The Evolution of Tree Skiing
The evolution of tree skiing. There was a thread this summer started by IBRAKEFORTBARS discussing which areas have the best tree/glade skiing: https://www.snowjournal.com/discussion/comment/29569#Comment_29569
This made me think of a related topic – the evolution of tree skiing at US ski resorts. We’ve all seen tree/glade skiing become a big part of the sport in the last two or three decades, especially for advanced skiers and boarders as they seek more challenge, variety, and better snow. If you still read hardcopy ski mags they are now loaded with stories on tree skiing and backcountry ski exploits. I’m curious to hear observations from other Snowjournalists (young and old) on the birth and growth of tree skiing; when did you first become aware of it, when and where did you first start doing it, how quickly in your region was it adopted by the masses, which places early-on allowed it or prohibited it, how has tree skiing changed over time for better or worse, what changes will come in the future, etc?
Timberline, WV
Laurel Mtn, PA
Snowbird, UT
Blue Knob, PA
Laurel Mtn, PA
Wildcat, NH
Mt. Bachelor, OR
Loveland, CO
Mad River Glen, VT
Sunday River, ME
Whistler-Blackcomb, BC
This made me think of a related topic – the evolution of tree skiing at US ski resorts. We’ve all seen tree/glade skiing become a big part of the sport in the last two or three decades, especially for advanced skiers and boarders as they seek more challenge, variety, and better snow. If you still read hardcopy ski mags they are now loaded with stories on tree skiing and backcountry ski exploits. I’m curious to hear observations from other Snowjournalists (young and old) on the birth and growth of tree skiing; when did you first become aware of it, when and where did you first start doing it, how quickly in your region was it adopted by the masses, which places early-on allowed it or prohibited it, how has tree skiing changed over time for better or worse, what changes will come in the future, etc?
Timberline, WV
Laurel Mtn, PA
Snowbird, UT
Blue Knob, PA
Laurel Mtn, PA
Wildcat, NH
Mt. Bachelor, OR
Loveland, CO
Mad River Glen, VT
Sunday River, ME
Whistler-Blackcomb, BC
Comments
Glades started coming back in earnest in the 90's. I don't think there is any area with more than 75" per year of natural snow that doesn't have glades.
Maybe the idea that there wasn't always tree skiing and it emerged as a popular pastime in the last 25 years is a mid-Atlantic thing? (or a JimK thing
The 1960-1 MRG Trail Map shows glades. (https://www.newenglandskihistory.com/maps/viewmap.php?id=6560)
As I suggested above, the bigger anomaly was when glade skiing disappeared.
The Murphy's Glades at Sugarbush and Sleeper Glades have been around since the 60s. There are similar trails at Pico too.
Sometimes I enjoy these wide open glades than steep, tight ones as you can usually go faster, but the trees provide more interest than a usual slope.
My '69 ski atlas shows Stratton's The Glade as an open glade. It appears to be where World Cup is now. So I guess in '62/63 it was built as a glade.
The next set of glades I skied were at Laurel Mountain beginning in the late 1970s. I found cleared tree shots all over the mountain. I later learned that Laurel's President, GM, Mountain Ops GM, Ski School Director, Bar/Food Manager and general do's it all, Doc DesRoches, began cutting new ski terrain he called Forest Slalom. These glades were cut in the late 1950s through 1962 or 63. They have since been maintained even during decades of official closer. Today a dedicate group of Laurel loyalist work with the State and operator Seven Springs to continue the time honored tradition of citizen stewardship of ski grounds on public land.
I first skied Stowe's Slalom Glades in the mid 1980s. Over the years I have been introduces to some very fine tree runs at Stowe.
I skied Jay Peaks glades the first or second year the began to mark them on a map.
When I started skiing in the trees I found the best, least track snow on the mountain there. Now most steep inbound glades are bobsled chutes or icy mogul fields with trees. No wonder there is an explosion of side country and back country skiing.
Or maybe find a little local hill and go redd up the woods.
Most of the time I'm lost in the trees.
Back in the 60s and 70s there was very little tree skiing going on at the mid-Atlantic ski areas I frequented, for example I never saw it at Liberty, Roundtop, Bryce, Massanutten, Wintergreen, and Canaan Valley Ski Area (they may have had one narrow trail they called a glade back then). In 1981 White Grass touring/Nordic ski area opened in Canaan Valley next to Canaan Valley downhill ski area and I’m sure at that time glade skiing started to flower there, esp. after nearby Timberline, WV ski area opened a couple years later (1984?). Timberline and Blue Knob are the two areas I am familiar with south of NY state that have the most extensive tree skiing. Timberline (summit elev 4200’) gets more natural snow than Blue Knob (summit elev 3120’) and is likely to have more weeks of tree skiing because of that. In deference to Laurel Hill Crazy’s superior first hand knowledge, I should also include Laurel Mtn as a prime mid-Atlantic spot for tree skiing when the natural snow is good.
At Blue Knob before 1980 there may have been a few gullies or short cuts through the woods that received light traffic, but I do not remember significant tree/glade skiing activity by the masses there in the late 60s and throughout the 70s for a few reasons.
- It just wasn’t done. It was considered too dangerous. Heck, this was the pre-terrain park era when we’d get in trouble with Patrol just for building a little kicker on a groomed run.
- No one cleared the potential areas for tree skiing of deadfall, thick underbrush, and other hazards.
- In the mid-Atlantic we often did not get enough natural snow to allow skiing in areas without man-made snow cover, particularly treed areas with deadfall, stumps, brush, etc.
- Better skiers were focused on mogul skiing or racing.
I guess I would say sometime in the early ‘80s I began to notice more people doing tree skiing at Blue Knob. At first it was just a few locals and not many of the general public and the areas they were doing it were not too obvious or inviting. By the 90s it started to go public and the resort started clearing some wooded areas between trails. By around 2000 Blue Knob had become associated with the slogan “ski good or eat wood”. I also became aware of good tree skiing at Timberline ski area in WV around the same time. I’ve always gone on occasional ski trips to New England or out west, but didn’t really look for tree skiing on those trips until the last 25 years. I can remember skiing glades at Smuggs around 1990. Since the early 2000s I been going west more frequently for ski trips and by then tree skiing was quite common out west. Loveland might have been one of the first western places where I really got into it. Now it’s everywhere in New England and out west, but still quite limited or not available at many mid-Atlantic areas.
I’m not especially skilled at tree/glade skiing and don’t do real backcountry skiing, but like many folks when there are good natural snow conditions I enjoy dabbling with inbounds trees/glades and exploring nearby hike-to side-country and off-piste. I wrote a piece back in 2012 for DCSki trying to get a handle on the special qualities of tree skiing here: http://www.dcski.com/articles/1356
Stratton still has a trail called "Slalom Glade" (although it no longer has trees) that skis into their "World Cup" trail.
One item you'll find interesting JimK is: "Some of the earliest glades for skiing on record were created in the Mid-Atlantic region, not New England"
Shen Natl Park today has very dense forest cover almost everywhere within boundaries, but much of the land for the park was reclaimed from settlers/hillbillies around 1930 and may have still had many open gladed, crop fields, orchards, and meadow areas in 1938.
Today the Pinnacles area would never be considered for skiing because it’s inside the national park, also because it’s too warm to get much natural snow. But the mtns in Shen Natl Park top out at 4k feet with low valleys on each side, so there is potential for 2500+ foot vertical descents in perfect conditions.
My first real glade experience was Sunday River around 2000 or so. They had a lot of glades on the map back then and have only added a few more since then (they even took Spruce Cliffs off the map, how many other on map glades have been removed from the official map/trail list?). So more "tree skiing" type glading was already well established by the 90s. Though we've obviously seen a lot more on map glades during the past 20 years as interest in getting off the groomers has accelerated.
I suspect we're going to see a slow down in new on map glades at this point. Though some areas will still continue to debate whether or not to put off map glades onto the map. But I really don't see many areas investing in new glade cutting at this (perhaps excepting Black of Maine which only recently began to glade out to attract more guests).
thesnowway.com
Interesting how old photo from Pinnacles is similar to my new photo from Laurel Mtn???
archives.post-gazette.com/clip/4589535/first_groomer_1961/
It is on today's trail map as Doc's Forest Glade.
Here is the Stowe map from 1982
https://skimap.org/data/212/2200/1449254269.jpeg
archives.post-gazette.com/clip/4589535/first_groomer_1961/
It is on today's trail map as Doc's Forest Glade.
I mostly skied at Hidden Valley during the early 60's. I did ski at Laurel Mt. when they had the beautiful red lodge. I didn't have the nerve to ski Lower Wildcat. At that time the main lift was a T-bar. The newspaper article brings back memories. At the end, the phone number is ATlantic 1-... as in AT1-. Who is old enough to remember numbers beginning with 2 letters?