What makes a great season?

The season’s not over, but the approaching end has me looking back. For the second year in a row it looks like I’ll hit 25 days, significantly below my long term average of 35. It was also the second consecutive season where snowfall was below average, especially in areas closest to home.

CRV in a snowstorm
Logistics

Still, I find myself thinking I had a great season. How can that be, it makes no sense?

It is so, in part, because greatness is relative. It’s in the eye of skiing beholder. If you’re not local to the mountains, great seasons start with a good attitude and an eye on the medium-term forecast.

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TGR Stoke the Fire

Ski movie tours are a long-standing tradition, going all the way back, almost to the very beginning of downhill skiing in the United States. Names like Miller and Barrymore pioneered the art form in the days when ski movies were narrated by a guy standing at the back of the theater, often the same guy who edited the film with tape and a pair of scissors. For many people, attending the annual ski movie premiere in person still marks the unofficial start of the ski season.

East 32nd St in NYC

I’ve been to a few tour stops but this year I wanted to change things up. I’d never been to a Teton Gravity Research movie so that was my first stop when researching options. I’ve been a fan of their movies for awhile but always just ordered the DVDs (when that was a thing) or streamed them.

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Season Pass Math Fail

Maple Ski Ridge

I started cross country skiing at age 30. By the time I was 40, I was fully hooked on snow sliding. I was jonesin’ to ski by Thanksgiving, and often there was no snow in the woods.  I started to ski at Gore.

I didn’t have fixed-heeled gear. I took my 210s and leather boots over to the mountain, bought a ticket at the window, and skied.  For several years, Sunway, Gore’s classic green trail, was all I could handle.

I’d do twenty laps, which was a lot of turns, for an advanced beginner on skinny skis.   I was having a blast and never really thought too much about the price of the ticket.

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