A Lyrical Look At Classic Eastern Ski Trails.
Killington, Okemo, Mt. Snow. See what you’re missing, Western Skiers?
Thanks to SeniorsSkiing.com correspondent Don Burch for another great, feels-like-you’re-there video.
Killington, Okemo, Mt. Snow. See what you’re missing, Western Skiers?
Thanks to SeniorsSkiing.com correspondent Don Burch for another great, feels-like-you’re-there video.
Author: Don Burch
Don, a retired School Psychologist, has been skiing since the early 1960s. Most of his skiing is in New York and New England. He has been a ski instructor at Lost Valley, King Pine and Sunday River. Each season he likes to ski at areas he's never been to. Don also make it a point to support local and independently owned ski areas by skiing them several time each season. Though skiing is Don's main passion he also enjoys kayaking, windsurfing, inline speed skating, trail running and cycling.
Hi Don….I enjoy your videos and enjoyed talking with you at the Ludlow lodge. I am the older gentleman who went into addiction counseling later in life. I like you, enjoy skiing small local areas that I never skied before. I, like other club members, feel like I am in prison in Ct. All the best. Gerry
In early March of ’74, after passing EPSIA certification, I headed west (my mountain, Okemo, was closed due to no snow) and landed a job at Breckenridge thru the end of the season. One day, with no class, I was walking thru the instructor’s room when one of the full timers asked, “Where are you going?” “Skiing” I said, to which he replied “Why? It’s cloudy out.”
Don, western skiers may just not fully appreciate your wonderful video. Thanks.
“IT’S CLOUDY OUT???” !!! Bwahahahaha! As a native Eastern skier who also enjoys skiing out West, I was always amused to see groups of W. Coast skiers (at W. Coast areas) kinda ‘frozen’ in position when encountering the slightest bit of ice, frost, etc. on a slope.(On the other hand that would be ME frozen in position if I found myself atop a mountain on a POWDER DAY!) ;-d
Having skied over 38 ski mountains in the west I have never had the desire to eastern mountains. It was not unusual for me to share a lift up the mountain and talk to a person from the east and I would ask : Why aren’t you skiing out east’? The answer was always “ICE’.” I know I missed some great skiing. but….
Corduroy, corduroy, corduroy. I try to avoid the stuff. It is everywhere here in the east. East Coast skiing is 90% corduroy. Corduroy is like a drug. Once someone gets on it, they find it so comforting, they want nothing else. Its a disguise of what the real day is suppose to be on the mountain. Yes, I agree when a slope turns to ICE as Bruce learned, yup, it’s time to pulverize and corduroy it. But I mean “boiler plate” ice. But, ski patrol has become so too hooked, that they close frozen granular trails because most people who have someone else sharpen their ski edges do so 1X-2X a year and they are uncomfortable on almost everything else except corduroy, due to untuned skis. I began skiing when the ski instructors formed a line and sidestepped up the beginner slope to smoothen the conditions for those who really needed a mechanical pack. I dare say, skiing in ungroomed conditions indicates whether one is a novice, intermediate, advance, expert or racer. East Coast ski areas are the pusher-man of this drug and most Easterners are hooked! Until East Coast ski areas back off on pushing such extensive pusher-man drug, give me the lassez-faire Western skiing. Corduroy is a drug–man. Maybe COVID forced off-piste will bring us back to being real skiers.