2/27/13

Ski Mountaineering: Now They're Racing Up the Hill - WSJ.com

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Updated February 26, 2013, 9:18 p.m. ET

Now They're Racing Up the Hill As 'Ski Mountaineering' Wins Converts, Puzzled Resorts Adjust; 'An Intense Mental Colonic' By TESS WEA V ER

Associated Press

Ski mountaineering relies less on gravity than human exertion. Here, competitors at an event in Switzerland.

Aspen, Colo. In ski country this winter, resorts are starting to police and even outlaw a new type of renegade behavior. "It's just not safe," says a spokesman for Mad River Glen resort in Vermont. This time, the trouble isn't snowboarding. The new scourge of the slopes is coming from a group of people who are determined to indulge a passion that, to be honest, doesn't seem like that much fun: Skiing uphill. Like, without a chairlift. To most skiers, ascending Aspen Mountain by gondola means a 20-minute nap. Skiing up is a twoonline.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323384604578328480893163030.html#printMode

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2/27/13

Ski Mountaineering: Now They're Racing Up the Hill - WSJ.com

hour lung-busting test of strength that eats up more than a thousand calories over 3,635 vertical feet. "It's a kind of intense mental colonic," says Michael Tobin, 46, a Chicago television journalist and a new devotee of the sport. "At anytime, there are 304 problems in my head. When I do something with that kind of intensity, it wipes the slate clean." To resorts, the value of this new pastime is limited. Skiing up hills requires no lift ticket, and lift tickets represent the industry's largest source of ski revenue. In the absence of any big upside, resorts fear the liability of possible collisions between downhill and uphill skiers. While there haven't been any headline-grabbing tragedies of that nature, many resorts, particularly on the east coast, have outlawed uphill skiing. Others limit climbers to designated routes or off-peak times. After years of freely allowing uphill skiing, Vermont's Mad River Glen last year banned it while its lifts are operating. "Eventually, there were too many of them. It was out of control," says spokesman Eric Friedman. "We have very twisty, turning, narrow trails with blind spots—it's not safe." Uphill skiing is the participatory version of a fastgrowing sport called ski mountaineering. Like Nordic skiing, a 50-kilometer race over relatively horizontal terrain, ski mountaineering relies less on gravity than human exertion. To gain traction, uphill skiers stretch snow-gripping "skins" over their skis, which they peel off before descending. Their alpine touring bindings allow the heel to raise on the climb and lock down for the descent. During a season in which snow-sports sales as a whole have fallen 3%, the uphill skiing segment is a glowing exception. Sales of the skis, boots and bindings have risen nearly 50% year over year, according to Dynafit and Scarpa, the sport's leading manufacturers.

Associated Press

The North American Ski Mountaineering Championships.

As more people take up the sport, formal mountaineering races—also known as randonee racing— are growing in popularity. Since the 2006 debut of a race series called the Colorado Ski Mountaineering Cup, the number of competitions has more than tripled to 16. The number of participants per event has more than doubled, organizers say, to about 100.

Some resorts are starting to roll out the white carpet. Until recently, Colorado's Crested Butte Mountain Resort allowed uphill skiing only during nonoperating hours for its chairlifts. But in February, it opened one course all day to uphill skiers while unveiling a new facility that offers uphill lessons and uphill-specific equipment. At the same time, the resort started requiring uphill skiers to buy a $10 day pass (compared with $95 for a one-day lift ticket) and to watch a safety video before climbing the slopes. "There's a big demand," says Erica Reiter, a resort spokeswoman. Jeff Hanle, a spokesman for Aspen Skiing Company, said he doesn't believe the sport is luring skiers off the lift—rather, it's bringing newcomers to the slopes. "Ninety-nine % of the people going uphill are doing it for exercise and not as a means of skirting the ticketing system," he says. online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323384604578328480893163030.html#printMode

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2/27/13

Ski Mountaineering: Now They're Racing Up the Hill - WSJ.com

While downhill skiing isn't without exercise value, it often leaves endurance athletes wanting. Uphill skiing exacts a punishing cardiovascular toll—so much so that skiers have to be carefully manage their clothing to make sure they don't sweat too much on the ascent—only to freeze while skiing down. The concept itself isn't entirely new. Backcountry skiers have always skinned uphill to find pristine powder in remote areas. In ski-crazy Europe, ascending mountains the old-fashioned way never did go out of style. In fact, ski mountaineering's Switzerland-based international governing body is currently lobbying for the sport's debut in the 2022 Olympics. The top American in this month's International Ski Mountaineering Federation World Championships in France was U.S. national champion John Gaston, who finished 31st in his first international race. Gaston, who entered the sport from a traditional alpine skiing background, trains up to 14 hours per week, climbing an average of 25,000 vertical feet (Northeast ski resorts typically offer between 1,000-2,000 vertical feet). "The Europeans really embrace the sport," Gaston says. "The big races draw hundreds of competitors and huge crowds." In Colorado, scores of uphillers hit the slopes each morning, ski uphill for an hour then shoot back down to arrive at their desks before 9 a.m. "I like the exercise of Nordic skiing and the speed and fun of alpine skiing—it's this perfect combination," says Pete Swenson, a Breckenridge ski sales rep who helped pioneer ski mountaineering racing in the U.S. The sport seems to be gathering strength on the East Coast. Jonathan Shefftz, an economics consultant and former ski racing coach at Harvard and MIT, organizes a three-event race series in New England. "We have a lot of ski areas that are great for hosting randonee races," he said. And we have a huge population base. It's a big untapped potential demographic." In the short term, the sport's future will depend largely on the resorts, who will have to decide if it makes sense to allow some people to ski their slopes in the reverse order. At Vermont's Mad River Glen, the restrictions on uphill skiing drew criticism from shareholders at the latest board meeting, Friedman, the spokesman, said. He said the policy will probably be revisited this summer. "The patrol director would like to come up with an accommodation of some kind." A version of this article appeared February 27, 2013, on page D6 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Now They're Racing Up the Hill.

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