Are ski bums an endangered species?

The iconic “ski bum” is a romantic character who has forsaken ambition and material comfort for something purer: high mountains, big adventure and the pursuit of the perfect ski run. Vermont is filled with ski bums past and present who live for powder days. 

Ski bums have had a tough go lately. Climate change and economic hardship have taken a toll. New England just endured the warmest January in history. Powder days are fewer and farther between. Airbnb and Covid-19 have dealt a blow to many of the affordable crash pads and couches that ski bums once surfed.

Then there is the matter of white privilege. 

“There is only one subset of the population who can safely, comfortably, and consistently pull off this lifestyle: white, cis-gendered skiers, usually middle class or wealthier, usually men,” wrote racial equity advocate Mardi Fuller in an essay for SKI Magazine entitled, “Let’s Stop Celebrating the White Male Ski Bum.”

Journalist Heather Hansman explores the modern reality of ski bumming in her book, “Powder Days: Ski Bums, Ski Towns, and the Future of Chasing Snow.” She journeys from Vermont to Colorado and back to tell the stories of people who have built their lives around snowy mountains. Hansman is the environmental columnist for Outside Online and has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic and other publications. She is also the author of “Downriver: Into the Future of Water in the West.”

Hansman writes that ski bums are “part of an ecosystem of skiing which encompasses everyone from celebrity vacationers to the undocumented lifties.” A decade after her own ski bum journeys, she hits the road again, this time with existential questions.

“In the face of climate change, economic upheaval, and so much more, I’m trying to figure out if skiing as we know it will survive,” she said.