The Chickering-Ayers Boys
Published in Vermont Sports – March 2004
Story and Photo by Brian Mohr
When it comes to legendary steep skiing and natural snow, it is no secret that Mad River Glen ranks at the top. And when it comes to seeking out and laying tracks through Mad River’s best kept secrets, few can match the dedication and skill of the Chickering-Ayers brothers – Sylas, Gabe and Lars.
Born of parents, John and Sue, who truly love to ski – John is also the director of Mad River Glen’s highly respected ski patrol – it comes as no surprise that these boys have inherited the zeal that the skiing gene often breeds. Raised in East Montpelier just a few towns away from the mountain, the boys – Sylas and Lars especially - are on their skis every chance they get. Even Gabe, 14, who is passionate about soccer, too, and plays all winter, can often be spotted chasing gravity alongside his brothers.
Recently, I had the great fortune of skiing a weekend with these three exuberant youngsters. Run after run, they shared with me their version of Mad River Glen at its very best – stringing together one hidden powder stash, ledge strewn birch glade and snow-filled creek bed after the next.
“We just found this great cliff!” exclaimed eleven-year old Sylas, or “Sy”, after bolting into the base lodge to regroup with me and his friends during a balmy minus-five degree morning. The landing was powdery and there were two beautiful frozen waterfalls to choose from, explained his older brother Lars, who is sixteen.
Skiing to Sylas, “is just really fun… My favorite runs are the Poophouse and J-Bowl to Last Frontier,” shares Sylas, who hardly realizes that he is one of only a handful of people in the northeast who can ski top to bottom on these extremely challenging, unmarked “runs” without even thinking about it.
A day earlier, Sylas entered and scored first place at Mad River Glen’s Junior Mogul Challenge in the twelve and under category.
“So what tricks did you pull?” I inquired.
“Just a 360,” he shrugged in a childlike manner.
With the snow coming down at an increasing clip, we traversed away from the open trails in pursuit of some untracked snow. After getting below the boys in a quiet glade, Gabe soon flew by me in a storm of powder, skiing as if he hadn’t missed a ski day all season. Down below, I noticed Lars stopping to wait up for his brothers, so that they could quickly discuss and then ski off to their next favorite section of the mountain together.
While riding the lift between runs, Gabe tells me that he “just finished building a major computer – for video editing.” Equipped with more than four hours of usable raw footage of the Chickering-Ayers brothers and their friends skiing, Gabe is excited to put his passion for computers to work and assemble their first ski movie. “I’ve been apprenticing with Rolf Mueller,” a computer technician who lives in Calais, “…once a week for a couple of years,” shared Gabe. “Soccer, skiing and computers,” he said, are his favorite things to do.
Both Lars and Sylas are members of Mad River Glen’s Freestyle Team – a looseknit group of creative kids who continually push themselves to become better skiers. Occasionally, some of them will enter Mad River’s own mogul and freeskiing competitions, as well as events like Sugarbush’s Castlerock Extreme and Stowe’s Slopestyle.
Although skiing and playing for fun, not points or prizes, is the priority to Lars and his brothers, they are increasingly known for coming out of the woods and shocking the crowds. During the winter of 2002, Lars – at age fourteen – entered and won Mad River Glen’s notorious Triple Crown Competition Series. Comprised of three events – the Mogul Challenge, the Unconventional Terrain Competition and the Vertical Challenge, in which skiers try to log the greatest amount of vertical in one day – it is one of the northeast’s ultimate tests of downhill skiing prowess. With the field of competitors including many of Mad River’s very best adult skiers, the magnitude of this accomplishment extends far beyond the plaque on the wall.
Their coach, Jeremy Miller, who is a student at UVM, claims he has “never met more dedicated skiers,” than the Chickering-Ayers boys. Every chance they get, they head for the mountain, he says, and things have got to be “really, really bad” for them to miss a day. Most ski days for them start with the sun as they head to the mountain with their father well before the lifts start spinning. Sometimes they go up the mountain with ski patrol on the early side, or simply end up shoveling the decks of the base lodge. No doubt, they are there for first chair.
Come springtime, you won’t find these boys trekking north for backcountry snows - for now. Yet, you may find Lars laying tracks on Mt. Hood, Oregon after school gets out, where a summer job at a ski camp tempts him. At home, between doing chores, cooking dinner once a week and playing pick up soccer games with friends, they can often be found building and riding their own neighborhood singletrack or just letting their imaginations run wild.
Back on the chairlift, I was able to chat with the boys some more. Lars, a junior at U-32, thinks he’ll probably go to college, but would rather talk about skiing. Gabe, who once swam with Lars and their mom among humpback whales, wants someday to travel to Africa, where he is determined to ride on an elephant through rhinoceros habitat. Sylas, who tells me that he loves to cook enchiladas, can’t wait to get off the chair and ski another run.
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