What is your skiing history?

[tirolski]

...ski it WHENEVER the Queen shops at the regional Big Mall there , it beats shopping and get about 40 runs in a little over 2 hrs hahahahaha

If ya figure it out skiing is much cheaper and way more fun then going to a dang mall. But that isn’t saying much.

 

[Warp daddy]

I'm surprised by all of the later-in-lifers. I thought it would be more started-before-I-was-10ers.

Basically for me the reason for a later start iwas Basic Economics : a time and $$$ thing .

So when i was younger and raising a family on a single income ( my wife was a stay at home mom until our youngest went to college) paying for my advanced degrees , going to grad school while working fulltime , paying a mortgage , saving for two kids college ( i wanted them to go debt free) and starting a side gig consulting business so then i had ZERO time for anything but xc which was cheap and required zero overnight travel .


PLUS I had the longstanding goal of being retired from fulltime higher education no later than 55 which i was able to do at 52 with 30 yrs service and then just run my consulting business 2-3 days a week for 30 weeks a year for 5 yrs more yrs then sold my share of the business.

 

[Warp daddy]

If ya figure it out skiing is much cheaper and way more fun then going to a dang mall. But that isn’t saying much.

Tru dat brother !! She was happy , i was happy and we'd meet for a late lunch date afterwards. Always a fun day . She is a skier BUT also a shopper , me : i Am a buyer ??

 

[Kingslug]

When you ride motorcycles..winter is not your happy place. When you sell them and discover skiing..things change. After 27 years I now do both.

 

[da-bum]

Skipped out on Senior class trip in HS to the poconos since I wasn't a school activity kind of guy. But when in college, my JHS fight buddy (always talking about fighting each other in the school yard after school, but never agreed on a place) met someone a few years older that skies regularly and a whole gang of us newbies joined up with the grown up (I think he might be 5 years older than us, but anybody out of college age is considered a grown up) on a multi-day trip to Windham. We did the usual, two people check into a motel, everybody else sneak in, sleep in his van when nobody has vacancies, etc. But right from the start, the mountain separated the ones who loves the speed (even though, it was probably no more than 25mph) vs the ones who were scared to go down.

We skied the bunny slope once then headed straight to their blue trail wraparound, where the daredevils amongst were straightlining it the whole way. I think at the end of the 3 day trip, we were taken to the Wall and Wolverine. The grown up guy skiied down the headwall and I tried to follow, and as the trail flattened out, we basically took off our skies and hung out so the rest of the group to catch up, which might have been 20min or so. Now that I only ski with one other person of a skill level not too far off from me, I don't know how that grown up had the patience to wait for the slowest amongst us to catch up on every run. It was ski 1000 ft, stop and wait a while for everyone, repeat that the whole way down.

Most of the newbies amongst us probably stopped skiing, I might be the one or two that kept on that sport for decades afterward.

 

[lukoson]

Late skier too. Kinda. Parents took us Shawnee in the Poconos when I was probably in the 5th grade. Three things I remember from that trip are my dad skiing down the bunny slope with his sweatpants soaked and half way down his ass. Then going up the chair lift and back down because he wouldn't get off. And then me taking a face plant and waking up the next day with a neck so stiff my mom had to take me to a chiropractor.

Fast forward to college and I tried snowboarding a couple of times and then went on a trip to Sestriere, Italy in January 2001. I think I still have my lift ticket that says 01/01/01. I still didn't really know how to snowboard but the snow was deep and I fell in love with that sensation of floating. I then got hooked on snowboarding and did that about 10 time a year mostly at Camelback in the Poconos over the next decade.

Eleven years ago when my kids were 1 and 3 and I was 35 we moved to Albany. I put them in lessons at Maple Ridge when they were 3 and 5. I had a snowboard and had gone to Windham a few times since moving out here, but had been wanting to try out some of the newer parabolic skis. It felt so squirrely and I nearly gave it up to stick w/ snowboarding but I was told to wait before letting my kids snowboard until they were a bit older and I knew that if I was on a snowboard they wouldn't want to ski. So, I stuck with it. The next year we were at Willard Mountain and I skied every weekend (and a few nights) and then they were in 2 years of lessons at Butternut and I just stayed skiing while they were in lessons.

Now we pretty much stick to Gore and a few other trips (whiteface, belleayre, VT). But I'm a total convert and addict. I tried snowboarding again a couple of times because now my younger kid wants to do that too which is cool. But I just find skiing more fun than snowboarding as I've aged.

My wife doesn't ski but she's good with me skiing one day of the weekend and a few weekend trips (especially since I bring the boys).

Can't wait till next season!

 

[saratogahalfday]

There are obviously some very, very, very good skiers on this board. I just read the TR on Tuckerman Ravine. People have experience skiing in avalanche country. Meanwhile, there are some days that I just can't get my shit together on the bunny slope.

Did you grow up in a skiing family? Did you race? How did you learn to ski?

Thanks!

WP

Started in the mid 1980's in elementary ski club. Friday nights at Deer Run (Stamford, NY). Skiing in the 80's was a fun time, from the fashion, lack of snowboards, and of course ski ballet. Ski club moved to Windham once Deer Run ran into financial dire straights. To show how much of a skier I was, I went on a trip to Sugarbush on Super Bowl weekend in 1991. I think we were the only people from NYS in VT that weekend.

I then taught for two years at Greek Peak during graduate school. That was fun. I taught Cornell PE to students who didn't exactly grow up on snow. I taught school groups, little kids, drunk Philly guys in jean's right off the bus, and Ithaca College kids.

Back in Albany, I worked for five years at Jiminy Peak, managing the ski wee program. That was draining. I rarely skied, preferring to hit the bar or head back home at the end of the day.

I'm now just a wanna be ski bum. I live for pow days. Being a skier for 35 years really gives you an interesting POV on how skiing has evolved over the years. My wife goes skiing (our first date was at Magic), but prefers sitting at the bar to skiing in 30 below windchills.

 

[sig]

To show how much of a skier I was, I went on a trip to Sugarbush on Super Bowl weekend

when the Giants beat the Bills. will never forget that win. What the hell is wrong with you?

 

[saratogahalfday]

when the Giants beat the Bills. will never forget that win. What the hell is wrong with you?

Well the trip was booked before the season even started, it was non-refundable, and I'm not a fan of any NY team, in any sport. Our bus driver hooked us up with the radio broadcast once we got off 100 and back into civilization, which was very cool. Plus the snow in VT was very deep that winter.

 

[sig]

Well the trip was booked before the season even started, it was non-refundable, and I'm not a fan of any NY team, in any sport. Our bus driver hooked us up with the radio broadcast once we got off 100 and back into civilization, which was very cool. Plus the snow in VT was very deep that winter.

yes i missed the first 1/2 of the giant vs 49er playoff game a few weeks earlier speeding home from sugarbush