Scholarships and fee waivers
Nobody at Inclusive Ski Touring is turned away over money, and you never have to prove anything to us. Here is exactly how each one works.
On-resort days, $25, $10 or free
There is no application. On-resort days are $25, and every signup also has a $10 option and a free option. For the free option, use the code inclusive at checkout and our fee is waived in full. No questions, no explanation, no form, and anyone can use it. The code is not secret and it is printed on every program page.
The one thing the fee waiver does not cover is uphill access at the resort, because that money goes to the mountain rather than to us. A ticket is $15 at Mt. Abram, $19 at Cranmore and $20 at Bromley, and an Uphill New England season pass covers all of them instead. At Dartmouth Skiway there is nothing to buy at all, because Dartmouth gives Inclusive Ski Touring participants free uphill access. An Uphill New England season pass is the cheaper route if you uphill more than a handful of times a season.
Backcountry programs
We hold one full scholarship for each Intro to Backcountry day and each Intro to Ski and Snowboard Mountaineering day, in every version of both. A scholarship covers the entire program fee. These are guided days with professional guides and a real cost behind them, so there is a short application rather than a simple ask.
Backcountry programs and what a scholarship covers
| Program | Normal price | With a scholarship |
|---|---|---|
| Intro to Backcountry | $150 | Free |
| Women's Intro to Backcountry | $150 | Free |
| Queer Intro to Backcountry, either date | $100 | Free |
| BIPOC Intro to Backcountry | $100 | Free |
| Intro to Ski and Snowboard Mountaineering | $175, or $225 with the technical gear | One fully covered place per date |
Applying for a backcountry scholarship
The application asks for your name and contact details, the programs you want, up to three days that work for you, and three short questions about why you want to come, what stands in the way and your background so far. You do not need to send tax returns, pay stubs, or documentation of any kind. Applications close December 15, 2026.
- Pick up to three days that work for you, from any of the programs above.
- Fill in the application before it closes on December 15, 2026.
- Every application is kept confidential and reviewed with great care and consideration, and the recipients are selected after applications close. Everyone hears back either way. If we cannot offer you a scholarship, we will tell you what else we can do, which is usually a waived fee on an on-resort day and a place on the list for next season.
The terms
- If you are offered a scholarship, you have 10 days to confirm and book your day. After that, it goes to the next person for that day.
- Booking holds your place with a $25 deposit, refunded in full when you attend.
- A scholarship is for the day you are selected for. It cannot be moved to another day, passed to someone else, or rolled over to another season.
- If you cancel or do not attend, you lose the deposit and you will not be prioritized for a scholarship in the future. A medical reason or a true emergency is the exception.
- If we cancel the day, we will offer you one of your other picked days if a place is open.
Gear, uphill access and getting there
Our fee is the part we control, so our fee is the part we waive. The other two costs belong to other people, so what we do about those is negotiate them down. If you do not own touring gear, there is a shop or rental partner at every location we run at a discounted rate for our participants, and at Cranmore the $20 reservation comes back to you as store credit. Uphill access is the resort's own charge, and at Dartmouth Skiway the Skiway donates it for our programs. If getting to the mountain is the problem, tell us, because somebody in the group is very often driving past you.
Why we do it this way
Because means-testing costs more than it saves. Asking somebody to prove they are poor in order to go skiing filters out exactly the people the program exists for, and it costs us more in administration than the fees we would collect. In 2026 we subsidized every participant by an average of $137, and the total came to $83,905 of support delivered across the season. Our fee is not really the price of the day. It is a way of making sure you turn up.
