Overview:

-Jim Dandy Ski Club, the pioneering Black ski club in the U.S., recently hosted its annual "Blackout" ski event at Mt. Brighton, drawing over 100 participants.
- Established in 1958 in Detroit, the club tackles the low Black participation in skiing, hindered by high costs and accessibility issues.
- While initially focused on increasing Black presence on the slopes, the club now fosters a nationwide community network, uniting members from diverse professional backgrounds.

As winter weather in Southeast Michigan becomes increasingly unpredictable, Jim Dandy Ski Club— the first Black ski club in the country —brings an event that Black winter recreationists in the area can count on. 

The annual “Blackout” ski event held at Mt. Brighton brought well over 100 Jim Dandy members and visitors together on Jan. 31st as a celebration of community in what some consider an unexpected place. In between some pretty gnarly falls on my (rented) snowboard, I had the opportunity to learn more about the historic organization. 

Founded in 1958 in Detroit, Michigan, the Jim Dandy Ski Club maintains the legacy and bragging rights of the first Black ski club in the United States — and, as their website points out, likely the world. The name, inspired by the rhythm-and-blues song “Jim Dandy to the Rescue,” encapsulates the spirit of collective support that was echoed by attendees of the 2026 Blackout Ski Event. 

Ian Solomon and friends in the Jim Dandy Ski Club hit the slopes. Photo by Ian Solomon.

Given high equipment and ticketing costs, as well as transportation barriers, skiing and snowboarding are among the least accessible recreational activities. 

While Black Americans have historically been excluded from outdoor recreation in general, skiing is among the sports with the lowest Black participation rate. Only 1% of participants in the 2024/2025 National Ski Areas ski participation survey self-identified as Black or African American. 

Jim Dandy was founded to address this disparity, and nearly 70 years later, it continues to draw Black skiers and snowboarders seeking community on the slopes.

Miles Maxie, a former president of Jim Dandy, said that feeling othered on the slopes was part of what led him to join Jim Dandy in the 1990s. 

“Skiing at Pine Knob was my first time being called the N-word,” Maxie said, reflecting on his beginner days in the sport, when Highland Park High offered a free skiing program. After his high school ski buddies went off to the military, he didn’t ski for decades until joining Jim Dandy. 

“When you have more people, you can have your bases covered– if you catch my drift,” he said.

Safety in numbers is a common theme among Black outdoor recreationists. In a 2022 Amplify Outside survey of Black Michiganders, nearly 85% of respondents cited racism as a factor keeping them from participating in outdoor recreation or visiting natural spaces. 

Miles Maxie, former Jim Dandy president, and his sister Dorian Maxie at Mt. Brighton. Photo by Ian Solomon.

Throughout my day of mingling and shredding, it became clear that community is what participants cherish most about the organization. In fact, while Jim Dandy initially began bringing more Black folks to the slopes, winter sports simply became a vehicle for a much larger end.

“What we’re really doing here is organizing,” Maxie told me. 

“Skiing is all good, but we’ve created a community support system all across the country,.” he said. 

Maxie said he’s particularly proud of the relatively wide range of professions represented in the Jim Dandy crowd. 

“We’ve got people from the mechanics to the CEOs. It’s a big deal,” he said. 

Maxie’s sister, Dorian, who was pulled into the organization by her brother in the early 2000s, also emphasized the importance of the community’s diversity.

“It’s more the people than the sport. It’s a dynamic group of people,” she said. “We’ve met people from all over the country, and we became a big family.”

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Ian Solomon is Planet Detroit's Outdoors Reporter. An Emmy award-winning journalist and interdisciplinary artist, Ian explores the connections between outdoor recreation and environmental justice, with a focus on how Black and brown communities experience and access natural spaces. He is the founder of Amplify Outside, a Detroit-based outdoor organization, and host of "Ian Outside" on PBS Great Lakes Now. Ian holds a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism from Arizona State University and an MFA in photography from Cranbrook Academy of Art.