Smagenta bra, green, silver and purple metallic Mardi Gras beads. Black lace panties and white underwear. Visit nearly any ski resort in the United States and a few in Canada and you’ll see a tree decorated with colorful undergarments, its branches embracing even the natural white snow. nature and some women’s underwear.
At Mount Snow in West Dover, Vermont, the main bra tree sits alongside the Bluebird booster seat, but other trees near the snowboarder’s freestyle park are also adorned with beads and bras. I’ve never really seen anyone in action, though I’ve thought about the logistics — and the risk of freezing cold — of taking off one’s bra in a chair lift.
But of course, adding to a 50-year-old tradition requires pre-planning, pre-calculation on the part of participants who want to add a slick or stylish flair to the informally designated bra tree. of the ski resort.
Tradition, legend and an interesting piece of reporting from the Sierra Shafer in a 2018 edition of powder magazine, it all started in Aspen. It was in the early ’70s that women were being hired along with men to do ski patrols, and a disgruntled patrolman, displeased with the development, made his point by throw a woman’s nursing bra up a tree.
However, very few people I spoke to for this story are familiar with this history, and the Aspen Mountain Ski Patrol did not respond to a request for comment on the ski lore. (Shafer says she didn’t get any response when reporting her story.) Aspen’s Vice President of Communications Jeff Hanle wrote in an email: “Although we know about the trees and someone told us before that they originated here, no one can really verify that fact.
Although I wanted to discuss not only the Aspen origins of the bra tree but also its development and how it is perceived in the community, Hanle simply said, “I’m not sure if we can do that. clarify this topic or not. ” and did not reply to my followers.
However, the tree is not in danger of extinction. They continue to spring up each year, some less sturdy with underwear and necklaces than others but nonetheless a distinct part of the mountain landscape. Nathan Rafferty, CEO of Ski Utah has no problem with trees, but admits that if he did, he wouldn’t do much. “It’s really hard to control because [the trees] “They’re really easy to create, and they build themselves organically,” says Rafferty.
Melanie Mills, CEO of Colorado Ski, who has expressed concern about the impact of “unmentionable” plastic-containing items on trees, said: “No one knows for sure how much remains. now,” “This is a fact that has certainly come and gone. “
However, not everyone sees it that way. Rafferty calls the tradition “a throwback to the old freestyle days,” which we “need more of in today’s ski industry, not less.”
Seth Masia, president of the International Ski History Association, expressed a similar view: “For the baby boomer generation, skiing was a really noisy scene. That was the birth of the liberal movement. Those were the early days of the sexual revolution. Those were the early days of medicine.”
He continued, “The culture of pickup in bars is a major part of ski weekends, and I don’t think that’s the case anymore.” This shift has led to a change in social attitudes, Masia explains, noting that he has never heard anyone object to the existence of trees.
You can still find traces of the depravity of skiing, but today the sport is much more family-friendly for the wealthy. The freestyle days and the buzzing, boisterous atmosphere that both Rafferty and Masia refer to with more than a hint of nostalgia stand in stark contrast to the current image of skiing. Even the commoditization of the ski sector and the popularity of ski runs like Epic, Ikon and Mountain Collective give skiers and snowboarders access to participating resorts around the country (and beyond). more) instead of buying a one-day lift ticket (a weekday at Aspen Snowmass in January is $204 and $126 at Stratton for example), it’s hardly a budget-friendly sport . Rental elements and ski boots, appropriate clothing to avoid frostbite, hot chocolate and chili bowls, not to mention the cost of a full-fledged ski vacation requiring accommodation and lessons for the kids , and the sport can be classified as one for a privileged few.
I first started skiing in high school in the late 90s when I joined the ski club, but it wasn’t until my early 30s that I returned to the sport with a new interest. . Epic and Ikon aren’t out yet, but the mountains I frequent in New York and Vermont are teeming with families and groups of kids learning to ski, far outnumbered by people my age. enjoyed a debauched weekend here or there – panties in the trees the next day to prove it, perhaps.
The changing demographics of skiing may help explain why trees that were once teeming now sometimes show off only a few sparse items—a pair of panties here, a set of metal necklaces here. that. It is difficult to hang a pair of underwear on a tree branch, says Masia, who attributes the challenge to both wind and sun. destructive black beetle causing many ski resorts to cut down thousands of mature trees, leaving chair lifters out of reach of accessible tree hooks.
Julie Hughes, who lives in Toronto and has mainly raced and skied in Ottawa’s private ski clubs for decades, thinks the trees are a hoax. Every year, ski clubs have something called Women’s Day—the “intoxicating, outrageous” event—that involves quite a bit of bra decoration, Hughes explains. Traditionally, women pocketed their “least favorite bra” with the intention of adding to the resort’s bra tree. “It was fun. Hughes said.
Local Megan Skiles in Salt Lake City agrees with this line of thinking. “For me, bras are an old-school expression of the subculture and the ideas behind it like freedom, nonconformity, and of course, the party scene.” A more common expression of these ideas is seen in a group of skiers who don’t hesitate to carry a barrel of beer up the elevator, or a stranger sitting next to me asking if I mind if he smokes some weed. sa (not at all, and can I take a hit? I almost asked the day before but didn’t). Given the sweeping changes surrounding the legalization of marijuana across the country, it may not be accurate to view chair lifting as representing countercultural or inappropriate behavior, but, like the bra plant, , it’s part of a decades-old freestyle ski game that won’t die, and I’m here for it.
From California to Maine, the bra tree (minimalist or otherwise) persists, its fun decor intermingled with the natural colors of the mountain. Rich Stoner, a ski enthusiast who runs the ski and snowboard blog All about Apres. .” Plus, his three daughters, aged 9, 10 and 13, really like them.
You can’t help but stare at the decorated trees as you go up the elevator, the bras and panties making you giggle, however, Shafer suggests there could be a change after so much. year: “Maybe we need to see more menswear in those branches, just to keep things equal.
