Early in the winter of 2002, Picabo Street said she had had enough. "Once you’re afraid of speed and have the least hesitation about committing yourself to going as fast as you can to try to win, you might as well not be out there." Thus did the best female downhiller of her generation step away … [Read more...]
Speakeasy, Loon: A rewarding ribbon
If Speakeasy trail at Loon seems to tip off the kind of trail it is, Speakeasy also is one of the best anywhere to strengthen your early intermediate skiing and test yourself with a long top-to-bottom run without stopping. Perhaps the easiest thing about Loon, however, is getting there from the … [Read more...]
Knee troubles might deprive joy of skiing, but of the mountains
Acouple of winters ago, I found myself propped on the couch, knee wrapped and held high to drain. You don’t need details except to know that with my knee, the ski season was probably a wrap for the ski season. "Don’t do anything until you see me," said my doc, an old friend, gravely. "You can’t … [Read more...]
Kitzbuehel, Jay Peak: A true mettle tester
Among the small treasures in my memory of skiing and mountains are two occasions when the operators of Jay Peak invited me to spend a weekend in what was then called "Elevation 4000," a rambling apartment attached to the cable house at the 4,000-foot summit of the mountain. At night we could see … [Read more...]
How do you really know what’s the best mountain out East?
When I look at annual magazine assessments of the best skiing in the East, followed by the lists and rankings, I am at once amused and amazed. How do they pull this thing off year after year, I wonder? Having been a ski journalist for 30 years or so, I came to regard this as a staple of the … [Read more...]
East Wind, Pats Peak: A perfect intro to ‘blue’ runs
They don’t all have to be big bruisers from the north, you know. Every time we’ve set out to sample some smaller areas, it’s about the same: The experience is as good as the snow and weather on the day we go. So it was our luck to have sampled Pats Peak on a ringing January morning with plenty of … [Read more...]
Classic Saddleback, full of potential, remains in state of limbo
Cold and miserable conditions do not sell skiing very well, but they apply to my first time skiing at what became — in some conditional ways — my favorite mountain. That peak’s life as a ski area is now in jeopardy. It was about 1964 when my current wife and my late roommate piled into his old … [Read more...]
East Bowl, Burke Mountain: A great challenge in the Kingdom
For winter lovers, the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont is about what it sounds like, a winter kingdom well on the way to Montreal. In fact, from the summit of Jay Peak — also in the Northeast Kingdom — you can see the lights of Montreal at night. Burke Mountain Resort is less heralded than Jay but … [Read more...]
There is no shortage of great pre-Christmas slope options
It was kind of a game some 50 years ago when I lived in real north country — northern New England, that is. From mid-October, my friends and I would be scouring the weather conditions, almost daily, to see if skiing was on the horizon. I worked for a campus radio station that had a continual feed … [Read more...]
Bobby’s Run, Waterville Valley: Corcoran’s legacy endures in style
As a young man growing up in Quebec, Tom Corcoran knew at least two things about skiing: that Europeans were bound to be dominant over skiers in the Americas; and that if ski areas gave up on race training, it would only get worse, the subtle technique at the center of skiing — that hard carved turn … [Read more...]
Last Run: Sailing into a new season
I've always kind of admired Camus' thought about how dying summer breathes life into the new season. Such a startling reversal to conventional thinking. But this morning, I am literally to my waist in wet sail bags, as we haul one by one out of the locker, spread the Dacron to hose off the salt, … [Read more...]
Chamberlain: It’s the sea for me
I once watched the ocean for six straight hours, not taking my eyes off for more than a minute or so to tend to other things. Here was the circumstance: I had finished last watch — 3 to 6 a.m. on a sailing trip from Fort Lauderdale to New England on a 50-foot Hylas sloop. There were four of us … [Read more...]
