ALTAMONT — They compete to see who can make cuts with a chainsaw the fastest. They measure the accuracy of axes they hurl at targets 20 feet away. And they swing axes down between their feet, to split the thick logs they are standing on.

Axe Women Loggers of Maine got its start eight years ago, says owner Alissa Wetherbee, 38, when she noticed that men’s lumberjack troupes were getting a lot of work showing off their timber-sport skills.

She thought she could do something similar, with a twist: Her performers would all be lumberjills.

Wetherbee grew up in a small town on Mount Desert Island, off the coast of Maine near Bar Harbor, and says, “From pretty early on, I learned how to use chainsaws and axes.”

She started helping her parents stack firewood at age 4 or 5. “By my early teenage years, my dad was showing me how to use a chainsaw, and I was probably splitting kindling before that,” she recalls.

Wetherbee started to perform competitively at age 21, starting out with local competitions.

After a few of those, she and another woman from Maine entered the World Open Lumberjill Contest, in Booneville, New York.

“We ended up walking away with a couple of first-place prizes between us,” she said.  

The Axe Women’s performances take the form of competition among the women in the troupe, in a variety of timber-sport events. Wetherbee selects her employees from among the ranks of college woodsmen teams and professional competitors.

“It’s really a pretty small world, of timber-sport athletes,” Wetherbee said.

This is the troupe’s first time performing at the Altamont Fair, where it will put on three shows a day from Wednesday through Sunday.

Their show is set up as a competition among the women of the troupe in various events, such as the hot saw, in which women use “souped-up, modified chainsaws to see who can make three cuts faster.”

Another event features ax-throwing, in which the women have three tries at hurling double-bitted axes from behind their backs, over their heads, at a target.

In the underhand chop, they strike with an ax between their own feet, chipping away at the log they are balanced on, then turn around midway through to strike at the other side, trying to split the log before their competitor splits hers.

“It’s a really safe sport,” said Wetherbee, when asked if anyone ever chops into a foot by accident. “They all wear steel-toed boots or, for those who prefer sneakers, chainmail socks.”

Log-rolling is popular with the crowd, Wetherbee said; in this event, two women stand on a huge log set afloat in the troupe’s pool and run back and forth along it, kicking water at each other and trying to knock one another in.

Time permitting, she said, the troupe also teaches kids some logrolling in between shows. “It involves a waiver and a fee,” Wetherbee added.

The troupe

The Axe Women’s busiest season extends from about June to October, Wetherbee said, and involves traveling the country to perform at events including fairs, expositions, sportsmen’s shows, and fall festivals. The troupe has performed at baseball stadiums between innings and on several national television shows, “The Queen Latifah Show” and “Harry,” hosted by Harry Connick Jr.

The troupe rotates performers in and out through the busy months.

“The first couple of years, there were four of us from Maine and one from New York, but then we just got so much work,” Alissa Wetherbee said, “and they couldn’t be on the road three or four months straight, away from their families.”

The 12 women in the troupe today are from around the country, she said — Washington State, Montana, New York, Connecticut, and three or four from Maine.

They range in age from college students to women in their fifties, she said.

When not performing, she said, her employees work as school teachers, tree-service owners, scientists, landscapers, and fitness instructors.

During the off months, the Wetherbees attend a number of conventions and trade shows around the country such as that of the International Association of Fairs and Expositions, meeting fair managers, festival organizers, and others, explaining what the group can do.

Those conventions result in most of their bookings, she said.

The owners

Wetherbee has taken part in timber-sport competitions for 17 years and got her husband into it as well.

The couple met when the Axe Women were performing at an agricultural fair in Massachusetts, and Mike Wetherbee — then an off-duty police officer and firefighter who was helping run the fair — was sent over to offer the troupe any assistance needed.

“We met and fell in love, and I kidnapped him and taught him all the timber sports,” said Alissa Wetherbee.

Now her husband is “our handsome announcer” and works full-time running the business with her, she said.

When they can find the time, both Wetherbees also take part in timber-sport and woodsmen competitions around the country.

In competition, it’s a good weekend if you break even, said Alissa Wetherbee.

She explained, “If you go to a competition, you’re definitely going to put a lot of money out — with the traveling and entry fees, food and hotel — you’re going to spend several hundred dollars for a weekend of competing. And if you do well, you’re going to make several hundred dollars back.”

You get “really good bragging rights” by the end of a weekend, she said.

People don’t do it for the money, she said.

“It’s a really expensive hobby to have, but everyone who does it, we do it for the love of the sport,” she explained.

Asked if the couple has children, Alissa Wetherbee said they have a “furry, four-legged child.” Pete, a Plott hound, accompanies them on all their travels and is “starting to do a little bit in the shows.” He is learning how to do logrolling, Wetherbee said, adding that he is also an ambassador for rescue dogs.