7/20/2023 0 Comments Whitecap mountianSo with this project we’re kind of encouraging people to keep going a little further, and it brings them to new communities, and they contribute to their businesses as well.” “Sunday River has tons of traffic, but they kind of stop right there. Ray has high hopes that this project and similar ones in the future will encourage skiers to explore new areas, stimulating the economy in small, often overlooked ski towns. And the town of Rumford and a different ski community is on the other side.” “Sunday River and Andover is on the western side of the project. “From a deeper, more philosophical perspective, the project is exciting to me and Granite Backcountry Alliance because we’re connecting two different communities,” says Ray. The summit-to-summit tour, “backcountry gate” and ski zones on conservation land aren’t the only aspects of the project that are unique. And while starting on the Black Mountain side does require an uphill pass, the amenities available can make it worthwhile. Both sides offer uphill-specific skin tracks to access the zones. Along the way, there are six gladed downhill zones that offer a variety of skiing through ecologically unique red pine forests and diverse ecosystems. and embark on an 8-mile point-to-point tour. Now, users can access this remote terrain via a “backcountry gate” - common at many resorts in the western U.S. When the cutting was completed over a two-day period by volunteers in October 2019, the new trail and gladed zones became the first in Maine to be cut on publicly accessible land. “We conserve land to benefit natural communities, and there’s nothing I can think of better for protecting these communities than a backcountry glading system that will bring folks to the area who will enjoy, respect and take care of the land. “We were really excited about it because GBA and the Mahoosuc Land Trust have a lot in common,” says Kirk Siegel, founder of the Mahoosuc Land Trust. Both parties expressed interest, and the project began to take shape. Ray began conversations with the Mahoosuc Land Trust and Black Mountain - both owners of land where cutting would occur - to discuss this vision of creating a human-powered ski zone connecting the two areas. And with minimal summit-to-summit ridge skiing available in New England, touring between the two peaks wasn’t much more than a pipe dream.īut when Marcoux began talking to Tyler Ray, founder of North Conway-based Granite Backcountry Alliance, it looked like his dream of accessing Whitecap from Black Mountain could become reality. The summit snowfields have been skied by die-hard New England skiers looking to venture into Maine’s backcountry for years, but the dense second-growth forests made exiting the snowfields a challenge. The terrain is steep, avalanche-prone and offers exhilarating skiing for a mountain of its size. But then you realize, it’s a long distance, with not a lot of support if something goes wrong.”Īt 2,214 feet, Whitecap Mountain has an exposed, slab-covered dome summit that offers panoramic views and 360 degrees of skiing. “I’m over at Black, poking around up there, looking over toward Whitecap, and it’s just this dome peak with many different facets to ski off of,” recalls Marcoux.
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