Mountain Times - Volume 49, Number 14: April 1-7, 2020

20 • The Mountain Times • April 1-7, 2020
By Lisa Lynn, VT Ski & Ride
On March 24, Governor Phil Scott issued
an executive order directing Vermonters
to stay at home or in their place
of residence, leaving only for essential
reasons such as: personal safety; groceries
or medicine; curbside pick-up of goods,
meals or beverages; medical care; exercise;
care of others; and work, as set forth
further.
So the question that everyone was asking
was: does this mean we can still skin
and ski?
At a press conference, Gov. Scott said:
“Outdoor activities like dog walking or
cross-country skiing are fine, but it is
critical people keep a social distancing of
six-feet apart, minimum.”
What that means has been a topic that’s
lit up the internet, pitted locals against
out-of-towners and caused some areas to
put up concrete barriers to keep skiers out
of the access roads or parking lots.
“I skin every day,” said Michael Christopher
Owens, director of alpine touring
at Magic Mountain in the winter and a regular
competitor of the Northeast Rando
circuit. “But I stay within 30 miles of my
home. I don’t ski on trails or in conditions
where I think I might get hurt and I practice
social distancing.”
When we caught up with Owens
he had just returned from a skin at a
nearby ski area. “However, it’s crazy
there — there were cars parked all over
the place — probably 60% of them with
out-of-state plates. There were people
hiking up in regular ski boots — and it’s
really icy now. People come
to these ski areas expecting
the trails to be like they
were during the winter and
groomed and that’s not the
case now. And when they
are heading up the mountain,
they are not practicing
social distancing. I had a
guy skin right up to me on
a skin track and start chatting. He looked
stunned when I asked him to move
away.”
Owens has also had to deal with
people from out of state asking where
Yes, but can we still ski?
Not at resorts, not if you have to travel to ski or ride
they could rent AT gear. “I told this one
dude from Connecticut who reached out
to me on a Facebook group, ‘No, you can’t
rent gear here and you should stay home.’
He just didn’t get it. Then he said “Well,
I’ll just come up and ride my mountain
bike.” I know people have second homes
up here but the whole point is not to
move around, not to drive across three
states or to have to stop at a gas station.
Honestly, it’s gotten so bad I’m leaving a
lot of these Facebook groups that focus
on skiing. ”
At Pico Mountain, a group of skiers
from the Boston area had to be rescued
Saturday, March 21, after one of the guys
fell about 700 feet after slipping on the
icy snow. They were also walking up in ski
boots and the conditions were extremely
firm, according to sources at Killington
Search and Rescue who lead the rescue effort.
The man that fell reportedly severely
hurt his hand trying to self-arrest on the
ice, but was otherwise ok.
Killington Resort and Pico Mountain
officially closed the uphill travel season,
Tuesday, March 24.
“I’m not surprised,” said Murray
McGrath, KSAR member and owner of
Inn at the Long Trail. “They have to worry
about the liability associated with being
an attractive nuisance.” But he added
that he was personally upset by the closure
as he enjoyed skinning up the trails
regularly, as did many responsible locals.
Jay Peak and others have faced a similar
appeal. Shortly after Jay closed on March
area, the Middlebury College Snow Bowl
this week.
“It wasn’t so much that people were
not obeying the social distancing measure,
but more that we wanted to avoid
them simply getting in their car and driving
up here. That takes gas and at some
point, they’ll have to go to a gas station,”
said the Snow Bowl’s general manager
Mike Hussey. “Also, there’s no ski patrol
here, no chance of an immediate rescue
and even if there was, we would be
exposing others. The added load on the
emergency services is an unnecessary
burden on a group of folks that are working
really hard to get ahead of this virus.”
Sugarbush Resort’s president
Win Smith has been posting
about skinning and wrote this
on his blog: “We are still permitting
uphill travel as has been our
policy, but we ask everyone to do
it in a responsible fashion. If we
find this is not the case, we will
be forced to stop uphill travel. ”
Craftsbury Outdoor Center
13, it erected barriers across its access
had closed its facilities but continued
road.
to groom its trails and allow skiers to
Middlebury College,
the first college in use them last week. “We’re not open,
Vermont to send students home in early but we’re grooming the core trails and
March, shut down the parking lot to its ski Ruthie’s and Sam’s,” said Sheldon Miller
“ We appear to be attracting folks from
outside our VT community and this does
not seem like a good idea at this time... We
do this in the best interest of the health of
the COC community. Stay healthy!”
By Polly Mikula
Out-of-state cars parked at the base of Superstar at Killington Resort, Saturday, March 28.
of the Craftsbury Outdoor Center, on
Friday, March 20. “We sealed up the 2021
manmade pile for November the other
day too,” he noted, referring to the novel
way Craftsbury has developed to keep
piles of snow frozen over the summer by
covering them with wood chips and then
using that snow as an early season base.”
Yet, by the next day, things had
changed. A new notice appeared on the
Craftsbury web site, effective Sunday,
March 22:
We had hoped to keep some trails
groomed as long as the snow allowed,
but we now feel forced to close for the
following reasons: Skiers are not keeping
‘social distancing’ (6 feet) from each other.
This is critical behavior for all of us to
follow at all times. Skiers are gathering in
groups to socialize. Even a group smaller
than 10 people is at increased risk of
sharing germs. We appear to be attracting
folks from outside our VT community
and this does not seem like a good idea at
this time. So, effective Sunday, March 22,
we will no longer groom our trails and we
ask you not to come to ski. We do this in
the best interest of the health of the COC
community. Stay healthy!”
This story was originally published
March 26, 2020, at vtskiandride.com.
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