Honeymoons are pretty much the best...

Alas, Julie and I arrived here at Disney World on Sunday and I waited until today to get online. Not bad for me. We’ve had a blast thus far and still have a couple of days to play! Then it’s back to work and of course back to playing in the snow at Sunday River!

For all of you that have been to Disney, you know that one of the many things that Disney does really, really well, is prepare fabulous food options. Perhaps not so much in the parks as you are trying to move quickly from place too place, but the dinners at the resort restaurant have some of the best food you’ll find, especially ay Epcot. And yet here we are on our honeymoon and what is again my favorite thing to eat? Yep, ice cream. I joked that I would stop at every place that has it, but I haven’t done so because there are so many. Nevertheless, I’ll surely need some kind of fat burner when we get back or at least a visit to the gym everyday for the next year. Yikes!

The Chondola Construction moves ahead!

With a month left in the construction process of Sunday River’s Chondola, things are really starting to come together nicely. I’d say that last week’s rain probably posed a big problem for the whole schedule, but even through the weather, work went on. Looking up the line of the lift, there is a huge spool in the middle of the ski trail that is actually thousands of feet of steel rope that will be spliced together and will make up the haul rope (cable) that the chairs and gondola cabins hang from. The process of stringing the haul rope and splicing it can take weeks and is pretty complicated, but it’s also a really cool part of the process. Another cool part of the recent construction is in the picture above. Notice that they are pouring concrete around the whole structure and the walkways. If you look closely at some of the areas that haven’t had the final layer poured, you can see orange tubing, which is actually heat coiling. This keeps the surface from allowing ice to build up.

Bretton Woods readies the mountain for the new season!

As of Wednesday afternoon, Bretton Woods, part of Mountain Washington Resort, has fired up its snowmaking guns and is busy laying down a good base for the approaching ski season. There is already over a foot of snow at the Top o'Quad Restaurant, according to Chris Ellms, Director of Ski Operations for the Resort.

"We plan to get folks out on the snow just as soon as we can. From here on in, we'll be making snow at every opportunity and plan to open as soon as possible," says Ellms. "If the cold weather cooperates, and especially if Mother Nature blesses us with a couple of inches of new snow, we will be able to open as early as November 8th -- possibly even sooner!"

The first weekend of skiing is in the books!

What a difference a couple of days make. I was fortunate to ski Friday through Sunday this past weekend and in typical New England early season fashion, we had three distinct types of conditions. Early season skiing and riding is challenging and conditions are variable by the hour. This is one of the reasons that regardless of the open terrain, skiing and riding is always listing as “for advanced only.” This of course doesn’t stop every Tom, Dick, and Harry form thinking that they fall into that category and clogging up the trails that we refer to as the “White Ribbon of Death.”

Nonetheless, the weekend was fabulous. We skied spring like conditions on Friday, boilerplate hardpack on Saturday, and sticky and wet manmade on Sunday – top-to-bottom. Sunday was by far the best day and by mid-morning there were some nice zipper lines formed down the center of T2.

Day3 is now in the books and we’ll take a few days off to actually work…

Mount Snow readies the terrain park with a fresh coat... And then it rained!

With temperatures dipping into the lower 20s, snowmakers reported for duty at Mount Snow Saturday night, firing up the fan gun snowmaking machines on Launch Pad, a learning hill near the base area. By daybreak on Sunday, about three inches of snow had piled up and the terrain park crew moved in, setting up a small park with half a dozen features. The park opened to the public at 10 a.m. EST.


With temperatures in the 20s again last night the fan guns continued to run. The Launch Pad terrain park will be open to the public today as long as the snow holds. Visitors can secure a free lift ticket from employees stationed at the park. Visit the snow report at mountsnow.com for details and updated information.

Skiing and food - They go together!

Many would think that with a season full of skiing, skiers and riders would actually get in great shape and perhaps lose some weight, but interestingly enough, the opposite usually happens. I was discussing this with my nutritionist the other day and explaining the lifestyle of après ski, food, and booze. Yes, the exercise alone is great, but we but a ton of crap into our bodies while were off the slopes. Kind of makes you wonder if people try weight loss supplements in the off season.

The inside of a Chondola terminal!

Unless you a ski lift stops just before you get on or off, it’s rare that you get a look inside some of the inner workings of today’s high-speed lifts with all their gears, pulleys, wheels, sheaves, and conveyors. Granted, most of you don’t really care what’s inside as long as it works and it’s fast, but the terminals for high speed lifts are very fascinating. And yet as much as that may be the case, I can see why their aren’t really all that esthetically pleasing, which is why the bottom and top terminals are all covered, but this is a rare chance to see what the inside of one of Sunday River’s high-speed lists looks like. This picture is of the base return station for the new Chondola. While you can see a lot of wheels that are connected to conveyers and ultimately to the bull wheel, you won’t see any big engine. Not to worry, though. On this particular lift, the drive is in the top terminal. I hope we can get a good look in there soon as well, but things re coming along nicely as the season fast approaches.

Fall means ski sales galore!

One of the tell-tail signs that winter is coming are the massive amounts of ski shop tent sales. This weekend alone there were three in southern Maine and one at Sunday River. The sales are a great way to get good deals on new equipment and find some awesome bargains on last year’s models and clothes. Whether you’re looking for new ski pants, a new pair of skis, or even MBT shoes, fall is the time to look out in your local paper or watch for television commercials as this is the time of year for the best deals to get you ready to make the most of the winter sports season!

Can't it be winter already???

Here in the east were still waiting for the first snow. Sure, it’s only mid-October, but with the days growing shorter and overnight temps dropping, many of us are getting antsy for a little white stuff. Folks at Sunday River celebrated the end of summer and the nearing of winter with the annual Fall Festival. Thousands showed up and packed the lower lots for craft fairs, chairlift rides, and the annual wife carrying championships. Me, I wasn’t there. Jules and I had just closed on our house and the order of the weekend was to paint and paint we did. It was sad to miss the first gathering of our friends at the mountain, but it is a time to prioritize and with the wedding nearing, we want to get things ready for a seamless transition. I can’t help to think how cool it will be to see snow collect on the ground around our new home.

We'll miss Fall Festival 2008, but have other cool things to do!

Fall Festival at Sunday River is this weekend and sadly, Julie and I will miss it. Of course we do have a really good reason and that is that we are closing on our new house tomorrow in the morning and we'll be hard at work Saturday and Sunday, painting. Thankfully, the place need almost no work, but it does need some paint, according to Julie and since I don't have a choice, but to agree, well... Anyway, have fun at the North American Wife Carrying Championships!

The Blue World get its' first coating of the white stuff!

While overnight temperatures dip below 40 degrees here on the coast of Maine, the mountains have been seeing their first temps below freezing. And while some of the much higher elevations have seen a trace of snow, there hasn’t been enough to stick through the daylight hours here in the east. And yet out west this isn’t the case. I obviously wrote about the snowmaking battle that has already begun between Loveland and Arapahoe Basin ski areas, but many other ski resorts in the west have seen measurable snow. So of course I would be remiss if I didn’t honor the namesake of this website and report on the first snowfall of the season in Lake Tahoe. While the upper elevations saw a few inches, almost the whole of Heavenly Mountain Resort got at least its’ first coating of the white stuff. A true sign that ski season is very near indeed!

Once again, it's Loveland vs Arapahoe!

While the crisp fall air was a good reminder of the season to come this morning, there is an annual event out west that officially marks the countdown to ski season. The competition to open for skiing and riding first in the United States has waged between Loveland and Arapahoe Basin, both in Colorado, for decades. Starting as early as September, these two ski ares on the continental divide start pumping out as much snow as they can and aren’t afraid to be proud that they are in competition. Due to the high elevation and less humidity, both areas have colder temps earlier than most and take advantage. They know that they might not have the most skier visits when the season is in full swing, but every year they put their stamp on the ski season!

The heart of ski lift installation!

There’s a part of installing a ski lift that as always been fascinating to me and many others in she ski world. While we love to see the finishing touches put on the base terminal of a shinny new lift and the stringing of brand-spanking-new chairs is a cool site, it’s the flying in of the lift towers that captivates us. Why? Perhaps it’s because the precision of placing these huge towers in a precise line up a mountain is mind-boggling or maybe it’s because installing towers requires the use of one of the largest commercially used helicopters in the work.

Regardless, when you think of the engineering that must be incorporated, there really is nothing like the construction of a ski lift. The pictures here are of the chondola towers being lowered onto their anchors by a massive Sikorsky helicopter and some of the new 8-person cabins that will be interspersed with 6-person chairs.

Everyone has an opinion on opening day!

You can troll from one message board to another and there is a common theme aside from the annual first track stoke. It’s the annual, “guess the opening day thread,” and no matter whether you’re on EpicSki or AlpineZone it’s unavoidable. Everyone and his or her cousin has an opinion on which area will open first, why that particular area will open first, why Killington no longer opens first, and even a mention about how, from time to time, a resort from North Carolina opens first.

As skiers, we’re obsessive and trivial things like these make us happy. I mean even if I’ve never met some guy who says that my home mountain is going to open on Halloween, he can actually make me feel better. No, not because he has any credibility, but just because we share that little common belief. It’s silly, really, but it’s what keeps us going in those waning months before the bull wheels actually do start to turn and the snow guns stay on whenever possible. So check out your local ski forum and read the opening day thread!

Disney, here we come!

I know a lot of people that have difficulty in the winter choosing between warm weather destinations and ski vacations. I, of course, am not one of those people. Yes, I compromised on the Disney vacation for the week after our wedding next month, but first, it’s early in the season. Second, if I weren’t getting married, I wouldn’t be talking that week off anyway. And third, I’ve got the second week in December off and will ski the whole time. So yes, I look forward to Disney. It will be a lot more fun than doing some Caribbean villa rentals. The beaches are all the same and I just don’t think there is much to do. In Disney… well, it’s Disney!

Skiing with Nintendo Wii!

I know I’m not the only one out there, but I’m curious how many adult would really like to cave in and go buy a Nintendo Wii. Seriously, this things has become pretty big and the fact that they have an interactive game for skiing makes it that much cooler. Yes, I have an old Nintendo that has a skiing game, but it’s obviously very outdate and far beyond the help of just a new video card. Besides, with the Wii skiing game you use your whole body and not just a controller. Yes, I think it would be a poor choice to buy one just for that game, but I’ve heard that there re other cool ones as well. Perhaps after the ski season I’ll think about it.

More to life than ski forums...

In life, we take the good with the bad and sometimes we need to step back and take some deep breaths. This became apparent to me recently when I had decided that I’d had about of a particular individual on a ski forum that I’ve been posting on for some time. Now you’d think that a ski forum would be just that, but skiers and riders are very passionate people and our opinions can sometimes get the best of us. We have our choices for mountains and trails that we like better, or think are better, than others and quite frankly, we’ll tell you. That being said, every now and again things get out of hand and thus was the case with me and this gentleman. So I decided to step back and not take part for a while. My passion is still their and my love for many of the board members remains, but things got a little destructive for me and some others and I think that my decision will be good for me. Besides, everyone wants to be in good spirits when the ski season starts and in case you haven’t noticed, the temps have been dropping and overnight temps in the mountains have even slipped below freezing!

Rating ski areas by their chili!

Although I’ve never mentioned it here before, I used to have a test that I put to every ski area I visited. Sure, the mountain’s terrain, size, and snow quality have always been and always will be hugely important to me, but when I was younger, I used to joke about how I rated mountains or resorts for their chili recipes. To most, this would sound strange, but to skiers and riders, chili is a staple food. While many larger resorts use food service chili that’s pretty generic, the best mountains for the best chili are often the mom and pop ski operations. Take for example, the Camden Snow Bowl in Camden, Maine. This 900’ vertical mountain might not offer much to entice skiers or riders aside from the fabulous views of the Atlantic Ocean, but inside their rustic a-frame lodge you’ll find real homemade chili that is a little different everyday, but always pleasing. Further up the road, Sugarloaf, used to have a fabulous chili before the days of ASC, but now it’s like the other bog mountains. So next time you decide to take a break from the larger resorts, try the chili at your local mountain; if it’s not some of the best you’ve had, I’ll be very surprised.

Heavenly's Biggest Little Project!

For decades, skiers and snowboarders alike have complained about trail in particular at Heavenly Mountain resort – The Skyline Trail. This very long cross-cut style trail is the only route to get from the top of the Sky Peak in California, to the Nevada side of the resort.

After a slight downhill start with a couple of turns, the trail actually turns uphill slightly, leaving skiers and boarders have to push their way to the border. If you’ve done it, and if you’ve skied Heavenly, you have; you know that while the views from the trail are unreal, the poling aspect is a pain. Granted, there has always been the option to drop into the Ski Ways glade that it accessible from almost any point along Skyline, but this is only an option for experts and brings you back down to the California side. Of course on a powder day, Ski Ways is pure glade heaven!



Now I don’t know why it took so long for the folks that run the mountain to do the math on this one, ‘cause let’s face it; the complaints about Skyline have been flowing for years, but finally Heavenly has regarded the trail. This past summer, crews blasted rock on two sections of the trail and have regarded the trail to have a constant 10 percent grade from California to Nevada. Cheers to Heavenly for listening!

To watch or not to watch - ski films!

Many people consider ski films a rite of fall. While some of us prefer to get on the snow as soon as possible, some people need to get out and see that new flick by Warren Miller Entertainment (Note: Warren Miller is no longer involved) or Teton Gravity Research. I understand the need for a little on screen stoke, but what can be better than actually sliding on the snow?

Part of the problem is that while many ski films come to Portland, they come after the season has started and if I’m in the mountains for the weekend, I’m not coming back to watch a movie. Luckily, Meathead Films shows their flicks at Sunday River and although I haven’t been in the past, I’m hoping to this year after watching their previous titles recently and enjoying the East Coast backcountry vision they pursue.

Regardless of whether you like to wait for the first film or the DVD option is your choice, the temps are falling and the leaves are turning. Summer is officially over so put away your boat and start thinking snow!