Joe Karl’s got about 35 pairs of snowshoes, from 5-foot-long old school wooden ones to fresh out-of-the-box lightweight equipment with a polypropylene frame and high tech crampons.
He lives on a 36-acre farm in Chester, Vt., with his wife, Kathleen. Exploring its fields and woods by snowshoe is something he’ll do on a weekly basis. For the past 18 years, he’s led snowshoe hikes at Okemo in nearby Ludlow as well.
Karl, 54, has even been able to weave snowshoeing into his day job as a realtor when ill-equipped customers show up in inappropriate footwear to see certain properties.
“Snowshoes can come in handy,” he said, seated recently in the Jackson Gore Inn. “You have to get out and walk the farm. Some people show up in penny loafers or low-cut shoes. I’ll get them out on snowshoes to really explore it.”
Originally from Fairfield County, Conn., Karl started coming up to the Ludlow area back in 1996 and moved up some six months later with a new bride. He started selling real estate but, on the weekends, began guiding snowshoe tours with the Boston Ski and Sports Club. He would then lead friends and customers, too. Eventually, he connected with Okemo and does about a dozen tours a winter.
Karl was introduced to the outdoors through scouting and was bit by the snowshoe bug once he moved to Vermont. On the professional side, he’s been active with the Crown Point Board of Realtors, is a past president and was once named Realtor of the Year in 2015. He and Kathleen raised three daughters; two of them are Okemo ski instructors.
Karl enjoys the immediacy of snowshoeing. Toss them in the car, see a place that invites exploration and off you go.
“Snowshoeing is very much like mountain biking,” he says. “Once you make the initial investment, there isn’t much cost involved. Just don’t buy the cheapest.”
Karl says snowshoeing allows people to explore places that aren’t attainable any other month.
“There are marshes and swamps,” he says. “With a couple of feet of snow, you can walk all over.”
He appreciates the cardiovascular aspect of the pursuit, but when he’s out in his naturalist persona, he’s adding stories about Vermont history and nature, making the outing more of an experience than a workout.
Karl sees so much on the snow.
“After a fresh snow, nature is revealing itself,” he said.
He’ll see mouse, vole and other critters living in a cold climate, as well as their tracks. He’ll take note of the depressions a tree makes to see how it was downed.
Maybe he’ll see a fox, fisher or porcupine.
At Okemo, he provides a couple of snowshoe experiences. On one side of the resort, he’ll take snowshoers up the face of the mountain to watch fireworks or a torch parade. A welded fire pit transported up the mountain by snowmobile greets snowshoers once they’re done to rally round the fire.
The other snowshoe hike is a flatter jaunt by the Jackson Gore area of the resort, largely introducing people to snowshoeing by trekking to the old Ranta farm site, where the ski area has weddings. Then they return to an outdoor fire at Jackson Gore.
In addition to snowshoeing, Karl discovered alpine touring about four years ago, and he also enjoys skiing at Okemo with friends about once a week.
“Ironically, it takes the same time to skin or snowshoe up the mountain,” he said.
Karl takes his clients through the white pines, hemlocks, spruce and beech. He’ll talk about how sheep farming influenced Vermont and how visitors shouldn’t bring in firewood because of invasive species like the emerald ash borer and Asian long-horned beetle.
He figures history and nature helps sell the snowshoeing.
“Some people show up with snowshoes and don’t know how to put them on,” he said. “Some are a little nervous. You just start a dialog with them. Tell them it’s not a race. Enjoy it.”
All it takes is a few steps.
“There is a lot to explore in people’s own backyards,” he said. “Buy a good pair of snowshoes, and you can have them for a good 20 to 30 years. Put them on and explore a local park. Get a friend interested. They sure beat seasonal affective) disorder. If I didn’t snowshoe or go AT-ing I’d be curled up in a little fetal position.”
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Marty Basch can be reached at marty.basch@gmail.com.