I find powderstud’s take on skiing (or not skiing) glades to be interesting. In the 1970s, following the Sunday vs. Stratton decision, glades were for the most part turned into trails. One of the best glades that was lost was Downdraft at Killington and, I presume, as a remembrance of that, SJ has a member who identifies himself as downdraftslasttree.
By the 1990s, glades were back and by 2000, if your area didn’t have glades, you weren’t a “major area” any more. Part of the problem with skiing glades is that you have to go slower and take much more care in skiing them. In the era before super-grooming, no one would just get on a trail and go fast without a practice run or two to check out the surface. These days, with no warm up run, people take off down the trails like they are superhighways rather than dirt roads. One can usually get away with that on groomed runs. But if one enters glades with that attitude, that person is an accident waiting to happen.
So, I suppose if you don’t want to waste a run or two checking out a gladed trail, it’s probably a good idea to stay out of them. IMO, in some ways, glade skiing is much safer than trail skiing. The traffic is lighter there. I have never been run into in a glade.
