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MEDIA CONTENT

Saco River Paddle Brings State Outdoor Industry Together| InDepthNH | July 19, 2024
Granite Outdoor Alliance’s third annual Rocktails & Streams Saco Paddle brought state government interests, academics, ski industry officials, manufacturers of clothing and operators of various renewable energy services and guides mostly from the state’s North Country who are all working to get more people to come stay, play and work in the region.“We combined a relaxing (but still adventurous) day on the river with an evening of networking, music, games and great food with folks from a variety of sectors, from retail to clean energy to nonprofits,” wrote Tyler Ray, who organized the event in a newsletter that followed.

UNION LEADER | February 16, 2023
…an introductory splitboarding course, one of the many excursions offered by the organizers of the Mt. Washington Backcountry Festival. First held in 2017, the festival provides skiers and riders with backcountry adventures in the White Mountains, led by notable outdoor professionals and guides. Back at Ledge Brewing, the festival’s basecamp, I shadowed a group of freelance journalists, photographers and videographers as they participated in an up-and-coming program known as Outdoor Office. Klementovich, along with outdoor entrepreneur Tyler Ray (a major facilitator of the festival), designed this program to offer aspiring outdoor creatives a chance to collaborate with and learn from professionals.

CONWAY DAILY SUN | February 7, 2023
CONWAY — Things are looking promising for the seventh annual Mt. Washington Backcountry Ski Festival, returning for a seventh year, Thursday-Sunday, Feb. 9-12. "We've got excellent snow coverage, and we are expecting 600-1,000 folks between the courses and social events," said Tyler Ray, festival director and principal of Backyard Concept LLC of North Conway.

CONWAY DAILY SUN | September 30, 2022
NORTH CONWAY: Backyard Concept, the outdoor advocacy firm specializing in legal, consulting, marketing and management services, recently welcomed two new team members. Samantha (Sam) Trombley, marketing manager, and Colin Higdon, operations coordinator, are working with founder and principal Tyler Ray to harness the flourishing outdoor recreation movement in New Hampshire. Since 2019, Ray has worked with businesses, non-profits and individuals tas well as hundreds of outdoor brands in various capacities, spanning a variety of sectors such as retail, services, energy, breweries, economic developers, planning, real estate and government.

CONWAY DAILY SUN | AUGUST 23, 2022
PINKHAM NOTCH — Camp Dodge Regional Trails Training Center was the setting last Friday for U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster (D-Hopkinton) to speak with regional outdoor leaders about the increases in popularity of outdoor recreation and the demands put on the resources of the White Mountain National Forest during the pandemic era the past few years. Kuster, who represents the 2nd Congressional District, which now includes Jackson, Sandwich and Albany in addition to all of Coos County, was joined at the forum by Susan Arnold, interim president and CEO of the Appalachian Mountain Club; Amanda Peterson, AMC trail programs operations manager; Sarah Hankens, technical and public service staff officer, WMNF; Phil Bryce, director of the.H. Division of Parks and Recreation; Jessyca Keeler, president of Ski NH; J.D. Crichton, general manager of Wildcat Mountain; Brandon Swartz, general manager of Attitash Mountain; Tyler Ray, founder of the Granite Backcountry Alliance; Ellen Chandler, executive director of Jackson Ski Touring Foundation; and Ed Butler, former Democratic state rep and co-owner of the Notchland Inn in Hart’s Location.

UNION LEADER | AUGUST 13, 2022
Amid a flotilla of canoes, my partner and I paddled down the Saco River on a bustling and sunny afternoon, navigating our way around rocks and tree stumps as the swift current pulled us along. I was participating in Rocktails and Streams, the second outdoor “mingler” event hosted by the Granite Outdoor Alliance, offering people in the outdoor industry a chance to get outside and network. An up-and-coming nonprofit organization, GOA is a membership-based coalition dedicated to representing the businesses and organizations that make up the state’s quickly growing outdoor recreation industry, an industry that contributed $2.2 billion to the state’s economy in 2020, according to a U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis study.

InDepthNH | July 25, 2022
NORTH CONWAY – The state’s outdoor industry is getting an inventory of what it has to set a foundation and understanding of its importance to the state’s economy. SE Group of Burlington, Vt. has been retained by the state to do a deep dive into what we have here and Tyler Ray of North Conway, an attorney and director of Granite Outdoor Alliance, said it will be a hugely important resource going forward when the industry wants to talk to lawmakers. The effort comes at a time when a report by Backyard Concept LCC shows New Hampshire’s employers in the outdoor industry are targeting a younger demographic to fill the growing demand for work, but are finding it difficult to fill the open positions with qualified help.

InDepthNH | June 17, 2022
CONCORD – New Hampshire is searching for a new outdoor director just as a report is being issued that a lack of workforce reinvestment, development, and stagnant wages have hampered growth. Scott Crowder, the state’s first outdoor director in the new state Office of Outside Recreation Industry Development, is returning to the private industry at the end of this month after successfully launching it as the nation’s 16th such program which look to develop the outdoor industry. Crowder will be announcing a new state initiative next week launching a state trails inventory which will be announced at Whaleback ski area in Lebanon Wednesday night. The effort comes at a time when a report by Backyard Concept LCC shows New Hampshire’s employers in the outdoor industry are targeting a younger demographic to fill the growing demand for work, but are finding it difficult to fill the open positions with qualified help.

CONWAY DAILY SUN | March 4, 2022
It’s no secret that backcountry skiing has firmly taken hold in New Hampshire. “Welcome to the revolution,” hails keynote speaker David Goodman to an estimated crowd of 300 at the Mount Washington Backcountry Ski Festival’s aprés party. The room buzzed with a potent, spirited energy as like-minded people of all ages, backgrounds, and skill levels gather to celebrate a day on skis. “I didn’t see anyone who didn’t look 100 percent stoked,” said Boston festival goer J.S. O’Connor. As with any revolution, the reach for progress has both its champions and its skeptics. How the pioneers in this new, rapidly growing generation of backcountry skiers charge forward will determine the future of the sport, not just for the newcomers, but for the region as a whole.

WHITE MOUNTAINS TV | February 22, 2022

NEW ENGLAND SKI JOURNAL | January 10, 2022
“Our location at the epicenter of the backcountry scene on the east coast makes this event the premier backcountry skiing festival in the Northeast,” festival director Tyler Ray said. “We are focusing our efforts in three areas — socials, clinics, and competitions — to cultivate a strong and educated backcountry community. But the reality is this event is for anyone that loves the outdoors, and that’s our secret sauce. This community is welcoming and open to all. It’s a can’t-miss wintertime event.”

Outside Online | May 15, 2021
In New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont, local stewards have banded together to persuade private landowners to allow access to backcountry skiing, mountain biking, and other kinds of outdoor recreation

MWV VIBE | January 21, 2021
The Mt. Washington Valley (MWV) has long been devoted to the pursuit of tourism as a means of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining visitors to support the local economy, much of which has been driven by an interest in the area’s signature natural asset, the White Mountain National Forest (WMNF). With a one-way destination focus, the area has developed into a high-amenity zone, creating a surplus of attractions and opportunities for any visitor, whether they are here for the outdoors or not, producing a transient yet indelible community character.

THE BOSTON GLOBE | January 14, 2021
“It’s the perfect storm,” says Tyler Ray, founder of New Hampshire’s Granite Backcountry Alliance, which is drawing hundreds of skiers to cut new glade zones each fall, and thousands to ski them. “You have a confluence of high resort lift-ticket prices being a barrier to entry for skiing, you have the technical advancement in equipment making backcountry gear better, faster, and lighter, and you have a desire to return to nature.” Add to this the COVID-19 pandemic, which has driven skiers to shun crowded lifts and strike out for wild snow.

AMC OUTDOORS | January 4, 2021
Dee Bryant sits behind the register at Bretton Woods Market and Deli. As a worker at the only convenience store and gas station in town, Bryant’s job is reliant on the success of Bretton Woods Ski Resort half-a-mile southeast on Route 302. Despite the fact that the ski mountain is her indirect benefactor of sorts, Bryant says she isn’t worried about the future of the industry. But maybe she should be. Skiing is the main industry in Bretton Woods—population 90—and officials expect smaller-than-normal crowds on the slopes this winter because of COVID-19 restrictions. But longer term, scientists say a warming climate is putting the Northeast ski industry, and Bretton Woods Ski Resort, at risk. Bryant, however, says few locals are concerned about the consequences of climate change on the resort.

TAHOE DAILY TRIBUNE | December 19, 2020
The Ski Kind Backcountry Responsibility Code is for everyone recreating outside this winter, promoting responsible recreation and tips for keeping the backcountry open, accessible, inclusive and protected. Winter Wildlands Alliance recently announced the Ski Kind Backcountry Responsibility Code, which is a set of guidelines to promote responsible winter recreation this season.

UNION LEADER | December 9, 2020
Winter recreation industry leaders said Wednesday they’re prepared to safely manage the growing numbers of residents and tourists eager to ski, snowmobile, snow tube or hike and escape indoor isolation during the COVID-19 surge.

CONWAY DAILY SUN | November 30, 2020
First, the good news: North Conway was named by readers of USA Today as the “No. 1 Ski Town in North America” (and the Jackson Ski Touring Foundation was ranked fifth in a list of the top 10 cross-country ski resorts).

GOOD TO-GO BLOG | November 13, 2020
We pulled into the parking lot for Black Mountain of Maine (BMOM) early on a Saturday morning in October. It was cold and wet—you know, good ol' New England weather. In typical fashion, Tyler Ray, Granite Backcountry Alliance Founder and aptly titled “Granite Chief,” had more energy than any human should at this hour, and was busy getting the “quarry dogs” primed for the day ahead. It was a big crowd on this day, the largest of the 2020 Glade Tour. Loppers, saws and hard hats were divvied up, and, before long, we were hiking up one of BMOM’s ski trails and into the clouds... literally.

BACKCOUNTRY MAGAZINE | May 19, 2020 | Essay by Tyler T. Ray
A long time ago I learned that not every day is your best day when backcountry skiing. That couldn’t be truer than on Mt. Washington, the jewel of New Hampshire’s Presidential Range, which is infamously home to some of the world’s worst weather. It also is home to some of the best high-alpine skiing on the East Coast and the reason I chose to move to North Conway in 2014. The unprecedented accessibility to steep skiing in remote glacial cirques around the “Prezzies” is my first choice when dialing up a tour plan. But when inhospitable weather moves in or avalanche risk becomes a nonstarter, there’s been limited opportunities to stretch the legs in less exposed tree-skiing terrain. Until now. Say hello to the East Coast craft glading movement.

POWDER MAGAZINE | March 4, 2020
I dig my ski edges into wind-scoured layers of snow frozen to the granite dome of South Baldface in New Hampshire. Straight ahead, about 10 miles northwest, a gray shroud wraps Mount Washington’s 6,288-foot peak. The summit cap trails into a glacial cirque on the leeward side, filling the valley below with a witch’s cauldron of clouds. It’s February 16. Up there, temps hover in the low single digits, and winds blow up to 84 mph.

NEW ENGLAND SKI JOURNAL | January 6, 2020
For years, Jeff Marcoux stood on the true summit of Black Mountain of Maine in Rumford, gazing at Rumford Whitecap Mountain off in the distance.  “That’s where I want to be,” he thought.

UNION LEADER | December 15, 2019
Electric-powered bicycles or e-bikes are a consumer sensation, becoming a more common sight along commuting roads in urban areas.

NEW HAMPSHIRE MAGAZINE | December, 2019
2019 “IT” List: In spite of the incursions of climate change and the prospect of clogged Interstates on snow days, New Hampshire’s official sport (skiing, duh) is alive and well, but like any living thing, it evolves over time. Skiing has increasingly expanded beyond the developed slopes and into the surrounding wilderness, producing new business models as it grows. Enter Granite Backcountry Alliance, whose stated mission is: “To advance the sport of backcountry skiing in New Hampshire and Western Maine by providing low-impact human-powered backcountry skiing opportunities to the public through the creation, improvement and maintenance of ski glades.”

LEWISTON-SUN JOURNAL | December 6, 2019
Tyler Ray, who heads the Granite Backcountry Alliance of New Hampshire, partnered with the Mahoosuc Land Trust and Black Mountain of Maine to create gladed ski runs connecting the mountains. “We had an awesome weekend,” Ray said. “Over 100 people for the two days.” More than half the volunteers were local. Others were from as far away as Newport, Rhode Island.

CONWAY DAILY SUN | December 5, 2019
Business attorney and outdoor consultant Tyler Ray, who recently founded the North Conway firm Backyard Concept, helped coordinate the governor’s visit. “As a community member, I have to say that REI has been wonderful coming in and really infusing some capital into local trail networks, whether it be for mountain biking or skiing,” said Ray. “It’s been great to have them in town,” he said.

UNION LEADER | November 14, 2019
Being prepared for a variety of outdoor fun — and for any kind of weather — is the best bet for having a good winter, said skiing aficionado Tyler Ray. “The key to a good ski season in New England is a full winter quiver of all the tools, with the continuum swinging from backcountry to resort to Nordic to snowshoes to fat bike to ice skates and finally ice fishing,” he said. “If you play the conditions, you’ll enjoy your time outside.”

CONWAY DAILY SUN | November 3, 2019
Not many towns can claim that three year-round residents have stood on Everest’s summit, but Mount Washington Valley can, and come Nov. 8, the local trio of high altitude climbers‚ 1991 New England Everest Expedition leader Rick Wilcox, 71, of Eaton; 2016 Everest climber/filmmaker Thom Pollard 58, of Jackson; and 2019 climber/author Mark Synnott, 49, also of Jackson ‚ will be speaking at a fundraiser for the non-profit Mountain Rescue Service at Theater in the Wood in Intervale.

SKI MAGAZINE | November 2019
In the woods, a summertime crew of 50-odd skiers is handling pole saws and loppers, carefully cutting down trees and smoothing out underbrush for the next season. This isn’t some rogue operation of yahoos defacing northern New England’s dense forests. This is a sanctioned effort of backcountry skiers clearing ski trails for the Granite Backcountry Alliance, a non-profit that’s trying to build backcountry access and a community that goes along with it in the Northeast.

NEW HAMPSHIRE UNION LEADER | October 20, 2019
A party feel floated around the Cooley-Jericho Community Forest on a Saturday morning in late September, despite the hard day’s work ahead.

CONWAY DAILY SUN | October 17, 2019
It was like a music and film festival came alive last Saturday night during the festive debut of the Leaf Peeper Bike Bash, a party thrown by the White Mountains chapter of the New England Mountain Bike Association, aka Ride NoCo.

NEW HAMPSHIRE BAR ASSOCIATION NEWS | October 2019
After 15 years of practicing business law, Tyler Ray has come up with a strategy to combine his professional and personal aspirations — and help struggling rural communities in New Hampshire’s North Country in the process.

CONWAY DAILY SUN | October 1, 2019
Backyard Concept, an advocacy organization focused in outdoor recreation, announces a fall lineup of events to promote outdoor recreation in the Mount Washington Valley.

CONWAY DAILY SUN | July 23, 2019
Business attorney and Granite Backcountry Alliance founder Tyler Ray has opened his own legal, consulting and advocacy business, Backyard Concept LLC, focusing on the emerging outdoor recreation sector of the economy.

WWW.VISITNH.COM | February, 2019
Taxes (or lack thereof) drew the founder of the Granite Backcountry Alliance to New Hampshire, but it was the state’s adventurous magnetism that made him never want to leave.

NHPR “THE EXCHANGE” | February 14, 2018
With the Winter Olympics in full swing, we look at some thrilling winter sports in N.H. An increasing number of people want to get outside in winter, and many say part of the fun of skiing down is climbing up snowy trails and mountains, or even scaling icy cliffs. Have you tried backcountry skiing or ice-climbing? We learn how to safely get started in these growing winter sports, what equipment is needed, and where it can be done.

BACKCOUNTRY MAGAZINE | November 14, 2016
In recent years, backcountry alliances have gained momentum as a popular vehicle for advocacy in the skiing world. These organizations are effective, central lobbying voices for recreational interests and also serve as a go-between for government agencies and private landholders. In Vermont, one such organization—the Vermont Backcountry Alliance—has taken root, and its next door neighbor, New Hampshire, took note and jumped on the alliance bandwagon.