Granite Backcountry Alliance: Giving back to the ski community while looking to the future

GBA opens and maintains backcountry trails across the region. (Scott Martin/GBA)

By early December, enough snow had fallen above Pinkham Notch for the Tuckerman Ravine Trail and Sherburne Ski Trail to welcome the eager backcountry skiers looking for laps on the east side of Mount Washington. But as he looked out his window from the Appalachian Mountain Club Regional Headquarters in Pinkham Notch, Ben Cargill knew the popular route wasn’t quite ready.

So the North Conway native gathered a couple helpers, including his brother, Jordan, and got out on the historic trails with chainsaws to clear the downed logs and branches that had piled up during November storms and were now blocking passage. With his parents Susan, 64, and Ken, 66, planning to ski the “Sherb” in the coming weeks, Cargill didn’t want to leave any traps on the terrain.

“I’m a regular user and view it as an opportunity to give back,” said Cargill, an 11-year employee of AMC in the purchasing and logistics field. “I’m proud of my community and where I work. It’s humbling to be tasked with the maintenance of a regionally renowned trail that hundreds or thousands travel to ski every year.”

In the 20th century, the Civilian Conservation Corps started the tradition of clearing thick New England underbrush to create backcountry ski runs, and with help from dedicated volunteers like Cargill, a nonprofit organization has taken up that mantle.

Formed in 2016 by outdoor recreation lawyer and avid skier Tyler Ray, Granite Backcountry Alliance has worked with private landowners and land managers at the federal and state level to create a network of designated backcountry ski zones in New Hampshire and western Maine that includes 45,000 feet of marked runs, with an additional 10,000 feet of maintenance offered on four trails cut by the CCC last century.

Each fall, volunteers amass for Glade Days, where chainsaws, pole saws, loppers and old-fashioned grunt work combine to improve the zones before winter. Rather than cutting indiscriminately, GBA works closely with the U.S. Forest Service to craft a sustainable and low-impact approach in fragile mountain ecosystems. Everything is flagged in advance for the volunteers, who stay strictly in the boundaries of the ski runs and are instructed not to cut trees more than three inches in diameter.

Glade Days are held in the fall to avoid impacting the migratory patterns of endangered bats, and zone expansion is limited when it infringes on the habitat of the Canada lynx or Bicknell’s thrush. For example, the popular Maple Villa zone in Intervale stops short of the 2,640-foot Bartlett Mountain summit because the upper slopes of the forest are considered lynx habitat.

“It’s good to set a guideline with the Forest Service on the right way to responsibly and sustainably manage the glades,” said GBA board of directors president Drew Zimber. “In private zones there’s inherently more flexibility, but we’re still trying to apply those guidelines.”

Powered by donations, memberships and sponsorships, GBA manages nine glades on private land, with Maple Villa and Baldface zones falling under U.S. Forest Service jurisdiction. Landowners continue to approach GBA for opportunities to turn their forest into a powder playground, but more have been turned down in recent years as the organization moves from its “founding phase” to its “sustainability phase,” as Zimber puts it.

With the network’s growth and a post-pandemic backcountry boom has come crowding, and in one case, enough disturbance to compel the town of Randolph to close access to GBA’s first glade, Crescent Ridge, in Randolph Community Forest. Ray also stepped down this past year, focusing on other projects under the umbrella of his company, Backyard Concept. Paul “Coz” Teplitz, a former leader of Harvard and Dartmouth outdoor programs, has stepped in as the new executive director.

“We recognize that the entire landscape of skiing is changing, and want to make sure GBA is set up to remain a foundational aspect of outdoor recreation in New England,” Teplitz said. “Stewardship of these recreational resources is a vital part of the work we do, and that’s why we created our ambassador program, Ski Kind, to go out at popular times and encourage following the guidelines set by landowners.”

Ski Kind ambassadors volunteer on weekends and holidays to sit at trailheads, helping recreationalists find legal parking or directing them to another nearby zone if the lot is full. Recent New England winters have presented few opportunities for great backcountry skiing until huge blizzards have finally hit in March or April, leading to a potential bottleneck effect at the glades.

“It’s a double-edged sword because as skiers, what do we want? Untracked snow and powder, but these glades don’t maintain themselves,” said Cargill. “It takes a lot of manpower, and the more people you have involved that care deeply about a place, the more are willing to do whatever they can to ensure it’s appropriate management and oversight.”

For most public land managers, a growing army of volunteers who are committed to sustaining their recreational environment is a positive development.

“GBA has done a really good job of harnessing the community,” said Brian Johnston, a ranger in the Saco District of the White Mountain National Forest. “They bring a really robust group of volunteers that are well-organized, and we would consider tapping them as a resource for unforeseen things in the future, such as bad storm damage. They’ve demonstrated a good mindset as partners and bring a lot to the table.”

The backcountry community comes together for GBA events such as a Backcountry Film Festival, ski expo, a race up the Mount Washington Auto Road and the annual Wild Corn bash at King Pine Ski Resort in early April that marks the culmination of another season. While shorter winters are making the pastime more challenging, enthusiasm for human-powered skiing has grown, rather than waned, in part thanks to GBA.

The average person might have no idea how much work it takes to maintain these glades in a populated region with persistently dense undergrowth, Zimber explained, but it’s a labor of love. Enjoying a perfect late-spring tour with his sons at Maple Villa that fostered a newfound love for backcountry skiing in his youngest, or watching the kids jump off a kicker until sunset at Page Hill in Tamworth, have provided the moments that justify the work.

“It’s the kind of thing as a dad, you love, and it’s also what keeps me driving forward with GBA,” said Zimber. “Thats the kind of experience we want to foster with people, whether with friends, or family, to have a safe option to build those human-powered memories.”