Author: Harvey

Skier, Blogger, Ski Blogger. Editor-in-chief NYSkiBlog.

El Niño Thanksgiving

Posted on by Harvey

I’ve gone into this season flat footed, not really ready in any way. Life was especially difficult this offseason and without significant blasts of cold air to focus my attention, my preseason prep was non-existent.

Gore Mountain opening day 2015

The car thermometer read 61 degrees driving up Route 28 towards Gore on Friday. I almost didn’t care. One benefit to my lack of prep: I’d left my mountain bike up at the cabin, and it paid off. The trails were in great shape.  We rode and walked after we settled in.

Saturday morning was foggy up high in North River. The afternoon had the potential to get sunny and I wondered, for a moment, if we should wait to let things soften up.  As is my way, we headed over early and it was the right call.

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Tagged: Adirondacks, Gore Mountain6 Comments

I Love My Little Sister

Posted on by Harvey

I want to apologize upfront for posting this piece on the front page of NYSkiBlog. I certainly doesn’t “fit” here, as we have consciously decided to focus our homepage on eastern mountain sports.

MB-in-Arosa

But I just can’t find a way to process this without writing about it. Early Sunday morning, my little sister Marybeth, or MB as we knew her, passed away after a long, valiant battle with cancer. She was 53 and asked for no memorial until next spring, when a small garden will be dedicated in her honor, in Jersey City, NJ.

Nearly three years ago MB was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called GIST Wild Type. Unlike most cancers, this strain develops in between organs in your abdomen. When it was discovered there was some hope, but it quickly faded, as experimental treatments yielded no positive results.

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Tagged: Ski Life42 Comments

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

Posted on by Harvey

Everything changes and from what I can see summer vacation is no different. In the old days, we’d use our time off to explore the Siamese Ponds Wilderness and the south central Adirondacks.

water-sports

We’d push our week or ten days of time off as late in the season as possible. That time right after Labor Day is possibly the best time of the year in the mountains, outside of ski season.

Now we take it when we can get it. When our daughter entered kindergarten, like many families, we moved our vacation into late August, after camp and before school. Sometimes, our schedule of activities shortens that long week in the mountains into a long weekend.

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Tagged: Adirondacks, Biking, Hiking, North Creek Ski Bowl, Ski Life4 Comments