Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
- Uphilling, or ascending ski slopes without lifts, is gaining popularity at U.S. resorts.
- The trend is driven by fitness enthusiasts seeking fresh air and camaraderie.
- Policies on uphilling vary by resort, with some offering designated routes and events.
DENVER — In ski towns, "earning your turns" comes with inalienable bragging rights.
The term, thought to originate from backcountry skiers in search of untouched snow, often involves bypassing ski lifts, gondolas and any other mechanized way up the mountain in favor of ascending on human power alone.
"Earning your turns" usually requires using specialized ski equipment made for traveling uphill.
But a less extreme, fitness-oriented version of "uphilling" is on the rise within resort boundaries at U.S. ski resorts. It's attracting skiers beyond the backcountry set in search of a good workout with the added bonus of fresh air and fresh tracks — often before the mountain opens to lift-access for the day.
Ski areas allowing uphill access — designated routes and hours when skiers, hikers and snowshoers can walk up the mountain — have increased by nearly a third over the past decade, according to statistics from the National Ski Areas Association.
An end-of-season association report shows 65% of associated resorts permitted uphill access in at least some form during the 2023/24 season compared with roughly 33% in 2013-2014.
The climb and its reward
"It's huge, really, how much uphilling at the resorts has grown," says Cara Marrs, 55, a dietitian and devoted uphiller and backcountry skier who has lived in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, for 27 years.
"I do feel like back in the day there were not that many people on the ski area skinning up, it was more for backcountry skiing. But now people are doing it for fitness," Marrs says.
Uphilling has become a form of on-mountain camaraderie as much as a fitness craze in many mountain towns, says Brody Leven, 37, a professional adventure skier and ski mountaineer who lives in Salt Lake City and says he is "entirely human-powered."
"In the winter, the majority of the way that I and many skiers catch up with our friends is on the skin track, as we call it, which is on the hike up. You have so much quality time to talk with someone," he says.
And while Leven hasn't used any mechanized manner to get up the mountain in at least a decade and spends most of his time ski mountaineering in the backcountry in Utah and beyond, he says uphilling in-bounds at resorts is more mainstream.
"There's a huge variety of equipment, huge variety of people. It can be casual, it can be inexpensive, and it's generally safe. I think people are looking to get outdoors," he said about the pursuit.
In addition to skins, skiers and ski mountaineers use specialized bindings and boots that allow their heels to move freely compared with downhill skis (you clip back into the bindings when it's time to ski down). "Splitboard" snowboards can be split in two halves for walking on them uphill, too. The skins are removed and stashed away when it's time to ski or snowboard down the mountain.
"The uphill is where you get the workout. But the whole purpose is to get the downhill," says Marrs. "If you go up on the ski area and it's a powder day, and you're going at 5:30 or six in the morning, you're going to get the most delicious … first run down."
While uphilling in-bounds at resorts mainly requires good fitness and the ability to ski down, ski mountaineering can also require ice climbing and rock climbing skills, says Leven.
An offshoot of ski mountaineering referred to as skimo that involves racing is set to debut for the first time as an Olympic sport at the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games.
Doing it for the rush, fitness and fun
Terrin Abell, program manager at the Breckenridge Recreation Center in Breckenridge, Colorado, says she'd never heard of uphilling when she first moved to the ski town in 2011.
"A group of friends wanted to do a full moon ski, and that was my first experience with it," she says.
Abell, who snowboarded and skied at the time, decided to carry her snowboard up the mountain since she didn't have the right skis for walking up. Her friends skinned up on their skis, and they all enjoyed a moonlit run down empty slopes.
After that, she says, she was hooked.
By the next year, Abell had invested in alpine touring skis to make it easier to get up the mountain and venture into the backcountry, too.
Every year, she and a group of friends take part in the Imperial Challenge, a rite of spring in Breckenridge. The challenge involves biking or running from the Breckenridge Recreation Center to the base of Peak 7 at Breckenridge Ski Resort before transitioning to ski gear to walk (or for some, run) uphill to the top of Peak 8.
"I will be in a tutu, I will be in a costume. I do these things because I'm in it for the fun," Abell says.
Uphill policies vary, depending on the resort
Not all resorts allow uphilling, and policies vary at ski resorts that do allow it. Those can usually be found online.
Utah's Powder Mountain allows uphill travel during the ski resort's operating hours only in designated areas and on approved routes, with a lift ticket or season ski pass required for access. The resort hosts a skimo race — ski mountaineering — the Lightning Ridge Relay, every year.
Alta Ski Area does not permit uphill skiing at all during the operating ski season because of heavy equipment operations and avalanche mitigation, says Lexi Dowdall, the resort's communications manager.
Before the ski season officially opens and after it closes, however, Alta's terrain is open to backcountry skiers who understand they are completely on their own and responsible for their own actions. It's imperative to ski with backcountry equipment and a partner, says Dowdall.
"We've seen more and more folks coming to take advantage of that uphill policy beyond our operating season. Preseason and postseason, people are using Alta like crazy to go uphill. My last ski day last season was June 20, and I was skiing up here at Alta," she says.
