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Ski areas across the United States and in Montana are in an uphill battle to get a grip on the growing number of skiers and snowshoers who use the resorts’ plowed roads, facilities and groomed slopes without chipping in on the costs by purchasing a lift ticket.
Ski areas are seeing a rise in skiers who use all-terrain or other free-heel bindings, along with skins on the bottom or their skis, to climb the slopes, before locking in their bindings and skiing down.
Ski hills have dealt with the growth of “slack country, free-ride skiers” in a variety of different ways — some have outlawed uphill travel all together, while others have put policies in place that aim to keep uphill and downhill skiers safe while sharing the same slopes.
Showdown Montana, south of Neihart, allows uphill travel on a designated route that starts near the rental shop and follows the north edge of the ski area to the lookout tower on top of Porphyry Peak.
Most people who use the uphill route descend the cross-country ski trails that are off of Showdown property, such as O’Brien Creek or Deadman Gulch, said Ben Haugan, Showdown operations manager. If people are going to descend the ski hill’s slopes, they need to buy a lift ticket.
“We don’t really have a problem with it at this point,” Haugan said. “Most people who do uphill travel are season pass holders.”
Currently there are no signs marking the designated uphill route at Showdown, but that likely will change soon.
“I hope over the next couple years to have appropriate signage,” he said.
For now, if people have questions, they’re welcome to stop in the lodge and ask.
Great Divide Ski Area, near Helena, is in the process of developing an uphill travel plan. At the beginning of this ski season, the ski hill created a draft plan and is now seeking public input, owner Kevin Taylor said.
Under the draft policy, Great Divide created designated uphill routes. People can use those routes during operating hours and also when the ski area is closed. During operating hours, they must purchase a $10 alpine touring pass.
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“We built the parking lots, plowed the parking lots and built the restrooms,” Taylor said. “They’re using all of that.”
That’s why Great Divide, which sits half on private land and half on BLM land, charges uphill skiers, even though they’re not riding the lifts.
If they ski after hours, no one is there to collect their money, so they can ski for free.
The activity is particularly popular early in ski season when uphill skiers are also using the manmade snow that Great Divide creates, Taylor said.
Great Divide has designated uphill routes to keep people away from the high pressure water lines and high voltage power lines that run to its snow making equipment, and also away from the grooming machines that are on the slopes after hours.
“We want to make sure we don’t have people everywhere climbing up,” he said.
Under the draft policy, people would be allowed to skin up the slopes and wouldn’t be allowed to walk up.
“The reason we don’t want the boot packing up is it leaves divot holes,” Taylor explained.
Dogs also wouldn’t be allowed because of the divots and the piles they leave behind.
Taylor saw uphill travel pick up in popularity in the last few years and said it’s mainly people who want to combine physical conditioning with the fun of downhill skiing.
Great Divide isn’t trying to alienate this group with its uphill travel policy. The same people who skin up the slopes are also regular customers at the ski area, he said.
“We allow it; we encourage it,” he said. “They’re our customers. It’s not an outlaw segment.”
“I do it on my days off,” Taylor added.
The Forest Service proposed a rule change this winter that would allow ski areas that lease lands from the federal agency to charge a fee for the uphill skiers. The rule change would allow ski areas to charge people who don’t use the lifts but do use services and facilities “such as lifts, parking lots, and slopes and trails that have been cleared, graded, groomed or covered with manmade snow.”
Whitefish Mountain Resort, which sits mostly on Forest Service land, has had an uphill travel policy in place for several years.
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It allows uphill travel during operating hours on two designated routes. One route stays open until 7 p.m., three hours after the lifts close, and the other opens early in the morning.
“That allows us to get our grooming crew out there to do grooming,” said Christina “Riley” Polumbus, Whitefish spokeswoman.
Before or after hours, uphills skiers also must descend the uphill route they climbed, that way they won’t be in the way of the grooming crew. During operating hours, they can descend any portion of the mountain that’s open.
“We’re happy to allow uphill skiing, but we want to keep everyone safe,” Polumbus said.
Whitefish ran into a safety issue earlier this season when two all-terrain skiers entered a closed area of the mountain after being warned by ski patrol not to ski there. The area was closed because the ski patrol was in the process of blasting for avalanches. Ski patrol saw the skiers in time to extinguish explosives and no one was injured, she said.
The policy does not include fines or repercussions for someone who doesn’t follow the policy.
Whitefish is now working with the Forest Service to find a way to police and enforce its uphill travel policy.
“We want people who violate the rules to be fined and be disciplined,” she said. “We are pretty happy with our policy for the most part. We’re not happy with the individuals who chose to make poor decisions.”
While Whitefish allows uphill travel, it doesn’t promote the activity. Polumbus understands some of its appeal.
“It is a really good workout,” she said.
Unlike backcountry skiing, all-terrain skiers who stay inside ski area boundaries don’t have to worry about avalanche risk or route finding or breaking a trail.
“That makes it easier than going out in the backcountry,” she said.
Teton Pass Ski Resort near Choteau hasn’t seen enough demand for uphill travel to prompt the creation of a policy.
“We really don’t have one,” said Maggie Carr of Teton Pass.
Everyone who has asked about skinning up the ski area’s slopes has either been an employee or a season pass holder.
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Teton Pass promotes the use of its “side country,” the backcountry area accessible from the top of the chairlift.
“Most people are riding the lift and skinning up above the lift,” she said.
In those cases, people buy a ticket to ride the lift, and are also required to carry avalanche beacons, shovels and probes, since the out-of-bounds areas aren’t patrolled for avalanches.
Teton Pass also holds an annual randonee race, where skiers skin up the slopes and then race down, and this year added an alpine touring series to show off its side country.
Big Sky resort, which sits entirely on private land, doesn’t allow uphill travel.
“There is a lot of danger with uphill traffic,” spokeswoman Sheila Chapman said. “People going down a hill and people going up a hill are not a good mix.”
Outside Montana, Idaho’s Sun Valley Resort has seen a dramatic increase in uphill trekking, which forced a policy change this season, banning uphill skiers during operating hours.
Mount Spokane Ski and Snowboard Park, outside Spokane, is going through a public comment process to draw up rules and perhaps set fees for uphill travel within the downhill skiing concession area it leases from Mount Spokane State Park.
Some Colorado ski resorts require uphillers to get a lift ticket. Others restrict times and routes. Arapahoe Basin and Copper Mountain require uphillers to acquire a free hiking pass and sign a waiver. Steamboat asks uphillers to check in with the ski patrol for an update on conditions after which they’re given an all-day uphill-skiing armband pass for free. Breckenridge no longer allows uphill traffic while the lifts are running.
Rich Burkley, Aspen Skiing Co. vice president of mountain operations, said the company’s four resorts have had policies in place for roughly 20 years because “uphilling” has been so popular at Aspen and Snowmass.
Burkley told the Associated Press that the growth in the number of people skinning or snowshoeing up has grown “exponentially” in recent years.
On a November morning, before the lifts were fired up on Aspen Mountain, he said he saw 46 people heading uphill before he quit counting.
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Travis Nichols, a product buyer for Mountain Gear, says the Spokane-based outdoor equipment retailer has recognized the boom in sales of AT ski gear and snowshoes.
Nichols said the biggest growth in snow sports is in the backcountry and especially in what he calls the “slack country, free-ride skiers.”
“These people are looking for new experiences and good skiing with an emphasis on getting their heart rate up,” he said. “A lot of them don’t want to worry about avalanche, route-finding and breaking trail. Many of them are looking for a quick workout and a good run in a controlled environment before or after they go to work.”
AT ski gear, with bindings that lock heels down like alpine bindings for descents, has become so advanced that a growing number of fitness-fanatic skiers are using them at some resorts all day long, using muscle power to climb back up the slopes after every run, Nichols said.
“These are alpine skiers looking for a new experience,” he said. “They want to ski downhill fast and aggressively, but get up on their own.”
Nichols sees these skiers as a growing market for outdoor equipment retailers, as well as for ski resorts.
“If these skiers are encouraged to use the downhill ski area, they’ll end up making their last run down to their vehicle parked near the lodge and spend money,” he said. “This is a beer-drinking, burger-eating group of people.”
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