Inclusive Ski Touring

We provide financially accessible group programs in order to develop an inclusive uphill community and offer opportunities for individuals of all backgrounds to try ski touring and/or split boarding.

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We are 501 (C)3 Non-Profit

About Us

Inclusive Ski Touring (IST) is a 501c3 nonprofit with the mission to develop an inclusive uphill community through organized group programs. IST creates welcoming, inclusive, and empowering spaces for all individuals to be introduced to backcountry skiing and ski touring, and meet others in the outdoor community. Skiing / snowboarding, and particularly backcountry skiing / split-boarding, can feel like an exclusive recreational activity, where you have to know someone and be in a well-off economic position in order to gain the knowledge and gear to participate.

We break down these barriers by offering financially accessible programs both on resort and in the backcountry at little to no cost to the individual. We offer programs that are open to everyone as well as programs that are specific for underrepresented athletes, women, and first time uphillers. We partner with local and national organizations such as Outdoor Afro, Latino Outdoors, and Kindling Collective to welcome a new wave of people from across New England to winter recreation. These special partnership programs are open to participants with no prior ski or snowboarding experience to maximize our impact.

For the 2024 winter season we partnered with the Blizzard Tecnica Women2Women Program to offer weekly Women’s Tours, a Women’s Demo Day, and three women specific Intro to Backcountry Programs.
These programs were developed with the intent to bring together, connect, and empower women in the outdoors.
Learn about our Women’s Program
Learn about the Women’s Demo Day
Learn about our Women’s Intro to Backcountry Program
In the 2024 season we offered our Open-to-All Program almost every Sunday January - March at two locations.
These programs were developed with the intent of creating a welcoming, inclusive, and empowering space for all individuals looking to try ski touring or split boarding as well as for those wanting to meet other individuals in the touring community.
Learn about our Mt. Abram Open-to-All Program
Learn about our Whaleback Open-to-All Program
Learn about the East Coast backcountry from professional guides in the White Mountain National Forest. This program will teach you about backcountry touring equipment, techniques, and etiquette for a safe and fun experience.
This course is designed for those with resort based touring experience but little to no backcountry experience. This course will not enter avalanche terrain.
Learn More Here
We are proud to offer an array of programs focused on providing opportunities for individuals who are historically underrepresented in outdoors spaces. For the majority of these programs we partner with outside organizations to best serve the communities we are looking to impact. In the 2024 season we provided the following programs:
IST x Outdoor Afro at Whaleback Mountain
IST BIPOC Tour at MWBC Ski Fest
IST x Kindling Collective at Mt. Abram
IST x Latino Outdoors at Mt. Abram
IST BIPOC Tour at Mt. Abram

An in depth look at our Intro to Backcountry Program by Norde Creative

Throughout the 2024 winter season we provided the opportunity for 745 individuals to join our programs.
Out of these 745 individuals, 70% had never been touring before joining or had only been once, 76% of our participants in the 2024 season were female, 18% male, and 4% nonbinary. 82% of our participants were white with 18% being people of color.
In order to keep these programs financially accessible we subsidized these programs to the amount of $39,462.35. Additionally, we provided 10 scholarships for our Intro to Backcountry Program, a value of $1,875.00.

We recognize that a high price tag and pay-to-play culture can be discouraging for people with no experience in skiing and riding. Even if someone is fortunate enough to be able to afford the sports, it is a large financial commitment to make, especially if they are unsure yet if they will enjoy the experience.
We have priced our on-resort programs to be financially accessible at $20 and for all of these programs we provide a code on the registration page that will allow anyone to waive our fee.
The median price for programs across the country offering an on resort learn-to-uphill program is $73.33. We also offer downhill instruction in our Underrepresented Athletes program, recognizing that the ski industry as a whole has not done a good job of catering to those with marginalized identities. The median cost of a downhill lesson in New England is $150; however, we continue to offer these programs at $20, as we are unwilling to price underrepresented athlete programs higher than our other programs. This brings the total subsidy for our on-resort programs to $53.33 per participant and $203.33 per participant for our underrepresented athletes’ program.
For our Intro to Backcountry Program we offer 10 full scholarships each year.

Zach McCarthy moved back to Maine from Boston and found purpose in sharing his love of ski touring with others, in 2021 Inclusive Ski Touring was born.