A Wide Lens View Of How Large And Small Resorts Managed To Deal With Restrictions And Constraints. [Editor Note: Pat McCloskey is a regular contributor to SeniorsSkiing.com. This article first appeared in Chronicles of McCloskey.] First, let me say I was glad that we HAD a ski season. From changing my boots in the lot at Laurel Mountain to the[Read More…]
Spot-That-Resort, Top To Bottom Telluride, Skiing Weatherman, Question: Buy Now?, Cycling Lessons, XCSkiResorts, Focus Mindset, Killington In Spring, Ski Club Prep In Oz. Emily Dickinson said: “A little Madness in the Spring / Is wholesome even for the King.” So here’s a little quiz that might drive you a little nuts. See how you do in this exercise in pattern[Read More…]
Some Powder. Trail Counts Good. The weather pattern that dominated the month of March in the eastern half of the country has continued right into April…unfortunately. I communicated with a resort manager in Vermont last week and found out that the mountain, which has a high base elevation…had received exactly one inch of snow last month. One %#[email protected]*& inch! A[Read More…]
Here’s A View Of A Quad-Busting Run At A High-Altitude Colorado Classic. Our Vicarious Vacation series heads west to the major destination resort with a Victorian mining town heritage and lots of mountain to ski. At 8,750, the town sits at the base of mountains that range to 11,000 feet, making some of the highest, longest ski runs in North[Read More…]
To Buy Or Not To Buy (Yet): That Is The Question. It should be clear by now that if you intend to ski more than two or three times a season at mid-large resort, a season pass is required. Basically, walk-up tickets are major resorts are in the $15o to $200+ range which is fine if you have limited interest,[Read More…]
Reflection On The Past Before Starting This Year’s Biking Season. With gyms closed to Covid, way back in August 2020, I started riding my bicycle five days a week as a way to get ready for the ski season. I live in North Texas where the terrain is relatively flat. We don’t have hills or mountains, we have rises. I[Read More…]
Increased Interest In Nordic Makes XC Site A Place For Information. XCSkiResorts.com was established in 2003 as a major source of information for recreational and travel-oriented cross country skiers and snowshoers and it entered uncharted waters when the pandemic hit. Would anyone want to travel to go cross country skiing? According to site founder and editor Roger Lohr, “The response[Read More…]
“Your Problem Is, You Don’t Know What You’re Doing”. In modern times this sentence wouldn’t score well on the “how to make friends” scale. And yet it is in reality very informative. You just have to look at the real meanings of the words used, and not the colloquial inference. In fact, from the view point of performance enhancement it[Read More…]
Here’s Another Don Burch Video Capturing A Blue Bird Day At The Big K. Snapshot of perfect conditions on a beautiful day.
Before The Snow Flies, Members Gather For Work Party And Find A Reason To Talk Skiing. My road trip from Melbourne in my Skoda AWD has been a pleasant morning drive. With two and half hours peeling away quickly, the freeways were unusually devoid of cars today on this Friday in March. My mate Terry phones to ask me, “Is[Read More…]
Passover, Easter, Baseball Opening Day, Spring Rituals: All Welcome As The Year Moves On. SeniorsSkiing.com is taking a break for the holiday week. We wish all our readers a safe and healthy time, especially if you’re Zooming with friends and family or venturing out for the first time in a while. To our amazing contributors to our recent fundraiser: All[Read More…]
Spring Is Here, Quitting Time? Corn or Mashed? Beech Top-to-Bottom, Diggins World Cup, Ski Art III, Skiing Weatherman. Spring: Time for renewal. Time for change. New directions. “It was such a spring day as breathes into a [person] an ineffable yearning, a painful sweetness, a longing that makes [them] stand motionless, looking at the leaves or grass, and fling out[Read More…]
Bluebird Days. Light Snow. The weather pattern hasn’t changed much in the past week as the jet stream set-up has continued to feature a cold trough over the western half of the country and a milder to warm ridge over the eastern half. It has been another snowy week in the West, although amounts of fresh snow have been a[Read More…]
Stay Till The Final Melt, Or Had Enough Already? We know skiers who save up their skiing days until springtime. Fair weather skier, they are. March is when they go out in earnest, conditions permitting. And there are others who decide to bag the season after President’s Day. Or St. Patrick’s Day. Still others make the weekend trek to the[Read More…]
One Fun, The Other Not So Much. We’re nearing that time of year in New England and the upper Midwest where the snow melts a little during the day and freezes at night. The repetitive process creates tiny balls of ice. In the morning, they’re rock hard but as the sun comes up, they melt a little and turn into[Read More…]
North Carolina Has The Highest Ski Resort In Eastern North America. Have You Been? The next stop in our Vicarious Vacation series is a hop down to North Carolina’s Beech Mountain. Located in the western mountains of the state, Beech Mountain has a summit elevation of 5,506 feet, making it the highest ski resort on the East Coast. The mountain[Read More…]
For The First Time In FIS History, A US Woman Wins The Overall Title. [Editor Note: This article by Roger Lohr first appeared in XCSkiResorts.com.] Following an Olympic gold medal in 2018 and a published autobiography in 2020, Jessie Diggins continued her onslaught of Nordic skiing and the world beyond. This winter season, the 29-year-old Diggins overcame the threat of[Read More…]
Don Burch Offers Another Intriguing View Of The World Of Skis And Snow. Don’s been experimenting with various techniques to take ski videos into an aesthetic direction. His third offering combines a haunting melody and moody visuals. Music is Gravitated by Edgar Hopp. Click on the image below to watch the video.
A Network Of Trails Run By Community Foundation Offers Multi-Use Recreational Activities. The motto above is the moniker of one of the most interesting trail systems I have seen to date. Round Valley, near Park City, UT, is a paradise for cross country skiers, fat bikers, hikers, and dog walkers. The well groomed trails encourage multi- use and 25 kilometres[Read More…]
ISHA Treasure Chest, Wildcat Polecat Run, Hemingway Excerpt, Jan’s Series Wrap, Gift From COVID Year, Shared House Tips, Nordic Colorado. “There Is Much Weather In A March Day”: Irish Proverb. Indeed, March has us betwixt and between. We had some beautiful mid 60s to 70 degree days early on in New England, then an abrupt switch to zero degrees and[Read More…]
Fresh Snow in the Wasatch. Spring Conditions Reign East. This week’s message is quite simple: If you want fresh snow, head west. If you enjoy spring skiing, the upper Midwest and East will sport those conditions much of the time through the end of the month. That said, I do expect the East to turn a little colder early in[Read More…]
One Year On, It Is Time For Reflection. This year of sudden shut down when everything about lives has changed has thrown a lot of plans out the window. While many readers have found a way to get out in the snow, others have given this season a bye, and still others have taken up alternative snow sports, like cross-country,[Read More…]
By Ernest Hemingway (This is an excerpt from the short story which appeared in the collection In Our Time (1927). To read the complete story, click here.) The funicular car bucked once more and then stopped. It could not go farther, the snow drifted solidly across the track. The gale scouring the exposed surface of the mountain had swept the[Read More…]
Long And Winding Runs. Great Views. It was serendipity to arrive at Wildcat in the northern Presidential Mountains of New Hampshire the first week in March and find spring skiing. Many of us missed that part of the ski season last year in the pandemic shut-downs. Due to its north facing slopes and deep snowpack, Wildcat usually is the last[Read More…]
Non-Stop, Two Mile Run on Polecat. Here’s the next in our Vicarious Vacation series: here’s a nice, calm run on the longest green trail in New Hampshire. Polecat runs from the top of Wildcat to the base, nice wide trails, mostly, taken at a leisurely pace. That’s Mount Washington on the horizon on the Tuckerman Ravine side. Spectacular bluebird day[Read More…]
