Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines! The First Annual M.W. Otto Rhode Memorial Skin & Ski is coming January 26 to Great Glen Trails! Skin & Ski the famed Mt. Washington Auto Road in remembrance of that great ole chap M.W. OTTO RHODE.  We’ll toast OTTO at the apres event from 4-7 pm at the Base Lodge (base of the Auto Road) with beer, food, live music and prizes, all in customary GBA style!

Who is this historically unknown man and why is he suddenly relevant and the namesake of this insanely awesome new event? Why it’s a story you should know! You see, OTTO, as he was affectionately called, in a little known fact, claimed the first ski descent off the cone of High George (Mt. Washington) on January 27, 1859 which, unbeknownst to him, later set the path for the construction of the Mt. Washington Carriage Road in 1861. A legend was born.

Like any backcountry skier worth his or her salt, OTTO liked to keep his stashes on the DL, for fear of exploitation. It wasn’t until a night of being over-served did OTTO disclose his secret – that he “slayed Big George.” Well, townsfolk took that the wrong way and poor OTTO got kicked right out of town, never to be seen or heard from again!

The event will begin at noon (facility will open for use at 8:30am) and you can race or skin socially at your own pace — to any distance you so choose. Those crazy enough to bag the summit will go 7.6 miles and earn bragging rights for the longest vertical foot descent back to the Auto Road Toll House (4,618 feet to be exact). Others can hit treeline at 4 miles (and warm-up in a SnowCoach). Whatever you do, we’ll have hot showers, beer, food, live music, and prizes, all back at the Base Lodge from 4-7pm – all as part of one ticket. Are you excited yet?! Let’s do this!

So OTTO is best known for opening up access to the cone and Great Gulf’s goods via the Auto Road in mid-May. BUT! now you get to experience OTTO’s greatness at the end of January, in full winter glory!! It could be epic, disastrous, never-again, powderific – who knows!