The Adirondacks Blog

First Tracks at Mt Van Hoevenberg

Posted on by Peter Minde

Who needs West Yellowstone when you’ve got early season skiing nearby? After Thanksgiving dinner, I set out up the Thruway for Lake Placid. Gusting wind pushed my new used VW shooting brake around, treating the ski box as a spinnaker.

Mount van Hoevenberg skiers

Rain washed away the snow Mount van Ho had the previous weekend, leaving only the 500-meter loop of machine made snow, courtesy of the Snow Factory. After a leisurely Friday morning breakfast, I clipped into skate skis. The Snow Factory loop had held up through the warming trend, still 18” deep.

After a couple laps around the loop, I ran in to Duncan Douglas. We shot the breeze, he intended to ski the Porter Mountain trail. But he’s a larger than life two-time Olympian, and I’m just a guy from Jersey. I opted to stay on the mini loop.

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Tagged: Adirondacks, Mount van Hoevenberg, Nordic Skiing8 Comments

Gore Mountain: A New Home

Posted on by Gunny J

Balancing work and leisure is not easy for a skier from Northeastern PA. Living a rural life often means a long commute to work and an even longer drive to enjoy good early-season skiing. Most seasons pre-Thanksgiving turns are out of reach for my family. But this year’s early cold and aggressive snowmaking had us traveling north before the holiday.

I’m a job supervisor for an electrical contractor who had a tough summer. A knee replacement and a reconstruction of my wrist left me with four unpaid months at home. Desperate for projects to manage, my only option was to drive long distances for work. In the back of my mind, I wondered how this would affect my weekend ski commutes.

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Tagged: Adirondacks, Gore Mountain8 Comments

Climb to the Castle: The Masters

Posted on by Peter Minde

“I wasn’t ready for this,” Leonard Plunkett said in the gusting wind outside Whiteface Mountain’s iconic castle. We were recovering after the Climb to the Castle, the annual roller ski race up the Whiteface toll road.

Climb to the Castle
Climb to the Castle

“Nobody’s ever ready,” I replied. “But now that you’ve done it, you know what to expect next year.” He smiled, and I hope that I planted a seed for his return next year.

On Friday, I’d met Leonard and chatted with him at one of the more civilized bib pickups I’ve been to. He was up from New York City with three other skiers representing Manhattan Nordic. A big shoutout to the Madshus rep for pouring pints of Big Slide.

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Tagged: Adirondacks, Whiteface4 Comments