Backcountry Ski Forum in Rochester, VT

[Nick]

Not sure if anyone here attended, it was written about in the news here --> http://www.alpinezone.com/news-and-...ry-ski-forum-november-14th-promote-bc-skiing/

Anyway, this article just came out. They had over 100 skiers in attendance.

http://www.mountaintimes.info/news/...-enthusiasts-organize-for-backcountry-access/

But even as the discussion included ideas on how to promote backcountry skiing to visiting skiers, participants tempered enthusiasm with caution: In 2009, two skiers used chainsaws to cut nearly 1,000 trees and create an empty swath on Big Jay Mountain 2,000 feet long.
The two men later pleaded no contest to federal charges of unlawful mischief. Panel and audience members agreed the incident was a black eye for the entire community. Bearing this lesson in mind, the meeting discussed ways of creating and maintaining a positive image of off-piste enthusiasts, including a backcountry code of ethics similar to the popular Skiers Responsibility Code endorsed by the National Ski Patrol and a public advocacy group.

"We've lost the public relations battle," Oliver Blackman, ski patroller at Smugglers' Notch and advising forester for RASTA said. "Other users of backcountry land are assumed to be virtuous - hikers are wonderful stewards of the environment, (while) skiers are dirt-bag criminals. We need somebody to change that."

Jason Duquette-Hoffman, co-founder and owner of Vermont-based ski company Worth Skis in Middlebury, said a dialogue between policymakers and the trail users is necessary to change that image.

"What I hear from people that have access to policy development is that they don't understand what we need and they don't understand how to translate it into policies that make sense on a statewide basis," he said. "What we really need to do is help them. This gives them a sense of who we are, but we really need to step up and give them that advisory capacity."

 

[Huck_It_Baby]

I wanted to make it down to this but didn't have the time.

Nick the title should read Rochester, VERMONT.

Not NY. =)

 

[Nick]

Fixed. Thanks for noticing. It was instinct to put NY for some reason, lol

 

[Huck_It_Baby]

Fixed. Thanks for noticing. It was instinct to put NY for some reason, lol

Haha same for me. Roch, NY is my hometown which is why I even noticed.