SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Quebec's southern Laurentian Mountains have a long history of cross-country skiing, but many historic trails have disappeared. And thanks to private land owners and efforts by conservationists and local municipalities, ski trails are once again linking villages and boosting the winter economy. Vermont Public's Nina Keck takes us hut skiing northwest of Montreal.
NINA KECK, BYLINE: Into the Arctic tundra.
(SOUNDBITE OF BOOTS SQUEAKING)
KECK: When it's 10 degrees below zero...
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS ON SNOW)
KECK: ...The snow crunches under your boots. Backcountry ski guide Will Hotopf assures me trail conditions are epic.
WILL HOTOPF: We're trying to reinvigorate and revive the tradition of skiing from village to village and from hut to hut and from inn to inn in the Laurentian Mountains.
KECK: Hotopf is director of Les Routes Blanche, a company that's developed a 75-mile network of historic and new ski trails.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking French).
KECK: I signed up for the western route, a rugged, three-day, 27-mile trek.
HOTOPF: The west is more wild and rustic. It's my favorite. You're really getting out into the woods, and you're experiencing what I would describe as, like, a classic Laurentian landscape.
(SOUNDBITE OF SKIS SLIDING ON SNOW)
KECK: We follow mountain ridge lines, cross frozen lakes and wind through narrows of black spruce and white and red pine. It's not an extreme environment.
HOTOPF: It's really beautiful - spiritual, I would say.
KECK: Right now, the sun is lighting up these big dollops of white snow that are dripping from every pine tree that I can see. And it's quiet, except for the sound of my skis and my breath.
(SOUNDBITE OF HEAVY BREATHING)
KECK: If I stop, it's totally quiet.
(SOUNDBITE OF SKIS SLIDING ON SNOW)
KECK: Unlike the heavy skis and plastic boots I wear on a downhill slope, to ski through the woods, you need lighter and more comfortable gear. My lace-up boots, for instance, are leather, and my heels are not clamped down. Backcountry skis are narrower and have a grippy undercoating to help you climb uphill.
All right. A little bit of a descent here.
My skis also have metal edges, which help with turning...
(Laughter).
...And controlling speed.
Can she make the turn? Oh, yeah.
There are no chair lifts, so for every fun downhill...
Woo.
...There's a climb up, which is actually good because it keeps you warm.
Woo.
I get to the tiny cabin where I'll spend my first night. There are rustic bunks and a fire's burning in the wood stove.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS ON SNOW)
KECK: Brian Toohey (ph) of Northampton, Massachusetts, is staying in a nearby yurt.
BRIAN TOOHEY: You get away from the lodges and the lines and the crowds. And it's just you and your friends, and you're out in the woods, and it's peaceful, and it's calm.
KECK: Toohey is exactly the type of winter tourist Les Routes Blanche is attracting more of. Max Raymon (ph), who shuttles our bag, says he used to work mostly with cyclists in the summer. Now he says he's busy all year. Area stores, restaurants and bed and breakfasts also tell me they're seeing more business.
JAMES JACKSON: This is an economic engine.
KECK: James Jackson heads SOPAIR, a nonprofit trail preservation group that oversees Les Routes Blanche.
JACKSON: In the early 1990s, the province has a little bit of foresight and said, when we make new subdivisions, we're going to put in a park tax.
KECK: The rule requires developers to hand over 10% of a deal's cash value or 10% of the land to be used for trails or other green space. Those public right of ways are jump-starting a centuries-old style of village-to-village tourism and allowing locals and people like me to enjoy the outdoors.
(SOUNDBITE OF SKIS ON SNOW)
KECK: Oh, so many lakes in this area.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Yeah. Tomorrow, we'll cross Lac (inaudible).
KECK: For NPR News, I'm Nina Keck. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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