Glading 101

I've been volunteering some of my time to help RASTA (www.rastavt.org) develop new backcountry glades on public and private lands.  We recently signed an MOU to create 3 glade zones in the next 3 years in the Braintree Mtn Forest (BMF).  The BMF glades will be off of Skidoo and Twin Peaks.  The BMF is located a few mtns north on the same range (past Rochester mtn, Cushman and Round Top) from Rochester Gap so I'm excited to help out as the skiing is fairly local.  RASTA decided to host a glading 101 workshop before we really get out there and start glading new BC lines.  The workshop was held at or place on the gap which was kinda nice as it resulted in a new glade line.  We invited 4 instructors from around the state.  Oliver Blackman (Smuggs), Jay Appleton (Mad River Glen) and Hardy Avery (Sustainable Trailworks) along with special guest Dun Cochrane (USFS) provided a wealth of knowledge.  It was a blast as everyone had a great time.

Here is the "classroom" off the new RASTA singletrack trail that we started this past summer.  Jay is speaking here.

We added a sign with RASTA's logo along with VTBC which is a program of the Catamount Trail Association (CTA).  RASTA is a pilot chapter of the CTA.

After about an hour and half of discussions we did some hands on clipping for the 2nd half.

Here is Hardy thining things out.

The line we ended up cutting is to the skiers right of the rope tow.

Soneone named the glade "101" after the name of the workshop.

Here is Oliver talking about his glading methods.

It was definitely a fun day and we hope to build on this by creating a glading handbook so to speak.  This is something I'm currently working on with the VTBC terrain management group.