About Inclusive Ski Touring
We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Hanover, Maine. We exist because three things keep most people off the uphill: what it costs, gear they do not own, and not knowing a single person who already does it.
How this started
In 2021 our founder, Zach McCarthy, started posting open-invite uphill tours on his own social media. Anyone could come. By the end of that first season the tours had grown past two hundred participants and it was obvious that something more formal was needed, both to keep it safe and to keep it free. Inclusive Ski Touring was approved as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit on June 14, 2021.
The original premise has not changed. Ski touring is one of the cheapest ways to be in the mountains once you own the equipment, and one of the most expensive and intimidating ways to start. Almost everything we do is aimed at that gap.
What we actually do
We run guided group days at four partner ski areas for $20, and fully guided backcountry programs on Mt. Washington. Volunteers teach you to put skins on, to move uphill and to transition at the top. We have a rental partner at every location, at a rate we negotiated. We run affinity days for women and nonbinary participants, for LGBTQ+ participants, for BIPOC participants and for people 40 and over, alongside days that are open to everybody. And we give away everything we know in writing, for free, in our education section.
What no-drop means
It means the group moves at the pace of the slowest person in it, we regroup together, and nobody is left behind or asked to apologize for being slow. It is the single thing participants mention most often, and it is a rule rather than a courtesy.
I really enjoyed the leave no person behind policy, because I'm usually the slowest person.Intro to Backcountry participant, 2026 season
Who comes
1,016 signups in 2026, participants and volunteers together and counting cancellations. Take the volunteers out and it is 774 participant signups; 684 of those places were taken up on the day, across 569 unique people. 76 people volunteered. Most of the participants had never toured before. 135 of them answered our post-tour survey, about one in five of the 684: they rated the experience 4.84 out of 5, 98.5% said it met their expectations, 94.1% said they would come again, and every one of the 135 said they felt welcomed.
Every season, in numbers
These are unique individuals per season, not signups. A lot of people come more than once, which is why the signup number is always higher.
Unique participants by season
| Season | Unique participants |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 503 |
| 2024 | 471 |
| 2025 | 638 |
| 2026 | 569 |
Our first two winters were run informally, before we had the systems to count properly, so they are not in this table.
Across every season so far, 2,089 different people have gone touring with us. 76 volunteers gave 2,295 hours last season alone.
How it is paid for
In the financial year ended June 30, 2026 we raised $77,630 and spent $92,472. We delivered $249,763 of community value, which is $3.22 for every dollar raised, and we subsidized participants by $83,905 in total, an average of $137 each. 35 sponsors and four venue partners made that possible. The full picture, including the 990s, is on our transparency page, and the argument for it is on our impact page.
Where we are going
More days at the mountains we already work with, rather than more mountains. A blog written by the people who come. An education section that keeps growing. And a serious effort to get better at the thing our own numbers say we are worst at, which is running the days we schedule: in 2026 we planned 79 program days and ran 64.