Mad River Glen has never been known for doing things the conventional way and that apparently extends to off season trail maintenance. Each fall, crews at the Vermont ski area head onto some of Stark Mountain’s steepest terrain armed with hand scythes, cutting back grass, ferns and brush in places too steep for tractors.
The annual Mad River Glen Mow Crew was out on the mountain from Sept. 14 through Sept. 25 this year, preparing terrain ahead of the 2026-27 ski season. The work is done largely by hand, with crew members moving shoulder-to-shoulder up the slopes as they clear vegetation.
According to Mad River Glen, tractors handle much of the mowing on beginner and intermediate terrain. Once the terrain becomes too steep for machinery, the scythes come out.
Crews use the traditional hand tools to cut grass, ferns and shrubs while gradually hiking uphill across the trails.
Mow grass, earn a ski pass
There is also a pretty good incentive for anyone willing to swing a scythe for 10 days. Participants in Mad River Glen’s Mow Crew work from roughly 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and receive both pay and a full season pass after completing the program. The ski area provides the scythes, gloves, sharpening equipment and water.
Mad River Glen describes the job as physically demanding, but also as an opportunity to become intimately familiar with the mountain’s terrain before snow arrives.
The hand maintenance fits particularly well at a ski area that has spent decades resisting many of the changes that transformed the wider ski industry. Mad River Glen opened on General Stark Mountain in 1948, and its history remains closely tied to preserving natural terrain. The mountain became cooperatively owned in 1995 and is now owned by roughly 2,500 individual shareholders. The cooperative’s mission specifically calls for preserving low skier density, natural terrain, forests and varied trail character.
A mountain that still relies heavily on natural snow
Mad River Glen also remains unusually dependent on natural snowfall. Only about 15% of the ski area’s terrain has snowmaking coverage, almost entirely on lower-elevation and high-traffic terrain, according to Mad River Glen’s mountain statistics. The mountain averages 228 inches of snow annually and offers 60 marked trails across 2,037 vertical feet.
Mad River Glen says its limited snowmaking system was originally the result of a lack of available water rather than a philosophical opposition to artificial snow. Over time, however, that limitation helped preserve what the ski area now describes as one of New England’s remaining natural-snow skiing experiences.
The same philosophy is visible during the offseason. While tractors and modern equipment certainly have their place on Stark Mountain, some of Mad River Glen’s steeper ski trails are still prepared for winter much the way a hillside might have been maintained generations ago: one swing of a scythe at a time.
p.s. that bear the scything crew saw while riding up the single chair is a regular on the slopes of Mad River, his name is Tobi, short for Toblerone. Mad River advises Tobi hasn’t yet broken into the garbage and they would like to keep that way so make sure if you are visiting this gem of a Green Mountains ski resort that you don’t leave any trash behind.
