

The kitchen and dining area feel like they are made for a crew of friends to wander in after skiing. The wall behind the stove serves as a chalkboard, with the bar menu scrawled on one side and a shopping list on the other. A Rowland Scherman photo of Steven Stills hangs over one counter with more of the photographer’s work (featuring Andy Warhol, Judy Collins and Joni Mitchell) on adjacent walls. A painting by noted Warren artist Billy Brauer, “Tango,” hangs in the dining area.

“It was Jane’s idea to have two modular stainless steel tables set on rollers so they could be reconfigured as one long table or a square,” Depper says. In the same way, the Roche Bobois sectionals can be rearranged in endless variations.

Gristmill’s masons crafted the fireplace and chimney to Flavin’s specs using Lake Champlain stone. It opens to the living room on one side and on the outside, a second fireplace warms a terrace. In the mudroom (complete with built-in boot heaters and storage for all the ski apparel) exposed steel beams and corrugated metal backdrops give an industrial edge.

“Building the guest house first allowed both the owners and us to figure out all the details,” says Flavin and doing so saved both time and money. “When it came time to build the main house, we had everything—from every faucet to doorknob—all picked out,” says Depper. “I know from my years as a builder that changes are what

The master bath’s sunken tub looks out on the recessed hot tub (top).

Walls of the mudroom (lower left) withstand abuse and boot heaters are tucked under the bench. A chalkboard wall (lower right) displays the bar menu and steel tables on rollers make for flexible entertaining.

cost money. We aimed for as few changes as possible.”

The guest house was completed in 2014, with a small bedroom, bath and laundry and kitchen. It now serves as Brett’s quarters.

“When our daughter first looked at the plans, she said, ‘But where’s my room?’ since the three bedrooms in the main house are fairly small,” remembers Goldstein. “But when she realized she got the whole guest house with her own kitchen, she was like ‘ok, I get it.’”

Another great reason to return home. ■

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snow

The first snows on Mt. Mansfield, seen here from Cambridge, Vt.

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Photos by Keith Edmunds

the

first

By Donald Hall WINTER STARTS IN NOVEMBER’S STILLNESS.

We know ourselves by winter — in snow, in cold, in darkness.

For some of us the first true snow begins it; for others winter begins with the first bruising assault of zero weather.

There is yet another sort, light-lovers, for whom winter begins with dark’s onset in mid-August. If we wake as we ought to at 5:30, we begin waking in darkness. Some of us, on the other hand, cherish the gradually increasing dark, which we wrap around ourselves in the prosperous warmth of woodstove, oil, electric blanket, storm window, and insulation.

Often October has shown one snow flurry, sometimes even September. For that matter, it once snowed in New Hampshire every month of the year. In 1816 it snowed and froze in June, in July, in August—the Poverty Year, season of continuous winter, when farmers planted over and over again, over and over again ripped out frozen shoots of corn and pumpkin. An 1815 volcanic eruption in Indonesia

did it—though at the time our preachers thought the source more local and divine wrath explicit.

Winter starts in November, whatever the calendar says, with gray of granite, with russet and brown of used leaves. In November stillness our stonewalls wait, attentive, and gaunt revenant trunks of maple and oak settle down for winter’s stasis, which annually mimics and presages death for each of us and for the planet. November’s palette, Braque’s analytic Cubism, squared with fieldstones, interrupts itself briefly with the bright-flapped caps of deer hunters and their orange jackets. Always it is modified by the black-green fir, enduring, hinting at permanence.

Serious snow begins one November afternoon.

South of us Mount Kearsarge gradually disappears into white gauzy cloud, vanishing mountain, weather-sign for all of us to its north. For one

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“Th first snow sets me dreaming...

November snow is revenance, a dreamy restitution of childhood, even infancy.”

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of all it is the reversion of many into one. It is substance, almost the idea of substance, that turns grass, driveway, hayfield, old garden, log pile, Saab, watering trough, collapsed barn, and stonewall into the one white.

We finish early in November the task of preparing the house for snow—tacking poly over the low clapboards, raking leaves against the foundations as high as we can rake them. When the first real snow arrives, no dusting half inch but a solid foot, we complete the insulation, for it is snow that keeps us warm.

After a neighbor’s four-wheel-drive pickup, plow bolted in front, swoops clean our U-shaped driveway, and after we dig out the mailbox for Bert’s rural delivery, it is time to heap the snow over leaves and against poly, around the house, on all sides of the house, against the granite foundation stones. Arctic winds halt before this white guard.

When bright noon melts inches of snow away from the house, reflecting heat from the snowy clapboard, it leaves cracks of cold air for us to fill when new snow falls all winter long.

But November, although it begins winter, is only winter’s approach, with little snow and with cold that announces itself only to increase. The calendar’s winter begins at the solstice, Advent’s event: the birth of the child who rises from winter to die and rise again in spring. November is autumn’s burial, and the smoke of victims sacrificed is thanks for harvest and magic as we go into ourselves like maples for winter’s bear-sleep. We make transition by way of feast and anticipatory snow, toward the long, white, hard hundred days, the true winter of our annual deaths.

We wait for December to feel the cold, I mean c o l d , for longer than a week, but now we are ready for snow. n Donald Hall is the former poet laureate of the United States. Excerpted from “Why We Live Here,” from Here at Eagle Pond, by Donald Hall, copyright 1990.

Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Photo by Keith Edumnds

hundred and eighty years the people of this house have looked south at dawn’s light and again at sunset to tell the coming weather, reliable in 1803 when the first builder put in the south windows and reliable still.

When Kearsarge disappears the storm comes closer. Birds gather at the feeder, squabbling, gobbling their weight. When they are full theyPhotos lookby for shelter, and we do Keith Edmunds the same, or at least we bring wood from the shed to stack beside the old Glenwoods and the new Jøtul.

Every year the first snow sets me dreaming. By March it will only bring the grumps, but November snow is revenance, a dreamy restitution of childhood or even infancy.Tighten the door and settle a cloth snake against the breeze from the door’s bottom; make sure the storms are firmly shut; add logs to the stove and widen the draft. Sit in a chair looking south into blue twilight that arrives earlier every day — as the sky flakes and densens, as the first clear flakes float past the porch’s wood to light on dirt of the driveway and on brown frozen grass or dry stalks of the flower border.

They seem tentative and awkward at first, then in a hastening host a whole brief army falls, white militia paratrooping out of the close sky over various textures, making them one. Snow is white and gray, part and whole, infinitely various yet infinitely repetitious, soft and hard, frozen and melting, a creaking underfoot and a soundlessness. But first

February 17 “was a complete surprise powder day,” says Darian Boyle. Th former World Champion freeskier found a slice of heaven in the untracked woods off Sugarbush’s Paradise. “I was skiing with my brother and John Atkinson, a buddy. I went in for a big arcing turn and the snow shot right over my helmet.” And she’s 5 feet 11.

“I’ve sent this photo to my friends in Tahoe to show them that Vermont always delivers: you just gotta head up to the mountain every day because there’s usually a surprise somewhere.”

Photo by John Atkinson/Sugarbush

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Endless

Winter LAST SEASON, MOTHER NATURE GAVE AND GAVE—AND SKIERS TOOK AND TOOK. RESPECT TO THOSE WHO GOT THE GOODS AND LOGGED MORE THAN 100 (OR 200) DAYS, IN VERMONT.

BY LISA LYNN

vtskiandride.com Fall 2017 33

Tim McLellan kicked off the 2016/17 season on Oct. 28 even before the lifts ran at Stowe (top). Brooks Curran earned some air and powder on Nov. 22 after hiking at Jay Peak (below).

Merisa Jones, a bartender in Killington, woke at dawn. “There was supposed to be a frost that night,” she recalls. She pulled on ski pants, her Carhartt jacket and a hat. In the base area parking lot, she loaded her skis on her shoulders and set out to hike the mountain, beneath the North Ridge Triple. “I thought maybe there’d be a tiny bit of snow or some fast grass,” she says. There wasn’t.

That didn’t stop Jones from starting Day One of what would be her second 205-day season, 195 of those at Killington, earning her another year in Killington’s 100 Day Club and another year closer to the 500 Club. (see “The 500 Club”). She skied grass to the bottom.

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Photos: Brooks Curran; Travis Lee

Her season started on September 29, last year.

By Feburay 13, the snowpack was so deep at Mad River Glen that Noah Ranallo could dive in anywhere (above). Inset, Merisa Jones earned her 100 Day Club status, for the second year in a row.

Her last day of lift-served was June 1, before she went in for surgery to repair an ACL, torn in May. “It was just an incredible day,” Jones says of Killington’s closing day with a giant party and free lift access. “Everyone who values the skiing lifestyle was there.

There were huge lines but no one seemed to mind, it was just an awesome vibe.”

Photo top by Brooks Curran, inset Chandler Burgess

The 500 Club

You probably know someone who racked up 100 days or more last season.

The 500 Club skiers have done that 5 years running. By Evan Johnson Every powder day yields similar sights: In the earliest hours cars fill the parking spaces closest to the lift and tailgates become mobile changing rooms. You see them there, even on the days when finding a quality snow surface is like visiting a singles bar in a far-flung region of Quebec: The odds are good, but the goods are odd.

No matter if it’s mashed potatoes, blue-ice, death cookies, ball-bearings or Styrofoam on the slopes, the same cars pull up to the base, the same drivers get out, rip turns for one or two hours, and at the end of the day, compare notes over beers.

The weekend warriors may be up later this evening or tomorrow, but weekdays, Old Man Winter’s latest delivery belongs to those willing to get up, gear up and get after it.

For Killington, which revved up the bullwheels on October 25 and had 6 feet of snow on the Superstar course in time for the World Cup, it was the longest season since 2002.With 249 inches, it was also Killington’s deepest in 15 years.

Last season, Ullr smiled on all of Vermont.

In bars up and down Route 100, the winter of In 2012/13, Killington Resort’s president Mike Solimano began to recognize the men and women who make the commitment to the sport regardless of conditions.

It’s called the 100 Club, named for the minimum number of days its members ski in Killington to gain entry. Since the founding, its ranks have grown to around 130.

Within this cadre of die-hards is an even more elite group, skiers who have met that 100-day threshold for five years running: the 500 Club. Their ranks are slim—just around 25—and include bartenders, finance types and retirees.

They’ve cajoled employers, persuaded significant others and maybe told a white lie or two—all in pursuit of squeezing every turn possible out of winter. Here, three explain why.

Rob Kovalesky

Hometown: Danbury, Ct. Age: 65 Ski days in 2016/17: 144 Profession: Sales and business development. Best day of the season: “It was probably the February morning

vtskiandride.com Fall 2017 35

Winter Storm Stella and the sunny day after, there were still face shots. The biggest lines at Stowe after March’s Stella? Hiking out of the backcountry.

2016-17 will get rehashed over beers for years.

In the north, there was knee-deep powder to be found at Jay Peak as early as November 22 (see our cover shot). Down south, Mount Snow got hit with 9 inches of fresh on Mother’s Day, May 14.

In between there were storms after epic storms. Storms that hit an instant reset button on untracked lines. Storms that were so big they got names. First Pluto threw down as much as 20 inches on February 15we loaded up at the Snowden Quad. We had about 20 inches of fresh snow. It was incredible floating down Chute.

What’s your story? “I’ve been skiing Killington since 1965. I’ve lived through gas shortages in the early '70s and winters with no snow. I’ve also had some winters like Christmas of 1969 when we got 48 inches over four days. It was so severe that we were stuck in Rutland for two days and when we made it up to Pico they still couldn’t clear the tracks for some of the T-bars.

Five years ago I was between job opportunities because of corporate downsizing. My son encouraged me to go up to Killington and ski in the morning and continue the job search for the rest of the day. When I realized there was the possibility of hitting the 100day mark, I contacted Jeff Temple [Killington Resort’s Director of Mountain Operations] and Mike Solimano [Killington’s President and CEO] and invited them to

36 Fall 2017 vtskiandride.com

take some pictures at the bottom of Bear Mountain to celebrate the historic mark.

That was the start of the 100 Club.

I have some flexibility to do remote work and I take all of my vacation time and plow it into the winter. I don’t take summer vacations. This year will be a little different since I’m in a new position so it will be a little more difficult to continue the streak. But five years in a row is pretty darn good, right?

Everyone enjoys the fact that it’s a way of life. As I say, it’s good for your heart, body, mind and soul. With all of the 100 and 500 Club members combined (and Killington management team) everyone’s appreciated and it feels like one big family.”

Tucker Lange

Hometown: Killington, Vt. Age: 39 Ski days in 2016/17: 210 Profession: Realtor and ski coach at

Photo top by Dennis Curran; Inset by Brooks Curran

Close to 5 feet fell at Smuggler’s Notch (top) during

16, and then for three days in mid-March, Winter Storm Stella (“STELLLLLAAAAA!!” as riders howled in the woods) let loose.

By Tuesday afternoon, March 13, when whiteouts made driving all but impossible, cars still crept up to the base areas. By Thursday, it was still snowing and lactic acid buildup was starting to afflict a major portion of Vermont’s ski and ride population.

Bolton Valley reported 58 inches—yes, nearly five feet—of snow by the morning of March 16 and Burlington recorded the second highest snowfall in history. It didn’t stop there; for the next few weeks more blizzards layered on a high-elevation snowpack. This kept the diehards skinning or hiking and laying down tracks on patches of white through midsummer.Total snowfall at Stowe measured 375 inches by the end of the season.

On May 21, Redneck Racing’s Robby Kelley and Andrew McNealus hiked to the top of Stowe and set up camp. The next morning, the men crawled out of the tent while the air was still chilly. Below, they had laid gates down the strip of dirty, rutted snow that clung to Nosedive trail. A drone captured the action as the two World Cup racers snaked down the gnarly, improvised race course.

On July 28, University of Vermont junior Matt Testa got his birthday wish: he hiked up to the last patches of snow on Mt. Mansfield, made a few turns and blew out the candles on his 20th year and his 96th day on snow for the ski season.

In August, Kristine Keeney, 29, a community planner with a master’s degree from Tufts, made the trek from her home in the Mad River Valley to Sunday River, Me., to ski a last pile of snow she knew of in the East.

Mother Nature threw down all season at Mount Snow (top) layering in a sweet extra 9 inches on Mother’s Day. Kristine Keeney, (inset) and a buddy dressed for closing day at Killington, June 1.

Photos courtesy Mount Snow (top), Kristine Keeney (inset)

“I’ve skied 11 months straight, at least once in every month now except September,” Keeney said, after logging her 116th day in Sunday River. Her best day? “It was probably my first day, October 23.”

That morning Keeney drove an hour north to Jay Peak. “There was about one to two feet of snow on top of nothing,” she remembers.

“Then, when I got home, I skinned up Mad River that afternoon. I was so tired I could barely walk the next day.”

For Keeney, who tries each year to ski Killington Mountain School and Killington Ski Club Best day of last season: “We had some really good days in November. I probably shouldn’t say where I skied, but it was on the southern part of the mountain. That’s like asking a movie critic what their favorite movie of all time is.”

What’s your story? “This is my fifth 200-day season in a row. This year, on my 187th day, I hit 1,000 days in the past five years. A lot of my family doesn’t ski, but after three or four years they understand that it’s important to me.

When someone asks how many days you got and you say 210, they kind of get it but they don’t understand what goes into it. Sometimes you’re hurt. Sometimes you don’t want to get up. Sometimes its pouring rain and it’s going to be below zero by the end of the day and everything will be firm and nasty. Sometimes there’s only one lift open. Other times on those crappy days you’re

a day more than she did the previous year, it’s mainly just being out on snow she loves.

“Sugarbush’s Mt. Ellen opens at 8:00 am during the week and if I ski for just an hour, getting outside in the cold air before work, I feel great for the rest of the day,” she says.

Her boss understands. “The thing about the Mad River Valley is there’s a really different ski bum culture here: your boss and other professional people expect you to be out when it snows.We have meetings on the chairlift here and the attitude here is ‘play hard, and you’ll the only one out there.

I have no idea where I find the motivation. It’s pure love of the sport. As weird as it sounds, people who have real jobs or don’t get to do what I do look up to me or look to me for inspiration. Sometimes I feel like I’m not even doing it for myself, it’s that other people want me to get to this milestone every year.

My parents scrounged up enough money to send me here on the weekends. They didn’t have the money to put me through Killington Mountain School, so I drove myself to a lot of competitions. When I saw kids bashing bumps at 15, I knew I wanted to get out of racing and this was where I wanted to do it.

If I don’t go out, what kind of shit am I going to catch at the bar later? I can’t be part of this community if I’m not going to bust my ass every day.”

vtskiandride.com Fall 2017 37

World Cup racer Robby Kelley arcs gates just after dawn on May 21 at Stowe. Matt Testa was still ripping lines on his birthday, July 28 (below).

Lynn Munsinger

Age: 65 Hometown: Age: 65 Killington, Vt. Ski days in 2016/17: 169 Profession: Children’s book illustrator Best day of the season: “We had so many last year! There was one day last season when I was the tenth chair and was getting face-shots under the lift.”

What’s her story? “I always look forward to those first runs in the morning when everything’s pristine. I usually ski about four hours unless it’s a powder day then I’ll be out longer. I can’t wait to get out of bed and ski.

I have no problem with that. It feels like I’m being punished when I have to stay home for whatever reason.

Then I come home and work in the evenings.

I’ve been skiing here for 16 or 17 years. I was attracted to the size and variety of the great terrain and I figured I wouldn’t get bored and I haven’t. There’s nowhere else in Vermont I’d rather be. I like Vertigo quite

00 Fall 38 September 2017 vtskiandride.com 2015 vtskiandride.com

or more, skiing is just a way of life.

As Merisa Jones says: “I don’t count days, I just mark them on the calendar. It’s not like I wake up each morning and ask myself, ‘Am I going to go skiing today?” It’s more that I’m asking myself ‘What am I going to wear skiing today and where am I going to go.”

Sidelined with a recovering ACL, Jones is already looking forward to shaking things up

a bit. It’s got some interesting pitches to it. I like the trails that they leave ungroomed the best. Old Superstar got a lot of nice snow last winter so that was great too. Then there’s Devil’s Fiddle. It’s like skiing out West. I live at Bear Mountain so I’m looking right at it every morning.

I’ve had my share of major injuries. I’ve dislocated both shoulders and tore my rotator cuff.

I had a bad accident 12 years ago where I tore everything up in my knee. Subsequently I’ve had a knee replacement and it works great. After the downtime and recovery, I’m a little more risk-averse than I used to be. I don’t know if there’s a trick to it. You have to go into the season being in pretty good shape.

Skiing 169 days was my longest season yet. The bumps in April were great, but I was feeling it by the end. This year I might cut a bit back. 130 [days] seems like a good number, if you’re up for it.”

Top by Andrew McNealus. Inset: Sophia Syrene. Bottom: Lynn Munsinger

get your work done tonight or tomorrow.”

It’s a practice Sugarbush owner Win Smith subscribes to as well, getting out on the mountain by 9:00 a.m. pretty much every morning for a few runs. Last season, Smith logged 128 days, mostly at Sugbarbush.

For some, counting days is a way of remembering the winter or gauging milestones, but for most who reach 100 days

On Aug. 11 Mad River Glen freeskier Kelsey Boleski took time out from working at Outdoor Gear Exchange to mine a local gravel pit. On June 1 at

Photo top by Brooks Curran, bottom by Chandler Burgesso

Killington,lifts were free and the living was easy.

this season. “I won’t be able to downhill until May, the doctor said, but I can still skin uphill and Nordic ski.” She’s also going to learn to use a sit-ski and volunteer with Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports. “It’s not as if I structure skiing around my life. I’ve chosen to live my life around skiing.”

Chris Tower, a former pro snowboarder from Fletcher, Vt., has, too. Tower was born with Legg–Calvé–Perthes disease (LCPD).

He was told he’d never be able to walk without leg braces. At age 5, he kicked them off and set out on a bike, then took up skiing and then snowboarding.

Now, Tower teaches Ninja Warrior classes at Regal Gym in Essex. He has a mini terrain park he’s built in his back yard which he hits up every day he can. And he hikes for his turns, often with a camera crew to shoot for Green Mountain Rippers. Tower hasn’t bought a lift ticket in 12 years. “One year, before I got a splitboard, I logged 1,500 miles snowshoeing and hiking for turns,” he recalls. Two seasons ago he released a video of the 10 consecutive months he spent skiing.

“Riding is what makes me happy,” Tower says, simply. “Life’s too short to be serious.

Why not ride every day you can?” ■

vtskiandride.com September 2015 00

S ’ E C D I E L A -SPE ND A H L G I R H NDE O W A

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o h w d a r g l o o h Sc n i a t n u o M n o tt a r t S e h t f o w ne k e l p o e p w e f , o g a r a e y

It was a breakout season for Alice Merryweather. Her win at the World Junior Championship earned her a spot at the World Cup finals in Aspen.

, 7 1 0 2 In . p u C d l r o W on t g n i l l i eK h t t a h t 8 5 d e start

Photos by Cody Downard

“Ski like a girl,”

“Mikaela, We Love You!” It was November 25, 2016, and a group of girls were screaming and waving hand-drawn signs, as they pressed against the thin plastic fencing.

That was all that separated spectators from the racers in the finish area at the first World Cup event to come to Vermont since 1978.

More than 30,000 had traveled to Killington from around the East Coast to watch the world’s top women ski racers flash through the slalom and giant slalom gates on the concrete-hard snow on Superstar.

Before the pros started, young ski racers from around the state marched with their ski club teams in the opening ceremonies, banners held high. Four promising junior racers got the chance to forerun the course. Then, everyone waited with baited breath for Mikaela Shiffrin, at 21 just a few years out of Burke Mountain

. d e g n a that ch

n n u D ff u T h a r

By Sa

Academy, to do what she does best: slam down a slalom win.

What spectators might not have noticed the first day was another Vermont ski academy grad who was racing her first World Cup event in the U.S. Weeks earlier, Alice Merryweather eeked out a spot in the Killington Audi FIS World Cup line-up by finishing top three in a time trial.

“Getting to race at Killington was crazy,” Meryweather recalls.

“My team had a time trial to decide who got the last three start spots, and I don’t think I’ve ever been so nervous for anything in my life.” All the members of the women’s Europa Cup team were competing for three Killington GS start spots. “We were pretty awkward about the whole thing, as you can imagine a group of best friends pitted against each other would be, and the environment was really tense,” Merryweather remembers.

“When I found out I made the cut, I was ecstatic. I mean, I was going to be racing a World Cup in front of hundreds of friends and family members, and thousands of fans, all in the region that taught me how to ski. It’s still hard to describe how ridiculously excited I was and how lucky I felt to have that opportunity. Then, having earned a spot, it was pretty funny to show up to the race unknown by my competitors and most of the fans there.”

vtskiandride.com Fall 2017 41

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Training for the World Cup downhill, Merryweather learned early on that if you’re going to ski 80 mph, you better have strong legs.

Photo by Cody Downard;, top; Brooks Curran, right

Merryweather started 58th out of 61 in the first day’s giant slalom. “I didn’t put any expectations on myself, I just wanted to go out there and ski my fastest. It was surreal to race a World Cup in front of the ski community that raised me.”

It had been warm that morning and foggy and Merryweather wasn’t on the course for 20 seconds before she got caught up in a rut and went off course.

“Superstar is the real deal. Right out of the start, it’s crazy, in-your-face steep for the first five or so turns, so I had to be particularly warmed up and mentally prepared. I battled really hard and made it past the steeps, but couldn’t keep up with the fast rhythm and bumps and holes that had formed down below.

I still enjoyed every second of it, even though I didn’t finish and only a few people knew who I was. The support I felt from the New England ski racing fans was overwhelming.”

This year, Alice Merryweather is no longer an unknown. She won downhill gold at World Juniors in Sweden in 2017 and finished third in the super G at the U.S. National Championships. Her Juniors win earned her a spot at the World Cup finals in Aspen last March where she finished a respectable 19th against the top downhillers in the world.

Merryweather’s wins (and her college acceptances to both Harvard and Dartmouth) come from an unparalleled inner drive that speaks to the dedication it takes to go from a young club racer to the World Cup level.

It was her early success in club races that sent Merryweather to Stratton Mountain School where she was fast enough to earn a spot on the U.S. Ski Team in 2016. “I kept sur-

prising myself with the results I was putting out,” she remembers. “I realized even as a kid that this was something I wanted to put a lot of energy into — early on, I said: ‘I want to go to Stratton, because I think I could do something cool.’”

Merryweather recalls when she was 7 or 8, racing NASTAR at Bretton Woods, N.H., chasing her older brother, Simon, through the green-and-yellow-flagged courses. (NASTAR, for the uninitiated, is a national program that allows any skier or snowboarder of any age to race against a time set by U.S. Ski Teamers at the beginning of the season.) “I remember getting super competitive with Simon, and wanting to get that little gold pin,” says Merryweather, now 20.

It wasn’t always that way, though. Merryweather has been sliding down mountains since age 3, but when her parents first tried to leave her at group lessons she balked. “I hated it so much that I screamed and cried,” she says.

“She was not happy at all!” says her mother, Liz, with a laugh during an interview. “We dropped her off for group lessons, went skiing, and the next thing we know, we hear over the loudspeaker,‘Will the parents of Alice Merryweather please report to the Adventure Center?’”

Flash forward to 2017, at the World Junior Championships in Are, Sweden, as Liz heard something entirely different about Alice over the loudspeaker: first place in the downhill. “That was a thrill!” says Liz. “But if I had a crystal ball and saw that she would be hurtling herself downhill at 80 miles per hour, I might have signed her up for basketball or something.”

In 2003, Simon qualified for NASTAR Nationals, sending the family to Park City, Utah, where Merryweather was able to meet her idol, Picabo Street. “I was only 6, but I was star-struck, and wanted to be like her.”

Back in New England, the Merryweathers continued their weekend trips to Attitash, where the focus was on having a good time — not the best time in the course. “There was a great family culture at the condo with the cousins together; they’d play Life, Monopoly, and write plays,” says Liz. “We tried to keep the ski racing part fun and light; we were never results-driven.”

By the time her daughter was in eighth grade, however, the results spoke for themselves, and ski racing was calling. “We are not ski-racer parents at all; this push for Alice is all self-motivation,” says her father, Hugh, the chief operating officer for Spartan, the worldwide series of adventure races that got their start in the Killington/Pittsfield area in 2007. “Alice truly just loves it; she is so passionate about the sport she loves getting up every day knowing what she is going to be doing.”

Merryweather considered three Vermont ski academies — Green Mountain Valley School, Burke Academy and Stratton Mountain School — and was smitten with Stratton. “It seemed they had a really good balance of academics and athletics,” says Merryweather, who began working with coach Eric Harlow, and then Micah Lashar for three years. “I owe all of my skiing career to him,” she says of Lashar. “I wanted to go out and rip around, and he made me slow it down with slide turn drills, the basics.”

Lashar says he was immediately struck by Merryweather’s feel for the snow. “The ability she has to roll the ski on edge in between turns at times looks effortless,” he says, adding that he probably had her do one drill 1,000 times. “She had the desire to get better in anything she

FRONT ROW AT

THE WORLD CUP

Few people had any idea that last November’s Audi FIS World Cup in Killington would make history as the largest crowd a women’s World Cup event has ever seen. More than 30,000 fans showed up over two days and VIP grandstand tickets sold out in 6 hours.

That didn’t stop fans from crowding into the free areas at the base, or kids shrieking as Michaela Shiffrin stopped to sign autographs.

“It exceeded our expectations in every way,” said Tiger Shaw, the former Olympic ski racer from Stowe who now heads, U.S. Ski & Snowboard. “I can’t think of another venue on the World Cup where you can see the race course from the access road.”

With the Umbrella Bars in full swing, a vendor village, large screens to broadcast the action and a free concert by O.A.R., Killington threw a party to remember. That, combined with the resort’s ability to lay down 6 feet of man-made snowmaking base in a 24-hour period helped guaranteed the World Cup’s return in 2017 and 2018.

This year’s event, scheduled for Nov. 23-25, is likely to be even bigger. “We added another grandstand and still sold out the VIP tickets in 3 minutes on September 7,” says Killington’s Rob Megnin. But don’t worry, there are plenty of free ways to watch. “We are thrilled to once again offer the base-area free-access viewing so that we can hopefully surpass 2016’s crowd,” said Killington president Mike Solimano.

“It’s essential to us that as many people as possible are exposed to this,” adds marketing manager Jordan Spear. This year, ski clubs from around New England will kick off the racing with kids parading in on both days.

Shuttle buses will transport visitors around the resort. Two jumbo screens will broadcast the action. The vendor village will host Vermont products, food trucks, and two free concerts by big-name bands, as well as improved restroom facilities.

The town of Killington has kicked in $100,000 toward the approximate $2.5 million cost of the event, a good investment considering the economic impact of a World Cup has been estimated to be between $15 and $20 million.

Already, hotel rooms are booking up and the Killington Grand is reserved for racers and their entourages. “We won’t know which racers are likely to be there until the week before. But we do know Mikaela Shiffrin wants to come back and this race will help count toward who goes to the Olympics,” said Megnin. The bib draw for athletes will be Friday afternoon on stage in the village, just before the concert.

One piece of advice: make a weekend out of it. With film premieres scheduled for Friday night, free concerts and parties both nights and the lifts turning, it will be a packed weekend. —L.L.

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WHAT IT TAKES TO WIN-

Whether you want to hurtle down a mountain at 80 mph or just make stronger turns, fitness helps. Alice Merryweather follows this routine three times a week.

SQUATS: 4 sets of 25 at bodyweight or 4 sets of 8 loaded (with weights).

STAIR JUMPS: Try jumping one or two steps (Merryweather jumps four or five) up one flight, focusing on explosive power. Do 4 sets of 6 jumps.

LATERAL BOUNDS: Leap from one foot to the other, simulating skiing motion, to work on balance and explosiveness. Do 4 sets of 16 bounds (8 per side).

HANGING LEG RAISES: Hang from a pull-up bar and use the core to lift and swing the feet up so they tap the bar. Do 3 sets of 8.

HANGING SIDE CRUNCHES: Hang from a pull-up bar with knees bent and use the oblique muscles to alternate rotating the feet from one side to the other. Do 3 sets of 16 total (8 per side).

was doing. Getting better is very hard and takes time. She was willing to put the effort in every day.”

Stratton Mountain School Alpine Program Director Mike Morin adds that while Merryweather had great skiing skills, she lacked the conditioning to compete with the best. “So this was something she quickly became focused on,” he says. “The great women in ski racing have become strong and powerful athletes. Now, Alice is right there with the best.”

Dedicating herself to dryland training is part of Merryweather’s firm belief in “going out and not half-assing it,” she says. She believes in “just giving it your all every day in the gym and doing an extra rep or staying longer and doing an extra core workout.”

If that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same approach that has paid off in massive ways for Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin. “Those two really have taken their physical conditioning in the off-season to a different level,” says Lasher. “Younger female athletes see this and want to emulate the workouts. And Alice always steps her game up when there is something on the line.”

However, as Lasher is quick to note “Alice is also her own athlete; you can’t compare her to anyone.We worked on this a lot at Stratton. Ski racing is a competition against yourself — it’s about how to get the best out of yourself each run and race.You can’t control what others do.”

On a late-July morning, three months before the World Cup opener in Soelden, Austria, Merryweather is at Mammoth Mountain in California, where she’s just finished five days of training, waking at 5:30 to do drills before afternoon dryland. “I’m very tired — I’ll probably lie in bed,” she says over the phone.

Rest may seem like a four-letter word to some athletes, but Merryweather knows that some moderation makes her achieve greater things.

Her diet is a balance of carbs, greens and protein, with Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Therapy as her guilty pleasure. “I don’t do anything extreme, and I’m not a vegan; I just try to balance everything,” she says.

In her spare time, Merryweather has been known to binge watch “Friends,” but tries not to watch too much TV while on the circuit. While she’s a stellar student who is now headed to Dartmouth, “I don’t read as much as I should,” says Merryweather, who instead channels her smarts toward helping young students at Stratton.

An ambassador for ZGiRLS, she recognizes how she might influence the future of women’s racing. “I want it to continue on this track of becoming more well-known,” she says. “It’s weird, in Europe, people come up to me asking me to sign photos, but it’s not something I’ve experienced in the U.S.” That may change after PyeongChang 2018. “If everything aligns perfectly, I’ll go to the Olympics this winter,” says Merryweather—though that means she may not make the 2017 Killington World Cup slalom and GS events, choosing to focus instead on where she excels: Super G and downhill.

When it comes to downhill, Lindsay Vonn’s forte, Merryweather admits; “Oh it’s terrifying. But there’s a unique feeling when you’re going 80 miles an hour. It’s almost peaceful at the same time that you’re about to poop your pants. But I find you can separate yourself and say: ‘This is what I’m doing right now; I am flying.” n Vermont’s Sarah Tuff Dunn is the former editor of Ski Racing.

44 Fall 2017 vtskiandride.com

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COACH

BY BUD KEENE

PREPARE FOR AIR

If you want to catch air this season, the time to start practicing is now. Olympic coach Bud Keene shows you how.

O

ne of the biggest changes in snowsports is people’s willingness (and resorts’ consent) to get airborne while doing their thing. Whether it’s in the terrain park, off of a mogul, sideof-the-trail-hit, or rock, people are going big and doing tricks you only used to see in competitions.

So how do you start launching air? The good news is that you can work toward it in small steps, and with virtually no risk. Even better news is that there are a ton of things that you can do now to get prepared.

Olympic medalists I have coached like Shaun White, Gus Kenworthy, and Kaitlyn Farrington get themselves ready before the season starts, so why not you?

Of course they have access to some pretty amazing training tools like foam-pits and airbags. But to keep their game sharp day-today, the pros get creative, and have come up with lots of cross-training ideas to stay “airready.” The following ways work for them, and they will work for you too. Here are their most common drills:

JUMP BOXES Jumping on and off of low boxes strengthens the legs, but also gets you used to the sensation of leaving the ground and then coming back down to earth. This is important, as probably the most foreign part of taking air is the feeling of being off of the ground. Just like on-snow, there are two parts to this drill: the

46 Fall 2017 vtskiandride.com

takeoff and the landing.

Make sure your box/stool/chair/low table is stable so it doesn’t tip over. Practice jumping up and forward onto your box, and then jump forward and down off of it. Jump onto it from the right and the left as well, and then down off in both directions too. You’ll be learning to spring (pop) into the air, and to absorb your landing when coming back to earth. You’ll also be learning to take air in different directions.

Just as important while you are doing this is to visualize yourself taking air on your skis or board. Thinking in terms of small jumps on snow—perhaps a little air off a mogul, or a slight pop off of a cat track. Chances are you know your mountain pretty well and you have a clear idea of where your first air is going to take place. See that location and begin mentally rehearsing.

DIVE IN Diving boards, docks, waterfront cliffs, and rope swings are other tools that these Olympic athletes use to prepare for the season, and ones that you can use too. As with the box jumps, the goal is getting accustomed to leaving the ground for a short—or longer— time, depending on your choice of jump size, but with one important difference: you land in the water and with virtually no impact.

Use the freedom of this consequencefree training to teach yourself to relax in the air. Jump into the water from different heights, and practice staying aware and

conscious of everything that is happening, from leaving the ground to entering the water. Get used to counting how long you are in the air to train your body and mind to gauge the size of your jump. The familiarity with airtime that you gain through this training is invaluable, and will lead to you being able to stay relaxed and confident while jumping for real.

Visualize doing this drill in a real environment, too. As you jump, see yourself dropping a small cliff that you know well, stomping the landing and riding/skiing away.

Remember to keep things realistic: If you’ve never taken air before you’re not going to be dropping 50-footers at first.

WORK THE TRAMPS Elite athletes use trampolines for practicing acrobatic maneuvers, but a lesser-known

WHERE TO GET AIR Keene has worked with Olympic freeskier Gus Kenworthy (left) on ever bigger airs. At Green Mountain Training Center (right) kids practice on trampolines.

Phhoto courtesy USSA; Inset by Brian Jenkins

fact is that they also use them for simply getting into the air and achieving a comfort level. The reason is simple: the more time they spend off of the ground, the more familiar they are with what that looks and feels like.

Your options are backyard trampolines, rec centers, gymnastic training facilities, etc. Seek them out and use them, but respect their power and inherent danger as well.You don’t have to be bouncing 10 feet into the air to train for popping off a mogul, so start small, be solid, obey the rules of the facility, and employ a trainer if possible. Remember to visualize your actual objective and get the most out of your training.

CROSS TRAIN The Olympians I work with don’t always train in just their winter sport. They all have unrelated sports that that feed their souls and allow them to crosstrain.

Do you mountain bike, motocross, or trail run during the warmer months? Each of those activities contains a built-in opportunity to pop a little air, so find a mellow situation and start experimenting. Obviously, these activities represent more of an uncontrolled situation, and there is a lot going on, so temper your enthusiasm a bit. And drop the visualization here. Best to just be focusing on exactly what you are doing!

Don’t wait until this winter to start gearing up to take some air, get going now! The pros are already at it. You should be, too. n

More and more gyms around the country are incorporating trampolines, foam pits you can fall into (think giant foam bricks piled deep), and elements of parkours and Ninja Warrior training.

In fact, gymnastics have become such a part of skiing that three Vermont gymnasts, Megan Nick, Kira Tanghe and Tyra Izor were recruited for the U.S. Ski Team’s Elite Aerial Development program and have been living and training in Lake Placid since 2013. In 2017, Nick won the aerial North American Championship (Nor Ams) at Lake Placid. She has been competing at the World Cup level and has her eye on the 2018 Olympics.

You don’t have to be an aerialist to incorporate air into your skiing. Increasingly, top skiers are making the whole mountain their terrain park, catching air or getting hits off anything they can find.

In Vermont, a number of gyms are specializing in coaching how to get air and incorporating it into snowsports. The program at Williston’s Green Mountain Training Center is what launched Nick, Tanghe and Izor into skiing. It’s also where the University of Vermont Freestyle and Snowboard Teams come to practice and where coach Noah Labow (a USSA Level III inverted aerials coach and former American Ninja Warrior contestant) teaches a progression of tricks, making sure you can handle one level of difficulty before moving up to the next. There are both group lessons and private training, which starts at $60 an hour.

Not far, in Essex, VT. Regal Gym also has trampolines and foam pits and former snowboard pro Chris Tower teaches Ninja Warrior classes. Both gyms have Open Gym hours where anyone can drop by for a fee. In Brattleboro, Woodman Athletics has trampolines and a Ninja Warrior Class. You can drop in but most classes are geared towards kids and gymnastics.

Ski academies such as Stratton Mountain School and Killington Mountain School are increasingly focusing on getting kids comfortable in the air. Stratton opened its 10,000-sq. ft. Air Awareness Center in 2014. This past summer, Killington, which already had the largest air bag on the East Coast, added a synthetic ramp allowing athletes to train (launching down the ramp and onto the airbag, year-round).

The schools’ facilities are only open to the public on a limited basis but if you want to try your hand at jumping into an airbag, Okemo has the Energy Big Air Bag (open all summer) and for $18 (or an Adventure Center pass) you can take three jumps.

vtskiandride.com Fall 2017 47

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GEAR

THESE BOOTS ARE MADE FOR WALKING The new alpine/AT hybrids are more all-terrain than alpine touring —and as comfy skinning up as it they are powerful ripping down.

By Doug Stewart

Light, rockered and grippy, new hybrid ski boots are marrying the best of AT “walkability” and comfort with hard-charging downhill performance.

I

f you haven’t bought new boots in the past few years, wake up. Gone are the days of heavy ski boots that feel like lead weights as you walk to the lift. Alpine boots have learned a lot from the explosion of backcountry “AT” or alpine touring gear.

Today, you can have a fully rippable boot with all-day comfort...and the ability to free your heel to do a little uphill slog. This is a combo that didn’t really exist five or so years ago. “A lot of skiers want one boot to do it all,” says Dalbello’s Geoff Curtis. “Skin up in the morning, downhill ski all over the mountain, hike the summit and maybe go touring in the afternoon.”

It’s not just the uphill or sidehill skiers who are benefitting. Across the new lines, new shells and liners

are easily customized to anyone’s foot. There are cuffs that release and soles that are rockered for much easier walking around. And no question: being able to unlock the cuff from the classic forward skiing lean makes for a much better experience when standing around with a coffee.

These new rockered soles still have enough hard plastic to release safely from your bindings, but the base is a soft, grippy rubber that can keep you from falling on your butt on the back deck of the lodge.

The rocker also creates a much smoother stride when hiking around on rocks and the added agility makes you feel much more like an athlete, and less like Frankenstein when crossing the parking lot.

The weight savings is one of the first things you will

vtskiandride.com Fall 2017 49

GEAR notice when you grab a new boot off the wall of a ski shop, thanks to a variety of new materials. Vermont ski racer David Dodge pioneered the first carbon fiber boot. The alpine boot is stiff enough that exWorld Cup racers like it (it is available with a super-stiff 150 flex) but weighs a mere 1,600 grams compared with a typical race boot that weighs in at 2,400 grams.

Newer plastics like Grilamid can also seriously slim down a boot, while keeping it super strong for good skiing performance. The new 2018 Atomic Hawx Ultra 130 XTD, for instance, is a slim 1,420 grams, whereas the 2015 Atomic Hawx 2.0 130 was 2,174 grams. “We’ve also been able to fine tune how we use the materials in the cuff,” says Atomic’s Jake Strassburger. Liners are also much lighter while being completely customizable and comfortable.

While the lightest boots are ones dedicated to uphill travel, they will give up some downhill performance. They may also restrict which bindings you can use (see Look Into Your Sole).

This year there is very much a continuum of boots for everyone from the high speed downhill skier, to the uphill ski racer (yeah, it’s a thing, look up “skimo”) and everyone can find the right boot to do what they do. Racers are still going to be skiing in a very classic ski boot that is built to do one thing: rip downhill at very high speeds.That’s all good for them, but most skiers are doing many things in their ski boots, and this new crop of alpine boots gives you the chance to do it all in one pair. For a few of our favorites, see our list on the following page.sDou n Doug Stewart, an examiner for the Eastern Division of the Professional Ski Instructors of America, is a bootfitter at Skiack in Burlington. He also teaches skiing and trains the ski school staff at Stowe Mountain Resort. Photos by Keith

STEP ON AND STEP OUT

50 Fall 2017 vtskiandride.com

Look IntoYour Sole

Before you buy new boots, consider what bindings you will be using: not all will fit each model. The classic race boot sole from the past few decades is referred to as conforming to ISO 5355 (International Standards Organization), and as having a DIN sole. This is what bindings have been built on for forever. Most new bindings will still take that style sole and many boots are still being made with it.

However, most new alpine bindings accept the rockered sole that AT boots use (as well as many alpine boots), conforming to ISO 9523.

These new bindings go by names like WTR (Walk-to-Ride), Grip Walk and MNC (Multi Norm Compatible). Today, outside of race bindings, most new bindings will take ISO 9523 soles or AT boots. The other thing to consider is whether your new boot fits a tech binding.

On a “frame” binding, the entire frame of the binding lifts from the ski with your heel and most will take any type of boot. The other, lighter AT binding is a “tech” binding, which uses pins that fix the toe of the boot to the binding, allowing the heel to release on its own. These bindings require boots to have special “tech” inserts on the toe and heel of the boot. Some of the more touring-focused boots don’t even conform to ISO 9523 and will only fit in tech bindings—so when you fall in love with a new boot, make sure it will play nice with your bindings. (*Note: all the boot models on the opposite page are compatible with ISO 9523, except the Salomon; and tech bindings, except the Dodge.)

No surprise: the biggest innovation in snowboarding in a long time comes from Vermont’s Burton. The only thing that has us scratching our heads is that it took this long to resurrect a step-in binding, a product they haven’t carried since 2004.

Now there’s a new approach: the Step On binding. “I’ve been tired of sitting in the snow and strapping in for a while,” says founder Jake Burton Carpenter. “And we spent years trying to perfect this.” A secret lab was set up at the Burlington headquarters and last winter, Carpenter could be seen on the slopes of Stowe beta-testing. The Step On will be available for pre-order (starting at $249.95) on Oct. 5 at burton.com.

The new Step On allows riders who previously had to sit down or lean over to strap in to simply click into a binding, heel first with one click and then locking in your toe cleats with two more clicks, in the same way you might on an SPD bike pedal.

To get out, you release a lever on the side and twist out, again like a bike pedal.

There’s no binding plate: the boot still sits right on the board, which should improve response and performance. You will need to clear snow from the base (just as you would with a classic set up) and you will need Burton’s compatible boots.

But Step Ons may do to traditional bindings what click-in pedals did to rat traps: once you get used to them, you’ll wonder why you ever used anything else.

8 GREAT, GO-ANYWHERE BOOTS

Edmund

Lange XT 130 Freetour

As a celebrated maker of stiff, powerful low volume race boots, Lange was a little late to the AT party. They first made the XT by adding a walk mode to the RX. Now, with tech binding fittings and Grilamid plastic, the XT 130 Freetour is a very hikable boot that still is low volume, and rips the downhills like a Lange should!

And with lasts 97 or 100, it should fit a variety of feet.

Scarpa Maestrale RS

Scarpa has long history of telemark and touring boots, and the new Maestrale line is raising the bar. This new RS is stiffer, has a more progressive flex, a huge range of motion in the cuff, and is significantly lighter than its predecessor.

This boot is a great option for someone with a little higher

Tecnica Zero G Guide Pro

Tecnica was one of the first big alpine companies to really embrace tech binding-compatible AT boots back when others were just making alpine ski boots with a walk mode. The Zero G Guide Pro is a great boot in a light package that still has terrific alpine skiing abilities. Tecnica’s C.A.S. (Custom Adaptive Shape) shell is made from Grilamid, and is easy to modify for a foot shape. The shell is now a little narrower in the ankle, but still has extra instep room. Tecnica’s Quick Instep design also uses softer materials over the instep, so getting in and out is a breeze.

BRAND MODEL

WEIGHT

FLEX

DEGREES of cuff movement

LAST

DOWNHILL

UPHILL

MSRP

Atomic

1420g

130

54

98

60%

40%

$799

Dalbello Lupo AX 120

1670g

120

67

100

60%

40%

$799

Dodge*

One model

1600g

90-150

No walk mode

98/102

80%

20%

$1,295

Nordica Strider Pro 130 DYN

1813g

130

46

100

70%

30%

$749

Lange

1790g

130

43

97/100

60%

40%

$899

Salomon* S Lab X Alp

1150g

110-120

A lot!

98

20%

80%

$795

Scarpa

Maestrale RS

1410g

130

60

101

50%

50%

$795

Tecnica

Zero G Guide Pro

1540g

130

44

99

60%

40%

$899

Hawx Ultra XTD 130

XT 130 FreeTour

Dalbello

This may be one of the best walking/touring boots out there. The way the cuff separates allows for great lateral movement as well as fore and aft freedom, making it agile when scrambling on mountain tops. This is a boot you could drive home in after skiing. Don’t let the two buckles make you think it won’t hug your foot, because this boot holds well and skis great.

Dodge

Salomon S Lab X Alp

Lange

Nordica has taken their popular Speed Machine boots, and made them hike-friendly. The Strider Pro 130 is the stiffest of the pack: a great in-bounds boot that can do some good uphill climbing. “In the walk mode, the pivot point is high on the back of the cuff which gives it more torsional rigidity in the spine of boot, where all the power is,” explains Nordica’s Sam Beck. The fit is a bit more high-volume and for added comfort, Nordica has designed an infrared heating element that will heat specific parts of the boot to customize the fit.

Another cool feature: the sole uses the same rubber tread Michelin uses in its snow tires.

It’s also ready to go in a full tech binding, or any binding that will take a Grip Walk sole. You can also change out for a traditional alpine DIN sole.

volume foot, who wants light, but still needs solid downhill performance.

Nordica

The new Lupo AX brings a 100mm last option to the Lupo family of light AT boots to compliment the 98-lasted Lupo Factory and Lupo 130 C. Dalbello is well known for its three-piece or cabrio shell design, and the Lupos are part of that heritage. The three-piece design refers to the lower shell, the cuff, and the tongue—in a traditional overlap or twopiece design, the tongue isn’t a separate piece of the shell.

This gives the boots a great, progressive forward flex. It’s a smart design for a walk mode, because the front tongue can be removed when hiking and adds more range of motion and reduces weight. Dalbello also uses a liner that is heat moldable, very warm, and light.

Nordica Strider Pro 130 DYN

Salomon

Dalbello Lupo AX 120

The Dodge is not an AT boot, (it won’t fit in a tech binding and has no walk mode) but it’s light enough to play one for short hikes. Vermont’s David Dodge started making carbon boots for World Cup racers but the boots are so light (1600 grams) that they work for sidecountry slogs too. Add to that the fact that carbon doesn’t change shape in varying temperatures the way plastics do and the flex options of 100 to 150. Dodge also offers a 3D fitting app that you can download. Take a photo of your foot then upload it and they’ll customize the boot for your foot. That’s important since Dodge boots are only available by direct purchase — but you can visit the Essex, Vt. headquarters.

Scarpa

For 2018 Atomic has added the Hawx Ultra XTD. This great, new alpine touring addition has an easy-to use walk mode, and a Walk-to-Ride sole with tech fittings, so it will fit most modern step-in bindings, and pure tech bindings. The Ultra XTD still has Atomic’s Memory Fit shell and liner, so with a little heat in the shop, both the shell and liner can be molded to your feet and legs.

Dodge

Tecnica

Atomic Hawx Ultra XTD

Atomic

2018’S HYBRID BAD BOYS GO UP AS WELL AS THEY GO DOWN.

vtskiandride.com Fall 2017 51

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RETRO VT

BY LISA LYNN

THE

2017

HALL OF FAME These Vermonters have made ski and snowboard history, on the slopes and off.

F

Photo courtesy Jim Fredericks

or a small state, Vermont turns out some big champions. Each year the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum in Stowe recognizes skiers and riders who’ve made major accomplishments in their careers.

This year’s Hall of Fame inductees include a world champion mogul skier, the godfather of telemark skiing in the U.S., the man who set in place some of Vermont’s strongest Nordic programs and a couple who have been integral in both creating and preserving ski culture and history in Vermont. Two special awards—the Paul Robbins award for journalism and the First Tracks award for accomplishment by someone under 35—are also handed out.

The winners are impressive and their stories, inspiring. If you want to learn more or meet them, attend the gala dinner at Stoweflake in Stowe on October 21. For tickets visit vtssm.com.

ANN BATTELLE: WORLD CHAMPION BUMPER Growing up in Williston, Ann Battelle would get dropped off at Cochran’s ski hill with her school’s Friday afternoon program and at Bolton Valley every weekend. But it wasn’t until she attended Middlebury College and started skiing at Sugarbush with friends that she fell in love with bump skiing.

“We had a group of about 15 that would ski every chance we got—parents, big kids, little kids, everyone was welcome.

We thought we owned that mountain, befriending the ski patrol and skiing Exterminator to what is now called Tumbler,” she remembers. One day she went to Whiteface to see a World Cup mogul event. As she describes it: “Solid ice bumps down the steep Wilderness trail. I had found my calling.”

After graduating from Middlebury College in 1989, she heard from a friend, Jeff Good,who was competing in moguls in Steamboat, Colo. She moved to Steamboat and by her second season competing made the U.S. National Team. Battelle went on to ski on the U.S. Freestyle team for 11 years. She was a two-time World Cup champion, won the World Championships in 1999 and competed in four Olympics. She retired after the 2002 Games.

JIM FREDERICKS: THE NORDIC COACH When Jim Fredericks first learned to Nordic ski at Johnson State College he had no idea how much the sport would shape his life.

He liked it—enough to become one of the East’s top racers. He went on to coach at his alma mater and then, in 1978, started the Craftsbury Nordic Ski Center program and grew it into a hotbed where Olympic-level athletes now train and compete.

After Craftsbury, Fredericks launched the Nordic program at Green Mountain Valley School, a program that turned out a number of National Junior Champions. He then went on to Rossignol, working with their Nordic products and athletes.

Finally, when Rossignol moved west, Fredericks took on the role of the Catamount Trail Associations’ executive director. Under his leadership the organization grew to become one of the strongest outdoor non-profits in the state and a voice for backcountry travel.

Fredericks also started The North Face Race to the Top of

Jim Fredericks still skates strong and competes at the international level.

vtskiandride.com Fall 2017 53

RETRO VT Vermont, a run and bike up Mt. Mansfield’s Toll Road that’s become one of the biggest fundraisers for the organization. Time has not slowed Fredericks down: he still competes on the national level on skis in the winter and in kayaks the rest of the year.

(top), Dickie Hall (far right) and Chuck and Jann Perkins (below.)

In the late ’70s he got an offer he couldn’t refuse: “Mad River Glen gave me an opportunity to start America’s first alpinebased telemark ski school.” Hall and his wife Deb ran the annual NATO Telemark Festival at Mad River Glen for decades. “This was the world’s largest public event for telemark skiing, attracting over a thousand skiers for the weekend,” he recalls.

During his career, Hall also produced five movies on telemark and backcountry skiing, consulted and trained staff for the nation’s leading outdoor schools and was an adjunct professor of ski mountaineering for the University of Alaska Wilderness studies program. But he came back to Waitsfield, where Deb and he still live, and where Sugarbush will host the 2017 Telemark World Championships this January 22.

CHUCK & JANN PERKINS: THE KEEPERS OF THE SKI CULTURE Chuck Perkins, a University of Vermont grad, was working for J.C. Penney when he and his wife Jann decided to open the Alpine Shop in Burlington. They bought an old building, tore it down and rebuilt a small chalet-style structure. They lived upstairs, with the shop downstairs. That was 1963. Over the next 47 years, the Perkins (and then their daughter Peg and husband Scott Rieley) built the Alpine Shop into more than just a retail outlet. They sold it in 2011 to Andy and Becky Kingston.

The shop quickly became a hub of ski culture, sponsoring Warren Miller films, promoting events like the Sugarbush Triathlon and serving as a gathering point for skiers. Jann recalls: “We provided the kick-off for Bogner’s new line of Fire and Ice skiwear when it was first introduced with a huge fashion show, cocktail party and the Fire and Ice ski movie. Suzie Chaffee was even there.”

The couple kept adding on space and purchasing real estate around Burlington and Stowe. Along the way, they became avid fans of ski history and collectors of ski memorabilia. The Perkins have been active in preserving the history of the 10th Mountain Division (Chuck has been named an honorary member) and helped host a 25th reunion for the mountain soldiers in Stowe.

54 Fall 2017 vtskiandride.com

Photos courtesy Battelle, Hall and Perkins

Inductees: Ann Battelle

DICKIE HALL: GODFATHER OF TELEMARK Few people since the early Norwegians have done more for telemark skiing than Waitsfield’s Dickie Hall, the founder and director of North American Telemark Organization from 19752015. Hall introduced the sport in every ski state with his Telemark Festival Series. He also conducted a yearly schedule of workshops, camps, expeditions and guide and instructor training. “Over the years I’ve probably taught over 40,000 skiers and trained 1,000 instructors and guides worldwide.”

Hall started his career on the Killington Ski Patrol in the early 1970s and taught Nordic skiing at nearby Mountain Meadows. He then started Trailhead Telemark and Backcountry Ski Center in Stockbridge. By the time he left Trailhead he was Chief Examiner and Certification Chairman for PSIA-E Nordic.

OFFICIAL PROGRAM THE NEW 2018 GEAR

EXP October 7-8, 2017

Waterfront Hilton, Burlington, VT

GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!

RESORT DEALS LIVE MUSIC DEMOS CRAFT BREWS CLINICS SKI FILMS & MORE

Vermont’s first winter sports show is brought to you by The Rotary Club of Burlington and Vermont Ski + Ride magazine and benefits the Flyin’ Ryan Foundation. Sponsored by University of Vermont Medical Center Sports Medicine, Mascoma Savings Bank, Farrell Distributing and Long Trail Brewery.

Find out more at www.vtskiandride.com/expo2017

VT SKI+RIDE EXPO OFFICIAL PROGRAM

EXP

Here’s who will be at Burlington’s Waterfront Hilton, Oct. 7-8:

Alpine Shop Bolton Valley Resort Catamount Trail Association Dodge Ski Boots Farrell Distributing Flyin Ryan Foundation Havoc Mead Killington Resort Long Trail Brewing Mascoma Savings Bank Mt Mansfield Winter Academy Orsden Petra Cliffs Climbing Center & Mountaineering School Powe. Snowboards Silo Skis Ski The East Smugglers’ Notch Resort Stowe Mountain Resort Sugarbush Resort Topnotch Resort UVM Medical Center Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports VT SKI + RIDE/Vermont Sports

THANKS to this year’s sponsors!

W

elcome to the 2nd annual VT SKI + RIDE Expo, organized by The Rotary Club of Burlington and presented by VT SKI + RIDE Magazine.

Check out 2018 GEAR. Learn about VT’s CRAFT SKIS and boards. TASTE great local foods and brews. Listen to LIVE MUSIC. Watch action SKI FILMS. Get deals on LIFT TICKETS. Win RAFFLE PRIZES. Visit these VENDORS and others. It’s all for a good cause.

Stop by the Bolton Valley booth at the VT SKI + RIDE Expo and find out what’s new at Bolton Valley, one of the only places in Vermont that offers night skiing, a corporate race league and backcountry huts and runs. We’re under new ownership and will be printing and selling season passes all weekend. boltonvalley.com

Topnotch Resort blends the gracious charm of a ski lodge with the luxurious amenities of a world-class resort. Relax and unwind at the award winning Topnotch Spa, play a match on their indoor tennis courts, lounge poolside, or dine at either of their on-site restaurants. Enjoy complimentary shuttle service to the lifts and equipment storage in their ski chalet. topnotch.com

FROM VERMONT, DIRECT TO YOU Orsden delivers premium ski apparel for men and women. High performance and clean design combine to take you from the slopes to the lodge and beyond while our direct to consumer approach brings this elevated skiwear within reach. Based in Bondville, VT and sold exclusively on orsden.com with free shipping and returns. orsden.com

VT SKI+RIDE EXPO OFFICIAL PROGRAM

Tucked against the 4,000-foot mountains in Warren, VT is a remarkable four-season destination just 50 minutes from Burlington.

Explore six mountains and over 53 miles of trails, freestyle terrain, uncrowded slopes, cat skiing and extensive backcountry. Lessons and clinics taught by friendly and accomplished staff. For ticket deals and more, visit us at the Sugarbush booth at the VT SKI + RIDE Expo. sugarbush.com

Killington is known for its diversity of terrain and grooming expertise, providing skiers and riders of all ability levels a choice of wide-open groomed cruisers, narrow classic New England runs, moguls, steeps and gladed skiing areas.

Killington also offers multiple terrain features for snowboarders and freeskiers, including Bear Mountain’s signature terrain parks. Come see us at booth at the VT SKI + RIDE Expo. killington.com

The University of Vermont Medical Center provides comprehensive sports medicine care, no matter how complex the injury. Patients receive a course of treatment that’s ideally suited for them, built around the most advanced options - whether operative, non-operative or a combination of both.

Learn more at UVMHealth.org/MedCenterSports or make an appointment at 802-847-2663.

Family adventures come alive on our three big, interconnected mountains. Rip it up on 78 trails with over 1,000 acres of terrain for every level of ability. Check out our new Fun Zone 2.0 for laser tag, a rock climbing wall and much more. Voted Top 10 Terrain Variety by SKI Magazine readers and the East’s #1 Kid-Friendly Resort, Smuggs has plenty of fun on and off the mountain. smuggs.com

Peter Miller photo courtesy Rob Hunter; Kevin Pearce courtesy Love Your Brain

Because of the couple’s devotion to ski history, another collector, Roy Newton, drafted them for help with the Vermont Ski Museum. Newton, publisher at the time of an earlier iteration of this magazine, Vermont Ski + Ride, had started the Vermont Ski Museum in 1988 behind his office in Brandon. Newton asked Chuck to be on his board and after a few years, to help build it up. The Perkins gathered a number of their ski friends from Stowe and formed the Fore Runner Club. They raised enough money to purchase Newton’s collection and convinced the town of Stowe to lease them a condemned meeting house on Main Street. “We had just sold a house in Stowe at the time and Chuck announced he was taking all the proceeds and was going to devote them to restoring the building so it could be the Ski Museum,” Jann says. “We have been board members and life members since the very start of the museum, and we promise it will always be an asset to the village of Stowe.”

PETER MILLER; THE PAUL ROBBINS JOURNALISM AWARD Most people know Peter Miller as the author and photographer behind the stunning photo books, Vermont People, Vermont Farm Women and most recently, Vanishing Vermonters: Loss of a Rural Culture, all self-published through Silver Print Press. What they may not know is that the first of Miller’s 11 published books were ski books, The 30,000 Mile Ski Race (Dial Press, 1973), about Americans in Europe on the World Cup circuit and then The Skier’s Almanac (Nick Lyons Press and Doubleday, 1980).

Miller grew up inWeston,Vt. and has always followed ski racing.

From 1965 to 1988 he was a contributing editor to SKI Magazine and has visited 104 ski resorts on four continents. In 2014, Miller wrote on his blog: “I have three major ski racing heroes, Marvin Moriarty, a neighbor who raced in the 1950s and at 16 was on the US Olympic Team; Bud Werner who I met in 1957 in St. Anton when he was on crutches, from a spill in a race and Bode Miller, who I never met but have closely followed.”

Miller got his start as a photographer when, as a student at the University of Toronto, he had the chance to work with the legendary portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh. Miller assisted him in 1954 as they photographed celebrities living in Europe, including John Steinbeck, Albert Camus, Le Corbusier, Picasso, Pope Pius 23rd, Prince Philip and many others. Miller went on to work as a reporter and writer for LIFE Magazine before moving back to Vermont in the 1960s. He set up shop next door to the Waterbury Ben & Jerry’s headquarters in Colbyville.

In a 2013 tribute to Miller on the U.S. Senate floor, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said this about Miller: “His books have themes that exemplify Vermont: farm women, gathering places, small communities. He laments the waning of iconic farms, the erosion of small town values, and the fading of the once impermeable Vermont way of life. His resiliency is remarkable and his uncanny ability to display the beauty of Vermont in a way words cannot do justice serves as an inspiration for photographers everywhere.”

KEVIN PEARCE: THE FIRST TRACKS AWARD New this year, the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum is awarding the First Tracks Award, honoring a major and ongoing contribution to the sport by someone under 35. The award is in memory of board member Ian Graddock, a ski racer and board member of the museum, who passed away November 29, 2016 at age 35. The first recipient is Kevin Pearce.

In 1995, at age 5, Kevin Pearce hand-wrote a letter to a family friend asking for a snowboard. Pearce is the son of glassware giant Simon Pearce and his wife Pia. The family friend was Jake Burton Carpenter. Soon, Pearce was riding every hill and mountain he could near the family home in Norwich.

By 18 he had turned pro, excelling in the halfpipe. In 2008, Pearce became the first athlete to win three medals at the X Games (and bested Shaun White in Slopestyle). That year he was also crowned overall champion of the international Swatch Ticket to Ride series. White and Pearce were the top contenders for the 2010 Olympics. Both had sponsors build them private half-pipes where they could practice.

On Dec. 31, 2009 Pearce was training in a half-pipe in Utah, working on a cab double cork, when he crashed hard. He suffered a severe traumatic brain injury and was hospitalized for four months. He was, in his own words, “lucky to be alive.”

Pearce’s story made headline news and a movie Crash Reel, about his injury and recovery, played at Sundance in 2014.

It took Pearce nearly two years to recover enough so that he could snowboard (no air or halfpipes anymore). He’s since turned his energy to helping others. Pearce started the Love Your Brain Foundation to help others with TBI and serves as a sports ambassador for the National Down Syndrome Society (his brother David has Down Syndrome). With his buddies and fellow pro snowboarders Jack Mitrani, Danny Davis and others he is part of the Frends Group, which drew more than 3,000 to their annual Frends Gathering concert weekend in Sugarbush this past summer.

In 2014, when he was named a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, Pearce told the magazine: “I’m still getting better to this day, and working at it has been so brutal on me. I feel like I can use [that awareness] and really do something important and special.” n

“This was the world’s largest event for telemark skiing, attracting over a thousand skiers for the weekend,” Dickie Hall recalls.

First Tracks award winner Kevin Pearce (top) and journalist Peter Miller (below.)

vtskiandride.com Fall 2017 57

THE GREEN MOUNTAIN CALENDAR SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

15-18 | Fall Fest, Smugglers’ Notch A full weekend of guided rock climbing in the Notch, mountain biking on local trails, live music and disc golf tournaments. smuggs.com

1 | Allen Clark Memorial Hill Climb Bike Race, Waitsfield Riders start at the intersection of Vermont Route 17 and 100 in Waitsfield and finish at the summit of the Appalachian Gap—a distance of 6.2 miles with a vertical gain of 1,600 feet. madriverglen.com

16 | von Trapp Brewing’s 7th Annual Oktoberfest, Stowe Join the fun at von Trapp Brewing’s new bierhall with the Inseldudler Band, Oktoberfest keg tapping and buffet. vontrappbrewing.com 16-17 | Grand Point North, Burlington Vermont’s Grace Potter headlines a music festival on the waterfront with guests Trey Anastasio Band, Son Little and Hooray for the Riff Raff. grandpointnorth.com 16-17 | Spartan Race, Killington Killington hosts the legendary, unforgiving obstacle race up and down the mountain. Obstacles include ropes to climb, pits of fire and plenty of mud. killington.com 23 | Vermont Wine & Harvest Festival, Mount Snow Vintners, specialty food producers, chefs, painters, cheese makers, potters, jewelers and photographers are part of this harvest celebration. mountsnow.com 21–23 | Oktoberfest Vermont, Burlington Waterfront Park hosts a traditional Bavarian festival with 40 brewers, live oompah music, contests and a 5K fun run. oktoberfestvermont.com 23 | SIPtemberfest, Mad River Glen Only 800 tickets are available to this small festival at Mad River Glen, featuring 24 craft breweries. Chairlift rides are available all weekend. siptemberfest.com 23 | Peru Fair, Peru The Peru Fair features a pig roast, music, Vermont crafts, cloggers, antiques, art exhibits, artisan demos, clowns, magicians and more. perufair.org 24 | Vermont 50, West Windsor This annual race, held at Ascutney Mountain, offers a 50-mile mountain bike race, a 50-mile ultra running race, a 50-mile relay race and a kids’ fun run. vermont50.com 25-27 | ITVFest, Mount Snow This festival showcases the world’s best independently produced television shows, web series, multimedia and short films. itvfest.com 29-30 | Killington Brewfest, Killington At 4,241-feet, Killington’s Peak lodge is the setting for the resort’s annual food and beer festival with 100 regional craft brews. killington.com 29-10/1 | 20th Annual Stowe Oktoberfest, Stowe The town of Stowe hosts Oktoberfest with a parade, beer tent, German cuisine, live music and yodeling. stoweoktoberfest.com 30 | Burke Fall Foliage Festival, East Burke Burke Mountain’s biggest festival of the year includes a parade, barbecue, horsedrawn wagon rides, a silent auction, live music and more. skiburke.com 30 | Stark Mountain Hill Climb Race, Waitsfield Run any route you choose to the summit of Stark Mountain at 3,644 feet. Proceeds support the Stark Mountain Foundation. madriverglen.com 30-10/1 | Green And Gold Weekend, Mad River Glen Mad River Glen kicks off the season with this traditional weekend of glade maintenance, bike and running races on Stark mountain, a chicken barbeque, shareholders’ town meeting, and chair lift rides. madriverglen.com

1 | Pumpkin & Apple Celebration, Woodstock The Billings Farm and Museum hosts a fall festival for families with apple and pumpkin products and activities. billingsfarm.org 6-15 | Witchcraft, Killington A spooky week-long celebration with a haunted house, haunted hikes, hayrides, pumpkin painting, beer garden, and haunted maze. Also, ride the chairlift or try the alpine coaster, zip line, sky ropes course, and more. killington.com 7 | Community Day, Sugarbush Sugarbush hosts a fall festival with pumpkin carving, lift rides, hikes, fall-inspired dining and live music. sugarbush.com 7 | Fall Into Winter, Okemo Okemo hosts a family friendly foliage festival with live music, hayrides, pumpkin painting, a pie-eating contest and lots of apple cider. okemo.com 7-8 | VT SKI + RIDE EXPO, Burlington The biggest ski show to hit Vermont comes to the waterfront Hilton in Burlington.

See the latest gear, get lift ticket deals, watch new ski movie releases, enjoy live music and kick back with Long Trail and other beers. vtskiandride.com/expo2017/

WHAT’S SHOWING THIS FALL? Rogue Elements

Teton Gravity’s latest drop explores the innate characteristics of an adventurer. “We are unequivocally drawn to nature’s rawest fury and deepest mysteries,” the synopsis reads. “These are the irreverent souls who pursue the edge.” The film takes viewers to the hotspots from last winter, including western British Colombia, France, Wyoming and Bolivia. Starring Angel Collinson, Sammy Carlson, Griffin Post, Hadley Hammer and others. Higher Ground, South Burlington: Nov. 4; Killington, Nov. 25

Drop Everything

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

Line of Descent:

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

vtskiandride.com Fall 2017 59

THE GREEN MOUNTAIN CALENDAR 7-8 | 20th Annual Oktoberfest, Mount Snow Mount Snow’ 18th annual Oktoberfest has oom-pah music, 25 German and domestic breweries, schnitzel, games and activities for the kids. mountsnow.com 7-8 | 43rd Annual Harvest Arts & Crafts Show, Mount Snow Get a jump on holiday shopping at Mount Snow with over 50 vendors including local artisans, specialty food makers and more. mountsnow.com Travel with confidence at Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott®, a hotel with outstanding service for an easy and comfortable stay at an exceptional value. We look forward to welcoming you to our thoughtfully designed guest rooms and suites with plenty of room to work and relax, the perfect place to recharge between your Vermont adventures.

Fairfield Inn & Suites Waterbury Stowe 1017 Waterbury Stowe Rd. Waterbury VT. 05676 802-241-1600 Fairfield.com/BTVWB

7-9 | Columbus Weekend Celebration, Stratton The weekend packs in Stratton’s Annual Craft Brew Festival, Chili Festival and the North Face Race to the Summit. stratton.com 8 | Sugarbush Oktoberfest, Warren Head to Sugarbush for Bavarian inspired food, drink, live music, stein hoisting, keg tossing and corn hole. Prizes include lift tickets. sugarbush.com 8 | Mad Dash, Waitsfield Runners enjoy mountain views, fall foliage and covered bridges during this 5K and 10K run on the Mad Path in Waitsfield. runvermont.org 14 | 7th Annual Bean and Brew Festival, Jay Peak Taste locally-roasted coffees coupled with New England-brewed beers while listening to live music, and playing lawn games. jaypeakresort.com

To reserve your room, call 1-800-MARRIOTT or visit Marriott.com

14 | CircumBurke MTB Challenge and Trail Run, Victory Kingdom Trails, Conservation Collaborative and the Burke Area Chamber of Commerce present a mountain bike and cross-country running race on a 25-mile loop through the backwoods of Victory. circumburke.com 14 | Trapp Mountain Marathon, Stowe Trapp Family Lodge hosts half and full marathons on trails at the height of foliage.

Finishers get a custom glass with von Trapp beer. trappmountainmarathon.com 15 | 47th Annual GMAA Green Mountain Marathon, Grand Isle This half or full marathon is run on rolling terrain along the west shore of South Hero and Grand Isle. gmaa.net 20-29| Vermont International Film Festival, Burlington This annual film festival is held on Burlington’s historic waterfront. vtiff.org 21 | Vermont Ski & Snowboard Museum Hall of Fame Gala, Stowe Join the party as the Vermont Ski & Snowboard Museum honors six Vermont skiers and riders who have made history (see p. 53). Dinner, silent auction and more at the Stoweflake in Stowe. For tickets: vtssm.com 27-29 | Essex Craft Show, Essex Junction The Essex Craft Show features hundreds of exhibitors showing arts and crafts from across the region as well as Canada. vtcrafts.com

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

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

Bring your camper or rent a quaint, cozy cabin.

4817 South 116 Rd., Bristol, VT • 802.453.3123 GreenMountainFamily.com • gmfc802@gmail.com

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NOVEMBER 4 | Vermont Backcountry Forum, Rochester The Vermont Backcountry Alliance, the Catamount Trail Association and the Rochester Area Sport Trails Alliance gather for a full day, bigger-than-ever meeting focused on developing Vermont’s backcountry and cross country skiing and complete with a ski swap, a bonfire, vendors, a potluck, a raffle and a cash bar. rastavt.org 17 | Projected Opening Day at Craftsbury The northern Vermont ski area welcomes cross-country skiers back with a week of snowmaking and training for clubs and teams. craftsbury.com

SKI SWAPS A fall tradition, Vermont’s ski and skate swaps are a thrifty way to get yourself fully outfitted and help out your local ski club, PTA or ski academy (which usually take a percentage of the sale). Get there early!

29 Sept–1 Oct. | Pico Ski Club Annual Ski & Snowboard Swap Drop-off: At the Pico Retail Shop on Sept. 23 from 3-5 p.m.; Sept. 24 from 10- noon; and Sept. 27 from 4-6 p.m. At the Pico Base Lodge on Sept. 28 from 4-6 p.m. and Sept. 29 from 11-9 p.m. Sale hours: Sept. 29 from 5-9 p.m.; Sept. 30 from 9-4 p.m.; and Oct. 1 from 9-2 p.m.

SEPT 30–OCT 1. | COLCHESTER SKI, BOARD AND SKATE SALE Drop-off: Sept. 29 from 12–4 p.m. for businesses, 5–7 p.m. for the public at Colchester High School . Sale hours: Sept. 30 from 9–4 p.m. and Oct. 1 from 10-2 p.m.

6-8 OCT. | KILLINGTON SKI CLUB MONSTER SKI AND BIKE SALE Drop-off: Sept. 30–Oct. 6 from 9- 4 p.m. at the Ramshead Base Lodge/ Sale hours: Oct. 6 from 5-9 p.m.; Oct. 7 from 9-5 p.m.; Oct. 8 from 9-4 p.m. at the Ramshead Base Lodge 7-8 OCT. | SMUGGLERS’ NOTCH SKI & SNOWBOARD CLUB SALE Drop-off: Friday, Oct. 6, 6-8 p.m. at the Tarrant Recreation Center at St. Michael’s College. Sale hours: Saturday, Oct. 7 from 10:30–6 p.m. and Sunday, 9–2 p.m..

18-19 OCT. | CAMBRIDGE ROTARY CLUB SKI SWAP Drop-off: Nov. 17 at the Cambridge Elementary School, 6-8 p.m. Sale hours: Nov. 18 from 8-4 p.m.; Nov. 19, 8-noon.

22-OCT. | MONTPELIER REC. DEPARTMENT SKI AND SKATE SALE Drop-off: No straight skis or clothing of any kind accepted. Oct. 21 from 9- 7 p.m. at the Montpelier High School Gymnasium. Sale hours: Oct. 22 from 9-2 p.m. at the Montpelier High School Gymnasium.

ROBBIE MEEHAN ROBBIE MEEHAN

GUS KENWORTHY GUS KENWORTHY

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11-NOV. | WAITSFIELD PTA SKI & SKATE SALE Drop-off: Nov. 10 from 4-7 p.m. at the Waitsfield Elementary School. Sale hours: Nov. 11 from 9-3 p.m. at the Waitsfield Elementary School.

17-19 NOV. | OKEMO MOUNTAIN SCHOOL SKI & SNOWBOARD SWAP Drop-off: Nov. 11, 12 and 15 from 10-3 p.m. in the Sitting Bull bar. Sale hours: In the Clock Tower Base Lodge Nov. 17 from 4-7 p.m.; Nov. 18 from 9-5 p.m.; and Nov. 19 from 9-1 p.m.

17–19 | Craft Vermont, South Burlington The Sheraton hosts an art and crafts show with vendors and exhibits showing techniques, materials and finished products. vermonthandcrafters.com 18 | The Big Kicker, American Flatbread, Waitsfield Mad River Valley’s two ski areas start the winter season with a rail jam at American Flatbread along with food, drinks and giveaways. sugarbush.com 24-26 | 29th-Annual Putney Craft Tour, Putney Glassblowers, potters, jewelers, stained glass artists, painters, woodworkers and weavers—even artisan cheesemakers and winemakers—welcome visitors into their studios. The tour raises money for the Putney Food Shelf. Local restaurants and theatre groups create a weekend of arts, food and stage. putneycrafts.com 24-26 | Audi FIS World Cup, Killington Skiing greats from around the world (including Mikaela Shiffrin) take to the Superstar trail in this FIS slalom and giant slalom event. The weekend also features free movie premieres, concerts by well-known bands and lots more. killington.com

vtskiandride.com Fall 2017 61

DRINK VT

VERMONT BEER, WINE, CIDER + SPIRITS

The Green Mountain State is home to some of the best breweries, wineries, cideries and distilleries in the world. And most invite you to stop by their pubs, restaurants and production houses for a tour and to sample their goods. For more information, links and maps to each location check out www.vtskiandride.com.

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

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

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

52 Seymour Street Middlebury, VT 802-897-7700 www.whistlepigwhiskey.com

WhistlePig showcases the tremendous flavor potential of rye while maintaining a smooth and balanced profile, identifying it with the most acclaimed whiskeys in the world.

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

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

316 Pine Street, Burlington, VT 802-497-1987 www.citizencider.com

Building character by making great fermented ciders since 2010. We use 100% locally sourced apples 100% of the time. See our story online; for events follow us on Facebook.

Visit our cidery on Pine Street in Burlington for special taps, meals and live music.

610 Route 7, Middlebury, VT 802-989-7414 www.dropinbrewing.com

Drop-In Brewing is Middlebury’s small, independent, locally owned brewery, and is home to The American Brewers Guild Brewing School. Our Tap Room is open 7 days a week serving sample flights, pints, and selling cans and growlers to go. You can find our beer on draft in restaurants and bars across Vermont, and our cans in retailers that carry craft beers. For more information, check out www.dropinbrewing.com, or call us at (802) 989-7414.

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

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

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

von Trapp Brewing is dedicated to brewing the highest quality Austrianinspired lagers with a Vermont twist.

Experience “a little of Austria, a lot of Vermont,” in every glass. Plus come visit our new bierhall at the brewery!

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

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

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

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

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

14th Star Brewing started as a daydream in the mountains of Eastern Afghanistan. While deployed overseas, soldiers have plenty of time to contemplate two things: Beer and getting out of the Army. 14th Star’s now owner and head brewer Steve Gagner and his buddies were doing just that in 2010 when the idea came to the long-time homebrewers: Why not open a brewery, preparing for the day we can retire from the Army? Thus started the journey from a handwritten business plan in the back of a notebook to a fully-licensed craft brewery.

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

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

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

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

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

Caledonia Spirits is a craft distillery in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Raw honey distinguishes our Barr Hill vodka, Barr Hill gin, and Tom Cat barrel aged gin by imparting a pure and soft botanical essence into each bottle. All of our spirits reflect our deep connection to the land and Vermont’s agricultural heritage.

Open daily 12-5 for free tours and tastings at the distillery.

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

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

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

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

VERMONT BEER, WINE, CIDER + SPIRITS

133 North Main St, St Albans, VT 802-528-5988 www.14thstarbrewing.com

Roth’s Vermont treehouses include this one at Lincoln’s Zeno Mountain Farm as well

The Chairlift Q+A

as one at Burlington’s

SNOWSPORTS’ TOP DOG The president of Snowsports Industries of America, Nick Sargent comes from a family of hard-charging skiers.

E

ighth generation Vermonter Nick Sargent became president of Snowsports Industries of America in 2016, taking over from David Ingemie who was there 34 years. A former VP of Burton, Sargent is the man for the job: there’s hardly a snowsport he, his wife Ashley and kids Sophie, Poppy and Harper (right, at Burke) don’t do.

So what chairlift are we on?

The Fore Runner Quad at Stowe. I grew up in Morrisville. My parents, who were casual skiers, got me skiing in 1975 as part of Stowe’s Sunday ski-forfree program.We’d go to church, then I’d hop a bus to go to the mountain.

What’s your claim to fame in ski racing?

Ummm….“Most Enthusiastic?” (laugh). I won the U10 Hopeful Duel (a state-wide race) my first year racing and everyone thought I was just this punk hick from Morrisville. The irony is that Poppy, my middle girl, won the same event in 2014.

As a skier, what was it like going to work for Burton?

The Burton job came up and I jumped at the chance to get back to Vermont to raise a family. Plus, I wanted to see what snowboarding was all about—everyone who was riding at the time was so cool and antiestablishment. First day at Burton I had all this new snowboarding gear and we were at Breckenridge for a meeting. I got up early and went right to the ski school and said “I need to learn how to ride this in 2 hours.

They looked at all my brand new gear and were, like, “Who are you?”

What are the biggest innovations in gear for this year?

Everything is much more comfortable! Burton’s Step On bindings are, real gamechangers.There are many new skis for beginners and whatever type of skiing you do, there’s a boot for you. The whole trend in uphill

64 Fall 2017 vtskiandride.com

skiing is exciting, too, and producing new ultralight boots and skis.

What changes have you made at SIA? I just sold our SIA show to Outdoor Retailer and we consolidated the two winter sports shows in Denver.That’s what the business wanted.We also moved the office from Virginia to Park City, Utah.

So why is your family living in Burke, Vermont?

Ashley is coaching at Burke Mountain Academy and all three kids are there now. Burke is a real jewel and a great community. The mountain is amazing when it dumps and you can get lap after lap of untracked.

Who’s the biggest badass in your family?

Jackson Sargent, my great, great, great grandfather walked from Stowe to Civil War battles three times and earned the Congressional Medal of Honor. Grandad Walter Sargent was in the University of Vermont Hall of Fame for tennis, baseball and golf. All my brothers—Alex, Tim and Zack –are accomplished skiers, golfers and rowers. Alex, who retired from the military, has pioneered a bunch of climbing routes in Smuggler’s Notch and runs a backcountry guide service. On Ashley’s side we have Chris Davenport [one of the world’s top extreme skiers]. Ashley’s sister Kate was also on the U.S. Ski Team and her brother Teddy has a ski shop in Aspen.The best is when we’re all together on snow with our kids and everyone’s ripping turns. —L.L.

Photo courtesy Nick Sargent

You met your wife Ashley on the World Cup circuit, right?

I was working for Dynastar/Lange doing ski service on the World Cup and Ashley [Davenport] was racing on the Women’s Downhill Tour.

She was doing well in downhill/Super G—top 15 often. It was closet love at first: It was taboo to date the athletes and I was 27 and she was 19. And our travel schedules were a challenge: Our first date was in Sydney, second in Zermatt. We dated through college—she went to Middlebury and I moved to Denver, to work for Salomon then to Portland, WA. We married right after she graduated, 20 years ago.

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