Cascade XC: New Owner Prepares for Winter

With the recent purchase of Cascade XC, there’s a palpable stoke in the Tri-Lakes ski community. Ever since the sale of the ski center by the Adirondack Mountain Club, people have been talking. Will it open this winter? What’s going on with the trails and the lodge?

Cascade Ski Center
Cascade Ski Center

My first exposure to Cascade XC was in the late 1990s. My wife and I drove to Mt van Hoevenberg over the Saint Lawrence Winter Carnival weekend. Organizers cancelled Saturday’s races because the temperature was way below the FIS legal limit. So cold, in fact, that the pipes in the old lodge froze solid.

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Tips for Adults Learning to Ski

“Can I learn to ski as an adult?”

We hear the question a lot. This article is for those who weren’t lucky enough to discover skiing at a young age and now wonder if they are too old to start. And it’s designed to get you to “yes.”

You can learn to ski as an adult, if you’re reasonably fit and healthy. And we whole-heartedly recommend it.

Trick
The author at Magic Mountain in Londonderry VT

Picking up skiing or boarding at age 30 and beyond is more challenging than learning to ski at age 5, 10, 18 or 25 years old. As we get older, we lose the time to maintain the peak physical fitness that comes so easily in high school.

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Green Lakes State Park

Upstate New York is filled with state parks. I’ve lived within an hour of the Syracuse region for my entire life, but I had never heard of Green Lakes State Park until about 10 years ago when I first started dating Farah. Since then we have spent plenty of time in the park and it has become one of our favorite spots to visit.

Green Lakes State Park trail
Mulch Trail

The lakes were formed 15,000 years ago at the end of the ice age by waterfalls and are the remains of their plunge pools. The lakes are meromictic, meaning the layers of water don’t mix and the deep bottom of the lakes are devoid of life. Heavily dissolved minerals, specifically calcite, give the lakes their iconic green color.

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