The Nordic Skiing Blog

Trapp Family Lodge: Return to the Hills

Posted on by Peter Minde

The day after the Craftsbury Marathon, I drove to Trapp Family Lodge for a recovery ski. I hadn’t been there in 15 years.

Yes, that Trapp Family. The hills are alive, sweet vocal harmonies, cavorting in alpine meadows, and all that. After fleeing Austria, the von Trapp Family settled in Stowe, VT, buying a substantial piece of land and opening their first guest house in 1950.

Trapp Family Lodge

In 1968, the Trapp Family Lodge opened a cross-country ski center. According to their website, it was “the first of its kind in North America.” Mohonk Mountain House began offering ski tours to their guests in the 1930s, but they didn’t — and still don’t, to my knowledge — have a lodge for day guests.

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Tagged: Nordic Skiing, VT11 Comments

Notchview: The Usual Suspects

Posted on by Peter Minde

At zero dark thirty on Sunday, I left NJ for Notchview Reservation in Windsor, Massachusetts. The mission: rendezvous with the usual suspects.

In Pittsfield, I stopped for breakfast at Otto’s, across from the Berkshire County courthouse. Who ever heard of a Cuban omelet? It was tasty as well as novel, and the coffee was good. Then I set out for Notchview. Although I’ve skied there a half dozen times over the years, the last few miles are always a bit sketchy. “Hmmm, I think I turn right here.”

It’s a long gradual climb through Dalton to Windsor. Situated atop a plateau, Notchview is 50 miles southeast of Vermont’s Prospect Mountain, and 200 feet lower in elevation. The two ski centers share similar weather patterns.

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Tagged: MA, Nordic Skiing7 Comments

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