The Ski Life Blog

65-hour work weeks, very little flexibility for time off, and a four-year-old at home aren’t a good recipe for any skier, especially one based a half hour west of New York City. Still, I made it to 28 days, and while none fell into the “best-ever” category, there were lots of great moments that’ll stick in my mind until next winter.

Winter Park/Mary Jane, CO: 12/14/09

Due to uncooperative weather in the East, my first ski day didn’t come until a mid-December trip to Colorado. I’d always heard divergent opinions on this sprawling ski area and was lucky to go there after an overnight storm dropped a foot of snow. The Winter Park side is a series of ridgelines with long runouts and oddly-placed lifts, but by poaching closed trails, I scored plenty of untracked, calf-deep powder.

Continue reading →

November was incredibly warm, a washout. By mid-month, weather sources were in agreement: cold was coming, although the arrival date was constantly being pushed back. December 4 was Opening Day at Gore, and I gleefully lapped 280′ of vertical:

It finally got cold, and we actually had a little snow. On December 9, we had a rare NWS winter storm warning and 13 inches of snow. It was an incredible, borderline event that resulted in snow on Gore. Many mountains were not so fortunate.

Total snow for the month was almost average, and temps remained cold enough for some progress from both natural and manmade snow.

Continue reading →