The Premier Backcountry
Festival in the Northeast.
A four-day immersive experience in the White Mountains
North Conway, New Hampshire | February 8-11, 2024
LOOKING BACK: BC FEST 2023
NH Life’s Kate Sullivan showcases the Backcountry Festival in all its glory in this fresh episode - and she’ll be back as host of the High George Jamboree, 5:30-9pm Saturday, February 10 at Leura Eastman Performing Arts Center at Fryeburg Academy in Fryeburg, Maine!
SCHEDULE
Check out all the fun things. There’s something for everyone - it’s true!
EVENING EVENTS
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5-9pm THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8 @ LEDGE BREWING
All-star panel discussing “Your Brain on Stoke” (5:30-6:30)
Salmon Stew Trivia Night (win swag, drink beer, enjoy!) (7-9pm)
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4-9pm FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10 @ TUCKERMAN BREWING
REKLIS (live music) (4-7pm)
Welcome the return of Snow Queen Caite Zeliff to the Mt. Washington Valley! (7-7:30)
Premiere of “WEAK LAYERS” a ski comedy starring Katie Burrell (7:30-9)
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5:30-9pm SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10 @ LEURA HILL EASTMAN (Fryeburg Academy)
The big celebration!
Keynote: Caite Zeliff
Diamond 48 Film Contest
Win a trip to Iceland! Full on raffle from Festival sponsors!
MOVIE PREMIERE.
Join Caite Zeliff and the backcountry community for a special premiere of the ski comedy WEAK LAYERS, an uproarious film set in a mountain town, when a team of ladies take on the bros and go for gold. In fact, the plot is to win a 72 hour film contest called HOT LAPS to pay rent, a contest similar to the Backcountry Festival’s Diamond 48! Friday Night (2/9), Tuckerman Brewing Company, come check it out!
FEATURED ATHLETE
Had Caite Zeliff become the World Cup ski racer she was poised to be, she could have missed out on earning one of the most hardcore titles in freeskiing: Queen of Corbet’s Couloir. In 2018, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort hosted the inaugural Kings and Queens of Corbet’s—a freeride competition that sends 25 skiers and riders off a large cornice and into the legendary 45-degree chute “Corbet’s Couloir.” As Freeskier Magazine said, Caite “tweaked her massive couloir drop with a shifty and pieced together a near-perfect run from top to bottom.”
After winning the highly publicized event, Caite’s life changed dramatically. The ski instructor and server gained sponsorships from The North Face, Blizzard and Tecnica. Magazine stories were written and Warren Miller invited her to ski for its annual film. She followed up her Corbet’s title the following year with an even bigger straight air shifty and a crowd pleasing spread eagle near the finish. The performance solidified her place in Jackson Hole lore.
Caite grew up among deep ski roots. The ski club in her hometown of North Conway, New Hampshire dates back to the 1930’s and her local ski hill, Cranmore Mountain Resort, boasts the country’s first ski hill. Raised by a single mom who wasn’t a skier, it took a school program that brought kids to the mountain once a week and a family friend who introduced her to ski racing to get Caite hooked on skiing. She won the first race she signed up for at age 11. With a goal of making the U.S. Ski Team, she attended Proctor Academy in Andover, New Hampshire (where she was moved into the headmaster’s house in an effort to tame her wild ways), then an extra year of high school at Stratton Mountain School. When she didn’t make the U.S. Ski Team, she joined the Division 1 ski team at University of New Hampshire but tore her ACL her freshman year. Caite now looks back at the injury with appreciation. She dropped out of school and moved to Jackson Hole.
Caite Zeliff won her first competition in 2015—The North Face Frontier, a Freeride World Tour (FWT) qualifying event. With the guts for big cliffs and the talent to land them, she hit her stride in big-mountain competitions, competing on the Freeride World Qualifying Tour. What set her career on fire was winning the famous ‘King and Queens of Corbets’ competition two years in a row solidifying her spot in ski history lore. She’s now turned her focus to ski films and has filmed with Teton Gravity Research, Warren Miller, and MatchStick Productions.
With a mantra of “Hold It Wide Open (HIWO),” a motorcycle term that refers to holding the throttle open, Caite lives her life to the fullest. Jackson Hole and the Tetons provide her with all the training grounds and inspiring peers she needs to take her skiing as far as she wants. With a newfound love for paragliding and snowmobile skiing, Caite looks forward to accessing her home range and beyond by new and creative means.
COME HIWO WITH YOUR HOMETOWN HERO CAITE ZELIFF!
CAITE ZELIFF
JACKSON HOLE, WY | THE NORTH FACE ATHLETE
Courses Available NOW.
Sweet packages in the High George Tour & Store and keep returning as we roll out more clinics!
GEAR DEALS IN OUR ONLINE AUCTION
EARLY BIRD UPHILL
EARLY BIRD UPHILL
We've always got something up our sleeves to bring new experiences to the BC Fest! This year, we’re rising with the sun for the Early Bird Uphill even atCranmore Mountain Resort. Join us at 7 AM on Saturday, February 10, to see how fast can you skin to the top of the famed North Conway ski resort. Don't want to race? No problem! Join the social category for a fun group skin with other like-minded folks. This event field follows a mullet format - business in the front, party in the back!
We’re psyched to have Stan & Dan Sports powering the Early Bird Uphill on Saturday, February 10 at Cranmore Mountain Resort.
If you’re looking for rentals for the BC Fest, Stan and Dan has you covered! You’ll find the best boot fitters in the industry and the largest rental and demo fleet in the North Conway area. Stan and Dan also hosts a series of lively events for the backcountry community, including group tours and gear workshops. Check out their shop right near downtown NoCo!
DIAMONDS ARE MADE UNDER PRESSURE
Are you the friend that always has the GoPro on and camera ready to capture epic moments in the backcountry? Take your creativity to the next level at DIAMOND 48. This unique 48-hour film contest challenges you to conceptualize, shoot, and edit a two-minute video about a topic of your choosing at the Mt Washington Backcountry Ski Festival! $50 entry free, $1,000 prize!
Check out the menu.
INTRODUCING: OUTDOOR OFFICE™
Go For a Walk.
You see the darnedest things when playing in the mountains. Sometimes just going for a walk is all it takes. But the truth is we all know the best part - when there’s no walking at all. Enjoy the ride.
Yoga & Ski.
Double dip your favorite activities with the introduction of the Mountain Kula Yoga sponsored course Yoga & Ski full-day course.
Festival Powered by
Land Acknowledgement
This Backcountry Festival takes place on terrain in N’dakinna, which is the traditional ancestral homeland of the Abenaki, Pennacook and Wabanaki Peoples past and present. We acknowledge and honor with gratitude the land and waterways and the alnobak (people) who have stewarded N’dakinna throughout the generations, including the range of the Woban-aden-ok, in the Algonquian language meaning “to the place of the high white or crystal/mica mountains,” or what Euro-American settlers refer to as the “White Mountains” to present an Indigenous view and meaning of the natural landscape.