On January 11, Rock & Snow will be hosting a screening of the film Variable, followed by a question-and-answer session with the Woodstock-based filmmaker, Jamie Kennard, at the Annex in downtown New Paltz at 7 p.m. The film chronicles the ten-year journey of Kennard and his brother Doug as they attempt to backcountry ski all 46 of the Adirondack High Peaks: a rugged range of mountains that climb above 4,000 feet.
In March of 2014, the skiing duo completed all 35 of the Catskill peaks, which provided a great training ground for their next foray into the Adirondacks. Their quest became not only to survive the harsh, unpredictable winter conditions of these mountains, but also to become the first to ski all of the 81 classic high peaks of both the Catskill and Adirondack Mountains.
Among reasons this feat had never been done before is the fact that both mountain ranges present challenging ascents, with few switchbacks to speak of, as well as treacherous descents that include navigating through a natural minefield of ice, rock, cliff ledges and trees along steep and narrow lines that are all subject to ever-changing weather conditions.
“You can be at a trailhead in both the Catskills and the Adirondacks and see two inches of snow and some dirt and ice when you start,” said Jamie Kennard. “But at the top of the peak there may be four feet, six feet, eight feet of snow and subzero temperatures. You have to be prepared for all of it. There were some days that we would be out there for 10 to 12 hours and finishing in the dark. Sometimes the terrain was so difficult that it could have been faster to hike down with snowshoes.”
The Kennard brothers grew up outside of Rochester, where they became part of a downhill ski racing team for nearby Bristol Mountain. Jamie went off to Skidmore College, where he continued racing for his college team. After a time, he lost interest in downhill skiing. “You’re doing the same runs, at the same place, and it became boring,” he said. Jamie then tried snowboarding for a while to try to rekindle his love of skiing. But it wasn’t until he began to hike all 35 high peaks of the Catskills that he began to think about backcountry skiing — something he had done with a college friend out in Jackson Hole, Wyoming a few times.
“I hiked most of the peaks alone, and as I was out there, I was looking at the terrain and trails and I thought, ‘This is skiable.’” While camping with his brother, he proposed the idea of trying to ski all of the Catskill peaks together, and the two of them formed a plan.
It took two winters, one of which included a massive snowstorm, on which the brothers capitalized to tackle 14 peaks in seven days. “That was exhausting and exhilarating. We were doing two or three peaks a day, and I was pushing because I wanted to finish all 35 by my 40th birthday on March 10 — which we did!” he said.
Asked to describe backcountry skiing, Jamie said that it’s really an umbrella term. “In the ‘80s a lot of people were doing telemarking, where your heel is always free.” In terms of equipment and name, this morphed toward “alpine touring” and then “ski mountaineering,” in which essentially the skis all have skins on them that stick on the way up the mountain and slide on the way down. Backcountry skis have pins that allow the heel to be free on the climb up and then have it pinned in on the way down.
When people think of backcountry skiing, they often think of the Alps in Europe or places out West like Colorado, Montana and Wyoming; upstate New York does not often come to mind. Jamie said that after they completed the Catskill peaks, he began looking into the Adirondack 46ers to learn more about backcountry skiing up there. Besides an article on Ron Konowitz, a local legend and the first ADK 46er skier, he found little to no information on backcountry skiing in the Adirondacks. “That was so strange to me. It’s this huge park, near Lake Placid, where there are tons of people who are elite-level Nordic skiers and downhill skiers and just incredible athletes,” said Jamie. While there was a core group of backcountry skiers in the region, other than Konowitz there was little known systematic backcountry skiing of the 46 peaks, like there was climbing.
Because Kennard lived in Mt. Tremper, it was easier for him to achieve the 35 Catskill peaks in a shorter span of time. But when he and his brother decided to take on the Adirondacks, the challenge and logistics, in conjunction with tumultuous live events, made their quest much longer and grueling than they had ever imagined — and eventually more rewarding. They endured injury, trauma, an icy rescue, the death of a spouse, all commingled with the sheer enormity of attempting to climb and descend those peaks in wildly changing winter conditions.
This past year, the two brothers became the first-ever duo to complete all 81 classic peaks in the Catskills and Adirondacks. Jamie Kennard would be the first to say that, while that distinction is fun and a goal that kept them pressing on when either the mountain or life had thrown them off-track, the journey and the time spent both in nature and with his brother were the real rewards of this quest. “I don’t think my brother and I would have ever spent anywhere near that amount of time together,” he said. “Maybe twice a year? But because of both of these plans we hatched, we were together a lot, and for long days in the mountains.”
For Jamie, spending that time in both the Catskills and the Adirondacks in the winter was both exhilarating and calming. “When there’s been a heavy snowfall and it’s the middle of the week and you’re climbing up the side of a mountain, you realize that you’re the only one out there. It’s so quiet and white, and there’s a stillness to it. You feel tiny, but you also feel alive.”
When Jamie first purchased his home in Mt. Tremper in 2006 with his wife Tracy Kennard, becoming a filmmaker was the last thing on his mind. He owned a graphic design business in the City and commuted until 2014, when the couple moved up permanently. They opened a popular boutique wine bar, Brunette, in the historic Rondout waterfront district in Kingston. In 2019 his wife was diagnosed with a severe and rare form of brain cancer. They had to sell the business, and Jamie became Tracy’s caregiver for the next two years, until she passed away in 2021.
In an effort to move through the grief he was experiencing, Jamie began running or hiking a 5K a day, and he purchased his first camera. “I knew nothing about how to use a camera, so I began taking pictures of birds on our property. We have about ten acres of land.” From there, he became an avid photographer and started doing short feature films on people in the Catskill region whom he thought were fascinating. One was titled The Ciderist and the other The Needle Felter.
While the Kennard brothers took lots of pictures and some videos with their phones and sported a GoPro action camera to record some of their adventures in both the Catskills and Adirondacks, it wasn’t until they were closing in on the 81 peaks that Jamie thought seriously about making a film. “That last year, I became more conscious of ways to try to capture what we were doing, but I’m actually grateful that I didn’t think about making a movie when we first started. It’s hard enough to actually do the thing without then trying to make a film about doing the thing,” he said with a laugh. “Most adventure documentaries have professional filmmakers. It was just me and my brother and a GoPro.”
When he did decide to lug his camera up to the mountains, he said that more often than not, some snafu would render it useless. “One time it was so cold out and we had to stop and camp through the night in a lean-to and the battery on my camera froze. I lugged it all the way up to the top of the mountain, and when I went to take it out, it didn’t work.” Another time they got halfway up the mountain before he realized that he had left his camera in the car. Still, he felt that he had enough footage to give people a real sense of their experience. He also broadened the film to include interviews with Konowitz and people deeply rooted in both the Catskill and Adirondack hiking and backcountry skiing communities.
In its 30-minute running time, the film gives viewers an inside look at the terrain, the magnitude of the challenge and the way these brothers not only navigated 81 peaks on skis, but also helped each other navigate their way through some deep valleys in their lives. Variable has opened to sold-out crowds and is now making its way to Rock & Snow on January 11. The screening is free and open to the public, with Jamie Kennard on hand to offer some backstory to the film and answer any questions from the audience.
Andrew Zalewski, owner of Rock & Snow, said that he was excited to host a screening of the film. “We always try to have interesting community events, and this one fit right in,” he said. Although it moves outside of the rock-climbing arena, Variable does involve a lot of rock, snow, stumps and jumps. “I think it’s going to attract some people who are passionate about the Catskill hiking scene, and I’m curious as to how they did this. This is not an easy area for backcountry skiing, so I’m looking forward to seeing the film.”
The photographer and filmmaker has been working on a new documentary that features Julie McGuire, the first woman ever to complete the Catskill peaks on backcountry skis. To learn more about his work, visit www.kratedesign.com. To enjoy Jamie Kennard’s nature photography, follow @catskilltracks on Instagram.
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