[This story appears in the current January/February 2026 issue. Click HERE to sign up for a free print subscription today.]
New England has plenty of thriving organizations dedicated to connecting queers who like to stay active outdoors during the warmer months, from competitive clubs, like Boston’s FLAG (Friends, Lesbians and Gays) Flag Football, to groups for laidback nature lovers, like Rhode Island-based Queer Hikes.
But when winter comes and it’s time to make the most of our snowiest season, OutRyders, the Northeast’s largest LGBTQ+ ski and snowboard club, is one of the few places to find new and old friends who love to brave the cold (and, occasionally, heat up a dance floor).
“With an OutRyders membership, which is the price of about two cocktails, what you’re really buying into is a community,” says President Marty Smith. Since its start in 2001, OutRyders has been bringing together LGBTQ folks for day trips and weekend overnights to New England ski and snowboard mountains. OutRyders often coordinates discounts on passes and accommodations, but the greater value it offers to its more than 250 members is the opportunity to find a likeminded friend group. It’s a crew that brings together experienced skiers, so they can find buddies for tackling the slopes, as well as newcomers and novices who just want to get in a few runs before relaxing in the lodge or at an OutRyders party.
The organization has seen a flurry of growth and exciting new outings over the last few years, in particular. Smith, who stepped up to president about five years ago, and the rest of the 10-person board of directors have focused on expanding membership in more ways than one. In 2024, the Boston-based leadership team hosted its first preseason opening party in New York City that drummed up around 40 members there. As it turns out, the Big Apple needed OutRyders to fill its void for an active gay ski group.
“One thing we’re not is complacent,” says Steven Nofziger, OutRyders’ vice-president and communications manager. “I recently did a review of all the other gay and lesbian ski groups around the country, and we’re by far the most active. Another might have trips of eight to 10 people. We have day trips of 30 or 40, and up to 180 during our annual trip to Sunday River. in Maine.”
Besides expanding its geographical footprint, OutRyders, which has historically had a membership of mostly gay men, has been working to make more lesbian, trans, and non-binary folks aware that this is a ski family for them, too. “A lot of gay groups that are largely gay men aren’t welcoming to women and others,” says board member AnnaEllen Lenart, who became the group’s first lesbian member a few winters ago. “But these people are so wonderful. It’s an awesome, lovely space that takes its commitment to inclusion seriously.”
New members to OutRyders are meeting the group at a great time. A few years ago the group organized its first annual Canadian ski trip, to breathtaking Mont Tremblant in Quebec, as well as its first handful of visits to America’s Rockies; this year, that’s a five-night venture to Steamboat Springs, a famous mountain resort town in Colorado. These are, of course, in addition to 10 trips to mountains around New England, from a January jaunt to Loon Mountain in New Hampshire to April’s Jay Peak Weekend at the tippy top of Vermont. Each excursion sees skiers in identifying rainbow beads making their way down the mountain (perhaps to pre-planned meetups on the trails) or, during the multiday trips, mingling and making memories at other OutRyders events, such as the blowout dance party in the lodge that caps every Pride Weekend at Sunday River.
Going forward, it’ll be even easier to stay in touch in touch with other OutRyders members, too: The group is about to roll out a smartphone app for sending of-the-minute updates to members during trips and helping them stay in touch with each other when the skis come off. At the end of the day, it’s creating those kinds of bonds between people that really motivates OutRyders organizers, says social media director JJ Reardon.
“What makes this really special is devoting the time to a create a space for people who haven’t necessarily had a ton of queer friends, or haven’t had the opportunity to ski with a buddy before,” says Reardon. “It’s been extremely meaningful in people’s lives, and that includes mine.”
More: outryders.org
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