UP FRONT | THE (NEW) STATE OF MOUNTAIN BIKING

Twenty-five years ago, something happened that changed the landscape in Vermont. The Vermont Mountain Bike Association (VMBA) formed, giving a central voice to what was, at the time, a loose-knit group of bike clubs around the state. In 1997, lawyer Gary Kessler, helped launch Vermont Mountain Bike Advocates, which later became VMBA.

One of Kessler’s first moves was to write the Landowner Liability Act which protects landowners who allow public access to their land from personal injury lawsuits. It passed in 1998.

This past spring, the significance of that act was driven home. Oregon has no such laws. This past spring, Oregon’s Mount Hood

This past spring, the significance of that act was driven home when Oregon’s Mount Hood Ski Bowl decided to shut down its mountain biking operations. That came after the ski area paid a $10.5 million settlement to a man who was paralyzed after his bike hit a rut and he crashed into a sign in 2016. The ski area had been hosting summer mountain biking for 32 years without incident. Oregon has no such laws. In April 2021, Seven Springs in Pennsylvania also shuttered its downhill park.

In the last two decades, VMBA has played an outsized role in both advocating for mountain bike trails and helping chapters and ski areas build them. From 2007 to 2011, VMBA’s then-director Patrick Kell hosted an annual conference for ski areas and trail builders to help them work together to create bike parks. His successor, Tom Stuessy helped build out the organization to include 28 chapters (up from 14 in 2012) and nearly 10,000 members. Since 2012, the organization —now under the leadership of former Cat 1 rider and cyclocross racer Nick Bennette—has seen more than 200 miles of new trails.

That’s just the start. In the past few years, ski areas such as Bolton Valley Resort, Suicide Six, Cochran’s, Okemo and Stratton have joined the bigger alpine mountain bike areas (Burke, Sugarbush, Killington and Mount Snow) in creating downhill trail networks.

Now, trail networks at ski towns around the state are destined to grow even more. In March 2022, Governor Scott announced that nearly $5 million in grants are being awarded to organizations around the state to improve outdoor recreation. Many of those grants are for projects in ski towns that will help mountain biking continue to grow. Here’s what is happening this summer at ski towns, north to south.

This August 13-14, Burke Mountain Resort will welcome the best pro riders in the world for the Enduro World Series. The races involve timed downhill segments with untimed, but mandatory, uphill sections. They reward all-around solid riding, as opposed to straight cross-country or straight downhill. Think of Enduro as the alpinecombined race for mountain bikes. Local Burke rider Riley Miller, a graduate of Killington Mountain School, is a favorite. Miller was just 16 when she won the U.S. Downhill Nationals in 2021. Kingdom Trails is adding a handful of new trails, including a climbing trail, Moriah’s Ascent, dedicated to Moriah Wilson, the gravel racing star from the Burke area who was murdered in Texas in May. The trail was built by an all-female crew from the Northwoods Stewardship Center’s Youth Conservation Corps.

Two other new trails will help keep bikes off the pavement. The Wildlfower Inn and its adjacent 190 acres on Darling Hill were

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recently purchased by Foster Goodrich, of southern Vermont. A new trail on that land, the Beltway, will be an easy 1.3-mile alternative to riding Darling Hill Road with mellow grades and smooth berms.

Another new trail that was done with the help of Burke Mountain, the Stubborn Trail will provide an alternative to riding on the Dashney Road.

Jay Peak is also slowly building out mountain bike options. The resort now has a beginner loop and a short intermediate network as well as a kid’s pump track —all are free. Smuggler’s Notch is also catering to a family-friendly crowd with 10 miles of singletrack, a pump track and a downhill skills park. Bolton Valley Resort—long known for its expert downhill trails—is opening its first green trail this summer. The resort brought back lift-served riding last summer and is hosting weekly skills clinics.

Even tiny Cochran’s Ski Area is getting in on the action with a small network of downhill routes (not lift-served) and in 2020 opened a pump track and two beginner loops.

The Mad River Valley is blowing up as a mountain bike destination, with some big things to come. Sugarbush, which was one of the early adopters of lift-served downhill riding, will again host the Maxxis Eastern States Cup (July 23). Recently, a number of new trails have connected the resort’s network with the cross-country trails that meander through the valley and hills.

The big news is that this spring the Valley earned the largest of 24 Community Grants allocated by the state-run Vermont Outdoor Recreation Economic Collaborative. The $408,019 grant will help build an indoor welcome center and the Mad River Recreation Hub,

Jim Westphalen Credit: Photo

a pedestrian/bike bridge over the Mill Brook; and a new, adjacent trailhead area with port-o-lets and parking. There will also be two safe pedestrian crossings of VT 100 and a road-side path into Irasville, linking the Hub to Waitsfield’s downtown.

Just south of town, Jonny Adler, one of the founders of The Skinny Pancake chain of Vermont-local restaurants, is turning what was once the MadBush Lodge and then John Egan’s Big World Pub into a mountain bike/ski inn or basecamp. Plans call for 16 rooms with bike racks and wash-down stations as well as a restaurant with 72 seats.

Killington Resort’s downhill bike park with 35 miles of trails is already in full swing with the Red Bull Raw made-for-spectating dual slalom taking place July 29-31, followed by the Fox US Open of mountain biking September 15-18. The town of Killington also received a VOREC grant to help build connector trails that will eventually form part of the proposed state-long Velomont Trail. The $75,000 grant will go toward building a 3.4-mile single-track crosscountry mountain bike trail from Gifford Woods State Park north toward the Velomont. The new 3.4-mile trail be one of the longest flow trails in the state.

S6 (formerly Suicide Six — it is exploring a name change) began building flowy downhill trails at its Elemental Bike Park in 2018. While there is no lift-served, the downhills on the 3 miles of trails are just plain fun and not overly challenging. And the trails are free.

At Mount Ascutney, new trails are already being built thanks to another VOREC grant of $262,088. Ascutney Outdoors and the Ascutney Trails Association have been building a new flow trail and skills park. A good time to check out the progress is July 29-31 when Ascutney will host the FLOW State Mountain Bike Festival.

In 2015, Okemo Mountain Resort opened its Evolution bike park. This summer, the lift-served upper trails will be closed for riding as work is done to improve the ski lifts. That’s the bad news. The good news is that the Back Forty Mountain Bike Trail Project, the brainchild of Okemo Mountain School coach Chris Hurka, is slowly moving forward. The town had been looking for $30,000 to build new trails for hiking and biking behind the former Black River High School. The first phase would be a 3,900-foot beginner loop.

Stratton Mountain has been working hard on its lift-served bike park as part of the $8.9 million investment that parent Alterra Mountain Company is making in the resort. Working with trailbuilder Sinuosity, Stratton Bike Park will be adding five new trails to bring the total trail count to 16. This includes the newly designed trail “Paper Route” that flows for 1.23 miles into the Snow Bowl area, and the 1-mile multidirectional “Bear’s Den” connecting to the Sun Bowl area. A skills park, Kick Start will also be the home for Stratton Mountain Sports School’s lessons, a great place to learn before heading up the lift. n