UPHILLING HIGH IN POPULARITY
Copper is offering classes in uphilling for the first time
Uphilling has moved from a fringe activity to the mainstream. Copper Mountain offers classes in the activity, and most Colorado ski mountains embrace it.
Uphill skiing at a downhill ski area may seem oxymoronic to some. Why slog up the mountain by leg, lung and willpower when there is a network of chairlifts scattered across the mountain where you can sit, relax and be conveyed swiftly and effortlessly to the top?
There are folks who love uphilling, though, for the same reasons people climb mountains, run marathons and crank out century rides on their bikes. They enjoy the extra effort and feeling of accomplishment that comes with “earning their turns,” especially when it involves timing their turnaround at the top of a climb to catch a glorious alpine sunrise before the lifts open.
Uphilling used to be a fringe activity reserved for the hardiest mountaineers, but it has become more popular in recent years. Most Colorado ski mountains allow it, with resort managers writing rules to regulate it. Some charge a modest fee, some don’t. Some allow it only before and after
lift operating hours. Almost always, uphilling is restricted to designated routes.
Ski area uphilling can be an end in itself or a means of training for backcountry ski mountaineering. This year, Copper Mountain created formal uphill tours for people who want to give it a try but don’t know where or how to start. For $99, uphillers get tutored on equipment and technique by a guide who leads them on a 2.4-mile, 1,140-foot climb on the west side of the resort. The price includes full-day use of “alpine touring” skis, which are designed for climbing as well as descending. As my group made its way through the trees in late January on the route Copper has set aside for the uphill tours, it felt as if we were by ourselves in the backcountry even though there were ski trails not far away.
“One of the things about uphill right now is that the equipment is so expensive, and people are not sure whether this is (the) right sport for them,” said Dustin Lyman, Copper Mountain’s president and general manager. “Not only have we created a route that people can experience, but we’re also renting demo equipment so they can try it before they buy it and see if this is really how they want to get their fitness. Maybe it’s just one aspect of how they do it, but they can come to Copper and figure that out.”
Uphilling is sometimes called skinning, because climbing “skins” are stuck by adhesive to ski bottoms so they don’t slip backward in climbing mode. Skins are strips of fabric with unidirectional bristles that allow skis to move forward freely but prevent the ski from slipping back downhill, and they are peeled off for descending. They’re called skins because they used to be made from seal skins. Modern skins are typically synthetic or made out of mohair.
While it’s trendy now, uphilling is actually the way people skied before rope tows and chairlifts were invented. In his book “Wild Snow,” a historical guide to North American ski mountaineering, Colorado ski mountaineer Lou Dawson quotes 16th-century historian Olaus Magnus describing Scandinavians using climbing skins “when they ascend to a place they may not fall backward, because the hair will rise like spears, or bristles, and by admirable power of nature hinder them from sliding down.”
Ernest Hemingway wrote about his experiences uphill skiing in the Alps in the 1920s. In the 1930s, hardy members of the Colorado Arlberg Club were skiing up and down the Mary Jane Trail, which they cleared long before it became part of the Winter Park ski area. Meanwhile, Swiss mountaineer Andre Roch was climbing and skiing peaks in the Aspen area a decade before Aspen Mountain opened for downhill skiing in 1946.
After Idaho’s Sun Valley built the world’s first chairlift in 1936, Norwegian immigrant and Adirondacks legend Herman “Jackrabbit” Smith-Johannsen lamented the idea of skiing becoming a more leisurely activity. He encouraged the adventurous not to abandon the backcountry.
“Tow hills are but a training ground for the fun that is yours when you set out on your own,” wrote Johannsen, who lived to be 111 and was the world’s oldest man in the last three weeks of his life. “You must feel the tug of your muscles as you near the top of a long grade, and know the joy of making your own track down an unbroken expense (sic) of powder skiing. This is skiing. This is adventure.”
The uphilling trend has been aided by the evolution of modern alpine touring gear, which has bindings that allow skiers to climb with freely moving heels, as they would on cross country skis. Unlike cross country skis, AT bindings allow skiers to lock down their heels in downhill mode so they can use the same technique they use for turning on regular downhill gear. AT gear has been around for decades, but today’s equipment is lighter and more dependable.
Uphilling isn’t just for skiers.
Snowboarders can do it using “splitboard” snowboards, which can be separated into two pieces for climbing — one for each foot — then reconnected for descent. Splitboard demos are available for Copper’s tours, too. Copper runs the group tours on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Private tours can be arranged ($249 for one person, additional $50 for a second).
“We’ve been getting great feedback,” Lyman said. “It’s a beautiful route, it’s a lot of fun to do. The sport is growing, and it’s good training even for people who are primarily downhill athletes to cross-train. We like it. We have a lot of people — myself included — who are big fans of the sport.”
My guide for the Copper tour was Copper ski and ride school instructor Dan Bogardus, who loves the backcountry and enjoys sharing his passion with newcomers.
“I want to help people get to the next step of skiing, which I think is moving away from the crowds, exploring your own area, and you can incorporate physical fitness and fun into it as well,” Bogardus said. “We noticed there was kind of a disconnect between where people purchase backcountry equipment and going out to use it. The only place people could really get much advice was either a shop or a through guide service, which can be exceedingly expensive.
“A lot of people just want to go up the resort (mountain) before they open,” he said. “They may not have aspirations of grand mountaineering. They may not even know what ski mountaineering really is. Part of my job is to explain all of that along the way.”