That Next Big Step

When your kid turned three years old, maybe you gave her ski lessons, like I did. Maybe you did it because skiing can be an exciting part of a great life. Or maybe you did it because you hoped she’d grow into an effortless, natural skier. Or maybe you did it because you wish you’d started at three years old.

Or maybe it’s a bit of all of the above.

We started our daughter in daycare at Gore when she was six months old. It seems that many ski areas don’t take kids that young, but I think it’s brilliant. If you can keep both parents skiing when the kids are really little, you might be helping to create another ski family.

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North and Northeast

If you don’t live near-ish to where it’s going to hit, sometimes, even with fairly accurate medium range weather forecasts, getting the goods can feel like a military assault — as much logistics as action.

This last storm thankfully crested on a Friday. A rarity, I can assure you as my schedule is always the same and I am always watching the weather in winter. When it appeared, I knew I had to do what it took to get, somewhere. Probably the farther north, the better.

After a lot of talking and texting about Le Massif de Charlevoix and other exotic and distant locales, as the weather pattern firmed up, we settled on Whiteface and Jay.

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Making the Call for McCauley

There’s always some fear of missing out during the season. Last month, I watched that epic day at McCauley and I felt it. I didn’t even know it was snowing that day. I had to remind myself that I too had great days there and would have many more.

When projections for Friday’s storm started to creep above a foot, I felt it again. The storm had been well advertised with Northern Vermont as ground zero. Evan and I decided to ride closer to home to get fresh snow and avoid crowds. We met in Utica for the ride to Old Forge. We arrived at McCauley early Saturday morning to give ourselves the best chance at the new snow.

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