Before Tree Skiing, Parks and Backcountry Skiing (freeskiing)

mattchuck2 · Oct 14, 2014

dlague said:
I find it interesting how many require challenging terrain options that were not available prior to 1990. The late eighties started the trend of opening the trees as not being off limits and the 90's parks started to appear. Also in the 90's more steeper faces were opened.

I have skied when skiing was pretty much limited to trails. How many of you who require challenging terrain options of today remember those days when there were not as many options? Were you bored out of your minds or was it all you knew so you "took what the mountain gave you!"?

First of all, I was 10 years old in 1990, and I remember trying to find jumps and tree trails for as long as I've been skiing. I'm just glad I have more options now (some parks used to be "Snowboards Only" and I got yelled at for hitting the jumps. What a weird time).

Secondly, before the days of grooming everything completely flat, there was a lot of "challenging terrain" at every mountain. You think MRG or Castlerock at Sugarbush used to be (or are) boring?

This is such a weird question in general. Do you think people who ski in other areas are the world are "limited to the trails"?

steamboat1 · Oct 14, 2014

Wow, some of you guys have been skiing since the late 70's & 80's.

I'm impressed.

Quietman · Oct 14, 2014

steamboat1 said:
Wow, some of you guys have been skiing since the late 70's & 80's.

I'm impressed.

No Need to be impressed, just means we are getting old ;-). I learned to ski at Mt Abram in 71 or 72. Skied SR when it was just the Pullman-Berry double and 3 t-bars. Skied Evergreen in Maine, anyone else here ski there? Skiing has changed for sure, but we are all still having a blast!!!

Glad to see more areas going the way of expanding glades and allowing bumps to form. Alas, we are as always subject to mother nature's whims.

steamboat1 · Oct 14, 2014

Quietman said:
No Need to be impressed, just means we are getting old ;-). I learned to ski at Mt Abram in 71 or 72. Skied SR when it was just the Pullman-Berry double and 3 t-bars. Skied Evergreen in Maine, anyone else here ski there? Skiing has changed for sure, but we are all still having a blast!!!

Glad to see more areas going the way of expanding glades and allowing bumps to form. Alas, we are as always subject to mother nature's whims.

I was just being sarcastic. Started skiing in 1960 myself.

Listened to stories from my parents on how skiing was in New England before that. Seemed to me the skiing was good but driving up to VT. sucked. Didn't have interstates back in those days. Granville Gulf was just a dirt road washboard getting to MRG or Stowe. You hit that after 7hrs driving on one lane roads on a good day. That's determination.

Cannonball · Oct 15, 2014

I think you have your order of events wrong. Boring resort skiing did not come before backcountry and tree skiing. That's all there was before the resorts were built.

Smellytele · Oct 15, 2014

Quietman said:
Skied Evergreen in Maine, anyone else here ski there?

Some one recently posted some pictures of the run down lodge there. My parents owned a condo there in the late 70's until early 90's. Skiing ended in the early 80's there.

tree_skier · Oct 15, 2014

steamboat1 said:
Wow, some of you guys have been skiing since the late 70's & 80's.

I'm impressed.

started at Guilford outing club in '62

dlague · Oct 15, 2014

Cannonball said:
I think you have your order of events wrong. Boring resort skiing did not come before backcountry and tree skiing. That's all there was before the resorts were built.

True and on wooden skis with no metal edges!

.......

Smellytele · Oct 15, 2014

dlague said:
True and on wooden skis with no metal edges!

.......

My father told me stories of skiing with his regular leather winter boots that were held onto the wooden skis with canning jar rubbers connected to the ski near the toe and around the heal. He said it was like teleing. It was back in the thirties in Northern VT.

St. Bear · Oct 15, 2014

Wow, it's amazing that some of you are able to log in and work a computer.

/I kid, I kid

Puck it · Oct 15, 2014

St. Bear said:
Wow, it's amazing that some of you are able to log in and work a computer.

/I kid, I kid

skiNEwhere · Oct 15, 2014

dlague said:
True and on wooden skis with no metal edges!

.......

There is a sign at the base of the galloping goose double at winter park that says "skis must have metal edges to ride lift" or something to that effect. Gave me a chuckle

Scruffy · Oct 15, 2014

St. Bear said:
Wow, it's amazing that some of you are able to log in and work a computer.

/I kid, I kid

Indeed, considering the pioneers of the modern day computer are old enough to be your grandfather/mother

tree_skier · Oct 15, 2014

Puck it said:

Besides the slide rules (they were great by the way) we had one computer in my high school. It took up a space about 8' x 6' x 4' high and to interact with it we couldn't just say hello computer, we had to feed it these things called punch cards.

St. Bear · Oct 15, 2014

Scruffy said:
Indeed, considering the pioneers of the modern day computer are old enough to be your grandfather/mother

tree_skier said:
Besides the slide rules (they were great by the way) we had one computer in my high school. It took up a space about 8' x 6' x 4' high and to interact with it we couldn't just say hello computer, we had to feed it these things called punch cards.

You're absolutely right. In fact, I found this pic of tree_skier purusing the morning snow reports back in the day.

dlague · Oct 15, 2014

tree_skier said:
Besides the slide rules (they were great by the way) we had one computer in my high school. It took up a space about 8' x 6' x 4' high and to interact with it we couldn't just say hello computer, we had to feed it these things called punch cards.

Can we say PDP-11?

mbedle · Oct 15, 2014

I can remember learning how to ski at Pocono Manor in the mid 70's with my mom's old skis and leather boots! The leather safety straps was also really nice.... lol Oh, and using a VAX computer system in college to learn programming. Fun stuff.

dlague · Oct 15, 2014

I was thinking more about it and we skied down the hill behind my parent's home with old all wood skis with steel edges in the late 60's to early 70's. So technically that was back-country skiing!

My first skis (used hand me downs) up on our family room wall

as far as first computers well....

Cannonball · Oct 15, 2014

Yeah, we used to slide down the local hills, golf courses, sand pits, woods, etc. We'd do it standing on sleds and random pieces of plywood. And of course we always did it standing sideways since that's the best way to keep your upright balance.

BenedictGomez · Oct 15, 2014

That leather boot, wooden skis, and crude bindings rig sounds so incredibly dangerous. I definitely feel more fortunate.

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