Trail Crew: Between the Snow

Long before the first snowflake falls on the slopes of Bretton Woods, a crew is already deep in the woods. Chainsaws running. Arms that won’t stop vibrating until well after the engines do. The Bretton Woods Trail Crew does the work most of us never see. They dodge flying rocks, outrun falling trees, and push through stinging wasps, working to their own rhythm and a whole lot of grit. They lay the foundation, day-after-day, maintaining a network of trails that continues to earn the resort the best snow conditions and grooming in the East.

Our crew echoes work from nearly a century ago in the White Mountains when, in 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched the Civilian Conservation Corps as part of the New Deal, mobilizing young men across the country to conserve and improve forestland. In New Hampshire’s White Mountain National Forest, the CCC established 17 permanent camps whose crews built many of the first ski and hiking trails, campgrounds, roads, and scenic overlooks that locals and visitors still rely on today.

Decades later, the Bretton Woods Trail Crew carries that stewardship forward.