Bill McKibben is to activism what Bente Skari is to classic ski technique. The uber-activist recently orchestrated the largest-ever global warming demonstration, Step It Up, a nationwide surge of actions urging congress to cut the emissions that cause snow depletion 80% by 2050. (www.stepitup2007.org
Interview With Bill McKibben
FasterSkier · May 22, 2007
 and then on the groomed trails at Garnet Hill, one of the great ski areas in the country. I wrote Long Distance as a vacation from thinking about the end of the world, and that turned me into a (slow) racer too—the highlight of the year was racing the Norwegian Birke. And then moving to Middlebury sealed the deal—how could you live here amidst the Midd. Skiing tradition and not partake? We live on the edge of the tracks in Ripton—sometimes when there’s lots of snow the Breadloaf crew will groom right to the end of our driveway. </p><p><b>As an athlete, what are your goals every year?</b></p><p>Well, I confess that I race more than anything as an excuse to train—to put in lots of hours as soon as there’s any snow at all, and to take more hours than I really have in the summer and fall for biking and hiking. </p></div><div class=)
I always ski the Lake Placid Loppet and the Breadloaf Citizens Race, and usually the Keskinada and a few others, and I like to be able to finish, you know, respectably. As I age, it’s fun to try to compensate with a little more technique—like learning to go downhill more aggressively. And I really like to hit my goal for total number of days skiing—120 or so a year.
But my real goal is, a few times every year, to spend myself all the way down, to have the world drop away and nothing count but the moment I'm in. And if that's a battle for eleventh place in the 25k at Lake Placid, it doesn't matter. As good as the Olympics for me.
When you aren’t campaigning against global warming, what is your favorite place to ski?
Ripton, where I live, is pretty special. Breadloaf is an amazing trail network, but just as amazing are the things it connects to: the Catamount Trail, the snowmobile corridor (hit it in the right conditions and you’ve got twenty miles of non-stop skating bliss), the ski over to the old-school groomed trails at Blueberry Hill, and lots and lots and lots trails in the woods. You can ski for days and not go over the same ground twice
Who are your skiing heroes?
Bill Koch—in part because he’s a great environmentalist and a truly lovely man. Ben Husaby, who couldn’t have been nicer in the year I was writing Long Distance. And how I’ve enjoyed watching my old friend Tim Burke prosper on the biathlon circuit! There are many many more—Middlebury keeps producing fast skiers who are also incredibly good human beings, which is why I like hanging around on the fringes of the program.
By its nature Nordic skiing can be rough in terms of generating green house gasses, etc. What are things skiers can do to keep a lid on their impact?
Drive something small to the end of the trail—I’ve managed for years in the deep snows of the Adirondacks and the Greens with a Honda Civic (now a Civic hybrid). Remember—snow tires and a stick shift beat 4wd any day.
And get politically active on this issue. We’re building a real movement, and we need the involvement of everyone who cares about winter or, quite literally, there isn’t going to be one much longer.
What projects / plans do you have for the coming year?
Holt/Times Books is publishing a small guide to organizing and activism that our Stepitup crew is assembling, as well as a Bill McKibben Reader sometime in the spring. And I’m editing an anthology of American environmental writing for the Library of America. Plus I’m working really hard on my dips.
Andrew Gardner is the Head Nordic Coach at Middlebury College. For the rest of this interview, check out www.middleburyskiing.org .