Some Adjustments Necessary To Ski The Legendary Mountains Of Chile. For many, a typical Chilean ski trip will seem a bit like traveling back in time to the USA 30 or 40 years ago. Some of the lifts date back even further than that! While the ski areas around Santiago are progressively upgrading their infrastructure, snow making, grooming, and security,[Read More…]
Southern Hemisphere Special, Safe and Sane Cycling For Seniors, Zany Videos, El Nino Coming. Yes folks, it’s the start of the ski season in far away places below the Equator. Here’s a picture of downtown Santiago, Chile, which received a highly unusual coating of snow for the first time in years. And in New Zealand, The Remarkables, those beautiful, mystic[Read More…]
Jeeping the High Country A few weeks ago we took the five hour drive to Ouray, Colorado, to escape our desert heat. Ouray sits at 7792′ surrounded by peaks in the San Juan Mountains in the southwest section of the state. The scenic Victorian mining town rightfully calls itself “The Switzerland of America.” It’s 47 miles from Telluride on normal roads;[Read More…]
Editorial Regardless of whether the steady elimination of season pass senior discounts is personally insignificant or presents a financial burden, you should be aware of the lack of fairness and gratitude exhibited by this new policy. Through Vail’s EPIC Pass and Alterra’s IKON pass, the companies are advancing elimination of senior discounts, while acquiring more areas. In fairness, some localized Vail[Read More…]
Chase The Snow To Summer’s Skiing Headquarters In The Southern Hemisphere. Come May, you have probably set your skis into hibernation and begun patiently waiting for the snow to fly next fall. But you really don´t have to wait! Southern America’s greatest mountain range starts getting snowed on in May, and by June the ski areas are normally in full[Read More…]
Bottom Line: Knoweth Thy Limits, Wise One. As I was pounding the rocks of Laurel Mountain on the mountain bike with a group of younger riders here in Pennsylvania’s beautiful Laurel Highlands, I was thinking strategy. At 63 years old, I am still in pretty good shape but the older I get, I start thinking about the old adage “age[Read More…]
Survey Results: Summer Activities, Summer Trail Prep, Sacropenia Defense. We are in high spring, as it were, as of this writing, and yet they are still squeezing out runs in Killington, VT, and will be until the end of May. Here’s a pic from last weekend from Aspen East Ski Shop’s Facebook page. And also at Killington, Scott Howard, (65)[Read More…]
Are older skiers the Rodney Dangerfields of the slopes? Sometimes it feels like ski resorts show us no respect. Consider that there are no Epic or Ikon senior discounts, and, in the case of some Ikon resorts, there no longer are local season passes and the senior discounts associated with them. Some of the big players are doing very well.[Read More…]
Grandparents who ski or board play a major role introducing their grandchildren to the sport. This is one of several significant findings from the April reader survey. It was the fifth SeniorsSkiing.com reader survey, and it produced the largest reader response to date. Fifty-eight percent of respondents identified as grandparents. The introduced more than 68% of their grandchildren to the[Read More…]
What Happens When the Snow Disappears Along With The Crowds? Bet you’ve never thought about how your favorite ski runs get cared for when there’s no snow on the ground. Yes, they have to be prepped each summer. Seth Worthen, slopes manager at Sun Peaks Resort in British Columbia, Canada, explained how his 11 person trail crew works. And it’s[Read More…]
It Can Happen, But Don’t Despair. Read On. Sarcopenia or muscle wasting is a condition which affects almost everyone starting about 50 years of age. Do you have it? Look in the mirror: Your once proud biceps and pectorals have sagged, your pants are falling down, no more butt, your legs look skinny. What looks like loose skin is really[Read More…]
The Creative, Intense, Funny, Unique Journalist Will Be Remembered As One-Of-A-Kind. Ski journalist John Henry Auran was the kind of person you could never forget. I worked for John Henry, or JHA, as he was known to some, in the early 70s at SKIING Magazine, then located at One Park Avenue in New York City. Despite different life paths since[Read More…]
Discount Reminders, Season Thanks, Washing Down, Stowing Gear, Abandoned Ski Area Movie, -30- This amazing season hangs on. Even as we write this on April 19 snow is falling in New England, in fact, right outside our window on Boston’s North Shore. We know that the Sierras and Rockies are also seeing spring snowfalls. It will be the last weekend[Read More…]
The Kindness of (Young) Strangers Last weekend Pam and I went canyoneering in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, the vast expanse of public land between Capitol Reef National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park. Canyoneering may not be the correct term, as it generally describes the exploration of remote canyons requiring technical equipment and skills. Our destination was two popular slot[Read More…]
Only Two Guesses, One Was Correct. Apparently, our last Mystery Glimpse of the season was fairly esoteric. We salute reader Patricia Gottshalk for identifying Anders Olsen Haugen, the US Ski Team member who was the first American to win a Winter Olympics medal. He won medals in the 1924 Olympics in Chamonix and the 1928 games in St. Moritz. In[Read More…]
Season’s Over; Isn’t It About Time You Get That Puffy Back To Clean? Not only are your season-dirty down jackets, vests, and even sleeping bag dirty and smelly, if you left them that way, they would lose their heat-insulating properties. It is easy to destroy your down gear if you don’t follow some basic rules when washing them at home.[Read More…]
Looking Back, Mystery Glimpse, Spring XC Skiing, Riding With The Cats. It’s hard not to get a bit philosophical at the end of a season. And yes, we know that there are those who are still finding newly fallen snow out there, but we are done. Highlights for us: We re-discovered our interest in ski history, launching the Mystery Glimpse[Read More…]
IKON changed its Mammoth Mountain benefits package. Purchasers of the $599 Ikon Base Pass now have full access with the exception of certain blackout dates. When originally offered, full access (no blackouts) was available only with the $899 Ikon Pass. Purchasers of the $599 Base Pass were entitled to 5 days at Mammoth. Alterra, the resort company offering the IKON[Read More…]
This Well-Dressed Athlete Was The First Of Many. Thanks to the Colorado Ski And Snowboard Museum for sending this picture along. We’re reaching deep here, dear readers, and if you can get this one, we will be really impressed. Who is he and what did he do that gave him a place in ski history? Last Week This is a[Read More…]
Even In Mid-April You Can XC Ski; You Just Have To Find The Snow. As the cross country (XC) ski season winds down, most XC ski areas close because of lack of skiers rather than lack of snow on the trails. The sun comes out, the temperature rises, and the XC skiers quit. Why? Are we infected with winter fatigue?[Read More…]
What’s It Like To Groom Trails At Night? They come out at night and do their job. You can see their lights progressing across the ski slope and occasionally hear their roar. And the next morning, they’ve left this delicious set of corduroy tracks across the ski hill. I’d always wanted to go on-slope with a snowcat groomer. And so,[Read More…]
Season Hangs On, Cross-Country Lessons, Apex Boot Highlights, Bob Beattie, Fun & Games, Mystery Train. Click Here To See Where Snow Fell Day By Day From Oct 5th to March 26th. A glance at the map shows where the season’s snow accumulated and where it didn’t. Clearly, the Far West, Upper Rockies, (and Canadian Rockies not shown), parts of the[Read More…]
Sunday at Snowbasin was the last day of my season. The end-of-season emergence of earth shedding its winter coat is bittersweet. The joy of Winter is being replaced by the joy of Spring. Every year on my last run, I say a prayer of thanks for having completed another season and a prayer of hope for the next. Having reached[Read More…]
Where Are We And What’s Happening? Thanks to the Colorado Ski & Snowboard Museum for providing this picture from ski history. The CS&SM is in the process of undergoing a $2.4 million renovation. The first of several exhibits, “Climb To Glory”, featuring the story of the 10th Mountain Division is now open. Other exhibits will be open at the end[Read More…]
It had been snowing three days when I arrived at Grand Targhee. By morning the new snow total was 55″. A guy from Denver suggested signing up for Early Tracks. For $89 members of the ski school guide you at 8AM, an hour head start on the public. Next morning, I skied 1 1/2 hours on untracked terrain, guided by[Read More…]
