Chris Iwinski will be joining NYSkiBlog this season as one of our Big Tupper ski reporters. Chris wasn’t born into a skiing family; but luckily his mom surprised him with his first snowboard in 1998. “That winter I took my pudgy 4th grade self, in homemade snow pants, to the top of West Mountain. I instantly fell in love with snowboarding.”

After teaching himself to slide on snow, he began to beg for rides to West and Willard mountains. Once he reached middle school, he joined the ski club and was able to ride many of the major resorts.

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Mike Ranellone is joining NYSkiBlog as one of our two new Big Tupper ski reporters. Mike is a 19-year-old English major at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. He grew up in Saratoga Springs and has been skiing since age five. He learned at Maple Ski Ridge in Rotterdam, NY which was a smaller, local alternative to West Mountain.

Within a few years, his family became regulars at Jiminy Peak. Now, he’s a proud passholder at Gore Mountain in North Creek. He managed to ski exactly 40 days last season “without flunking out of school,” with his Gore pass covering 30 of those days. “I love Gore’s laid back atmosphere and surprisingly great terrain.”

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