In my state resorts have the legal right to allow / deny uphill travel, regardless of whether it's public land or not. This is for several reasons that are mostly related to safety:
- There's a large amount of people that skin up and hike here, enough to present crowding issues if it's allowed
- Grooming being done in the early morning when people want to start hiking, and it's hard to see hikers regardless of if they use lights or not
- Areas that are roped off from above can be closed for unstable snow with high avalanche risk, or may be subject to bombing operations (hand placed explosives and artillery to induce avalanches before they are caused by skiers)
Check your areas rules, many allow it under certain conditions like time of day, routes, lights, etc. It's a good idea to make friends with someone on the patrol team so you know which areas are safe (and contain good snow ;) )
- There's a large amount of people that skin up and hike here, enough to present crowding issues if it's allowed
- Grooming being done in the early morning when people want to start hiking, and it's hard to see hikers regardless of if they use lights or not
- Areas that are roped off from above can be closed for unstable snow with high avalanche risk, or may be subject to bombing operations (hand placed explosives and artillery to induce avalanches before they are caused by skiers)
Check your areas rules, many allow it under certain conditions like time of day, routes, lights, etc. It's a good idea to make friends with someone on the patrol team so you know which areas are safe (and contain good snow ;) )