I knew about hardwoods and conifers, but I didn’t know about brazier trees.
It must be said that I don’t ski. In fact, I tried to do it twice: my first descent was at lightning speed (I was a little man) and stopped when my body smashed the ski racks at the bottom of Track. The second happened on a snowmobile because I had just thrown myself off the ski lift, completely terrified (long story). In short, I was surprised when a colleague told me that we find trees decorated with bras, panties or necklaces in several stations in Quebec.
For what ? that I asked.
Good question, which he answered.
Stopping at nothing to inform the population during this peak ski season, I tried to find answers.
“It’s a mystery,” Evelyne Déry first told me (tell me about an investigation that’s off to a flying start). The communications advisor from Bromont, montagne d’experiences surveyed her colleagues to discover the origin of the few brassiere trees found under the slope of the Lake. Verdict: no one knows.
At the Association of Quebec Ski Resorts, I was also told that they had “no verified information on the phenomenon”. On the other hand, I was recommended articles published in English on the same subject. It was by reading them that I understood that the versions diverge.
Legend has it that the tradition was born in the 1960s so that ski instructors could testify about their sexual conquests of the day before.
Panties and bras, like trophies. According to other sources, the practice emerged two decades later, simply to mark a spirit of rebellion. Down with conventions, here are my underwear. Some say it was more of a way for women to show that they were there, too. In an industry dominated by men, they had found a way to be seen.
The magazine Powder puts forward a more concrete story: the first brassiere tree appeared in Aspen, Colorado, at the end of the 1970s. The station managers had just hired a first female patroller and, wanting to welcome more women within the the team, had limited male applications. Employees frustrated by the decision reportedly dropped a nursing bra into a tree from the top of a ski lift. Ignoring the political meaning of the gesture, people would have imitated them for humor…
Who’s telling the truth?
“I don’t know the reliable answer,” Isabelle Falardeau humbly replied. The professor in the department of leisure, culture and tourism studies at the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières (UQTR) was once director of the Aspen snow park. She surveyed her former colleagues and searched the archives, without success.
Whether we discover the true origin of the tradition or not, it remains important to look into it, she believes.
It allows us to understand ski culture and the different links with its countercultures, notably sexual liberation.
Isabelle Falardeau, professor in the department of leisure, culture and tourism studies at UQTR
Isabelle Falardeau explained to me that there are very distinct poles in the world of skiing. There is competition, serious and regulated, which reflects the elitism of sport. Then, there is a scene of celebration and freedom, populated by “ski bums”.
“In Quebec, there were links between the turbulent social context of the 1960s and 1970s and skiing. In the ski centers, we could express our freedom, our practices of free love, our rejection of authority…”
The film After ski, by Roger Cardinal, is inspired by this idea, underlines the researcher. The erotic comedy, which concerns a young instructor who discovers the carnal aspect of his duties, caused a scandal in 1966. Benefiting from a large budget and the presence of several stars (including Daniel Pilon, René Angélil, Francine Grimaldi and Raymond Lévesque), the work attracted attention. She also attracted wrath, since she was convicted of obscenity under the Criminal Code.
Although times have changed, “an aura of sexual liberation remains associated with skiing,” believes Isabelle Falardeau. Taking off our underwear in the middle of the ski lift means subscribing to it with a smirk. It is also part of a long tradition of nudity… As the professor lists it: people ski naked to demonstrate against climate change; to try to fly over a body of water in the spring; to raise awareness about breast cancer; or to have fun and publish photos that get people talking on social networks (we salute the American comedian Chelsea Handler).
For Isabelle Falardeau, the underwear tree is part of these “festive manifestations of hedonism”.
Speaking of celebrations, she also told me that several activities take place in American ski centers for Mardi Gras, a period during which athletes notably throw their pendants. This would perhaps explain the presence of a tree set with pearl necklaces, in Orford…
Obviously, I had underestimated what a handful of panties, bralettes and jewelry could mean.
“At UQTR, our department seeks to understand society through leisure practices,” concludes Isabelle Falardeau. I believe that the underwear tree allows us to capture some bits of our history. »