One of the great life lessons I learned comes from an aphorism involving another winter sport. It goes like this: You learn to ice skate in the summer. That does not mean that all of us skiers should rush to Ham Arena in Conway, N.H., this summer, though the cool air inside may provide some … [Read more...]
Why spring skiing? Because that’s what we do
Finally towards spring there was the great glacier run, smooth and straight, forever straight if our legs could hold it, our ankles locked, we running so low, leaning into the speed, dropping forever and forever in the silent hiss of the crisp powder. It was better than any flying or anything else, … [Read more...]
Playing favorites when it comes to skiing is easy … or, is it?
GRAPE! I'm gonna get grape, or cherry. They're both... favorites, so either one is good, but if they have both, I'll get grape, because grape is a little more favorite. But if they don't have grape, it's like, alright, it’s fine, cause cherry's (my) favorite anyway. It's like another favorite, but … [Read more...]
Confessions from a first tracks enthusiast
The other day, I wheeled into my favorite ski area, unloaded my equipment, showed my vaccination record, and had a happy revelation: I was only the second person in the lodge. There’s no place I’d rather be than at a ski area — and no place I’d rather be than at the front, or maybe within the … [Read more...]
Let’s not dilute the purity of skiing for attracting a new crowd
The Guardian, the liberal British newspaper, is not ordinarily known as a leading chronicler of the ski life. But the paper recently presented a sobering report about the state of our winter sport. “What was once a young person’s sport,’’ the Guardian reported, “is now owned by the baby boomer … [Read more...]
After a year of intermission, skiers are ready to return to the scene that defines them
We’re back. Most of us are. Or soon will be. Back in the ski shops, back at the ski swaps, back on the chairlifts, back in the tram crowds, back in the mid-mountain warming huts, and back in the cafeteria lines. Back so much that we sound like a breathless Chris Berman, with his ESPN … [Read more...]
Staying young on the slopes is an acquired skill
My father-in-law was 87 when he bought his last car, and he never described it as his last automobile. I just bought a pair of skis. I’m two decades younger than he was when he bought that Mercury Sable, and I’m hoping this won’t be my last pair of skis. All this came into focus for me the other … [Read more...]
Ski country in summer only strengthens love for our winter sport
Venture with me and William Shakespeare deep into ski country in the sultry season of June, July and August. Head to your favorite ski hill; you’ll need to expend no effort to find a parking space near the ticket booth, which right now is as empty as the base-lodge cafeteria line. Look up — … [Read more...]
Believe it or not: Bad ski days always beat no-ski days
Sometimes in ski country we just don’t ski. We don’t feel well, or we don’t feel like it. It’s too cold or it’s too warm. The light is flat, or we just feel flat. The skis stay in the closet, or in the car, or on the rack. It’s a lost day. But is it really lost? Is a day in the mountains without … [Read more...]
Celebrating the passion and quirkiness of true ‘skiers’
Up here in the snowy mountains, we have our own language. When we say the conditions are “wicked,” we mean they’re terrific. When we say we are skiing through “frozen granular,’’ we mean we are skidding across complete ice. When we sing the praises of “spring skiing,” we really mean the snow is … [Read more...]
A healthy obsession with collecting bits and pieces of skiing history
Hardly anyone listens to Harold Putnam anymore, in part because he now cruises down the slopes in another world; he was born a few years before the last great pandemic. But in his prime he was one of the great Eastern skiers of his age and was the outdoor editor of the Boston Globe. But I knew Mr. … [Read more...]
A tribute to ski moms everywhere
Seven inches of snow had just fallen and the lodge was jammed with dozens of parents leaning over their children’s ski boots. And over there, in the corner, I was struggling with my own boots — what an ordeal! — when the woman beside me, Karin Tenney, 47 years old, of Dover, N.H., let out the … [Read more...]
