Guilty Pleasures: Skiing Adirondack Backcountry Glades
Good luck finding one. Most backcountry skiers would sooner give out their bank PINs than reveal the locations of their favorite glades.
In the decade I’ve lived here, I’ve stumbled upon a few glades while exploring the woods and learned about others through word of mouth. I ski three or four glades fairly regularly.
It’s a guilty pleasure, though. Many glades are surreptitiously maintained by skiers who cut saplings and underbrush—which is illegal in the forever-wild Forest Preserve.
I’ve talked to skiers who insist that the grooming doesn’t harm the forest. As much as I enjoy skiing glades, I am a tad skeptical. Certainly, it changes the natural environment. Then again, so does just about everything we do in the wild—whether it’s cutting a hiking trail, driving a polluting snowmobile over a marsh, or stocking a stream with hatchery fish. The question is how much alteration of the environment is acceptable.
Recently, I happened to meet a well-respected environmental scientist at a trailhead, and I asked him if thinning glades damaged the forest. His off-the-cuff answer: not much.
An article in Vermont Life takes a hard look at the issue of cutting bootleg trails and thinning glades. One critic argues that cutting saplings creates a forest of even-aged trees and when these trees die, gaps in the forest will emerge. Yet the article also quotes an expert suggesting that glades can be managed to minimize the environmental impact.
Many resorts, including state-run facilities at Whiteface and Gore, have created glades to satisfy their patrons’ desire to ski in a more natural environment. Some backcountry skiers would like to see the state authorize the creation of managed glades in wild portions of the Forest Preserve. Frankly, I see that as a long shot, but it’d be neat if Paul Smith’s College or the state College of Environmental Science and Forestry looked at the impact of ski glades. As a long-term experiment, students could thin a glade on their own, study it over the years, and come up with suggestions for glade management. This information could be useful to resorts and perhaps to backcountry outlaws as well.
Backcountry skiers need to watch what they wish for. If the state did permit maintained glades in the Forest Preserve, everyone would know their locations.
I have a feeling, though, that hard-core enthusiasts would be skiing elsewhere.
Photo by Phil Brown: A skier in an Adirondack glade.
For more stories about backcountry skiing and snowshoeing, visit the Adirondack Explorer website.
7 Comments:
There's an article in the Northern Woodlands magazine from a few years back on the topic titled Are Ski Glades Bad for the Woods? -http://northernwoodlands.org/articles/article/are_ski_glades_bad_for_the_woods/
As far as the environmental impacts of various illegal activities in the forest preserve go, this has to rank quite high in terms of damage to the ecosystem done by just a few people. That said, I can't imagine it's any worse or much different in terms of impact than having an overpopulation of deer.
That said, condoning this seems like a slippery slope that could be used to justify a gazillion other things people know they shouldn't do.
Thanks for the link.
how is this any worse on the environment than maintaining & using the hundreds of miles of snowmobile trails throughout the blue line?
That's a fair question, Anonymous. Especially since new DEC guidelines (those being challenged by the Adirondack Council) will allow those trails to be substantially wider and smoother. Perhaps a snowmobiler will want to weigh in on this.
What I gather from the post is that the "gulity pleasure" arises from the legal issues of skiing on "surreptitiously maintained" glades on state land, not the environmental impact, which in most cases is likely quite small.
Having enjoyed a few guilty pleasures myself, I find that when I do something that I know is questionable or illegal, I tend to be very discreet and careful about it to minimize the chance of getting caught, and to minimize the consequences for me if I did get caught. My guess is that these "surreptitiously maintained" glades are much more low key and environmentally friendly than they would be if they were legal and the "backcountry outlaws" didn't have to worry about getting busted.
I used to work for the US Forest Service in California. One of our biggest recreational resources problems came from people building illegal mountain bike trails in the forest. They'd cut through archeaological sites, and the trails would become creeks when it rained, accelerating run-off. They didn't know how to build or locate a trail, or harden it for bike use.
Thinning saplings for skiing a mountain glade is pretty benign, but if enough people start doing it, who knows what effect it may have?
I am curious if DEC is having the same problem with outlaw mountain bike trails?
Glade cutting will create a different eco system that will attract new groups of fauna...
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