Post Tagged with: "50+"

Are your skis still in the bag by the furnace where you left them after your last ski day? Hmmmm.
Credit: Mike Maginn

Putting Away Your Skis And Stuff

It Pays To Spend A Little Extra Effort On Your Gear. Here’s How. [Editor Note: Don Burch’s article on storing your gear is published each year around this time.  We are reprising it to help remind you that a little care for your stuff goes a long way.] Hopefully your ski equipment has taken good care of you all winter,[Read More…]

by April 6, 2023 28 comments Gear
Look Back: Sunday River

Look Back: Sunday River

For the record, early morning skiing was just the best at Sunday River, Maine. We skied this reliable, late-season spot over Easter weekend with two gorgeous sunny days, happy the travel restrictions into Maine had eased for us at last. Better late than never. Count SR’s season-long commitment to snowmaking (90 percent coverage) as the insurance that makes the late[Read More…]

by April 14, 2021 2 comments Destinations, East
The Year in Review

The Year in Review

El Nino, Stay South. La Nina, Go North. If you haven’t already done so, it’s close to the time when the skis and snowboards get tucked away for summer hibernation.  Between Covid-19 restrictions, National Forest leases, and Old Man Winter calling it quits prematurely in much of North America, forces have conspired to end the season for the majority of[Read More…]

by April 14, 2021 7 comments Skiing Weatherman
Skiing Weatherman: West Still Strong, East Hanging In

Skiing Weatherman: West Still Strong, East Hanging In

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 %#$$@*& inch!  A[Read More…]

by April 8, 2021 0 comments Skiing Weatherman
Sign of spring: Tuckerman Ravine, 1938. Credit: Mt. Washington

This Week In SeniorsSkiing.com (March 26)

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…]

by March 26, 2021 1 comment Features
Skiing Weatherman: West Strong, Last Call East

Skiing Weatherman: West Strong, Last Call East

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…]

by March 25, 2021 2 comments Skiing Weatherman
Skiing Weatherman: Season Rolls On in West, New Snow Scarce in East

Skiing Weatherman: Season Rolls On in West, New Snow Scarce in East

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…]

by March 18, 2021 1 comment Skiing Weatherman
Spring Comes to Wildcat

Spring Comes to Wildcat

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…]

by March 16, 2021 3 comments Destinations, East
This Week In SeniorsSkiing.com (March 5)

This Week In SeniorsSkiing.com (March 5)

Looking Ahead, First Timers Tips For Europe, Personal Risk Test, Midwest Nordic Centers, DV/PCR Visits, Brunvand’s Journey, L2A Top-Bottom, Tune Up Kit, Okemo Founders, Harriet’s First Time, Emily And March. Outdoor author Patrick McManus said: “God invented March in case eternity proved to be too brief.” March, the elongated month, stretching from the cold of February to the sunshine of[Read More…]

by March 5, 2021 0 comments Features
Skiing Weatherman: Pattern Is Relatively Quiet

Skiing Weatherman: Pattern Is Relatively Quiet

Fresh Snow in Cali. Mild Temps Next Week. Last week’s installment touched upon the fight we usually see in March between lingering cold to the north and advancing spring warmth from the south.  The fight usually takes the form of storminess, where it only a matter of whether there is enough cold air in the mix to produce snow instead[Read More…]

by March 3, 2021 1 comment Skiing Weatherman
This you?

Question For You: Risk Rating

Are You A Hucker, Ripper, Park Rat, Or Just A “Sick” Planker? Sorry for the jargon.  This week, we’d like to explore on which end of the risk spectrum our readers reside. We have a sense that some readers have slowed down, taken down the speed a notch or two, search for corduroy on on sunny days, and switched to[Read More…]

by March 2, 2021 36 comments Features
Jan, Judy, Erk, 1962.

Moving To Indiana Then Idaho

Part Four: Jan and Judy Find Lots Of Places To Ski. We returned from Norway in 1957 and headed to Indiana University. We skied Caberfae near Cadillac, MI, a couple of times, but otherwise, our four years at IU were devoted to my studies and having Bloomington’s New Year’s Baby in January 1960. Where and when would we ever start[Read More…]

by March 2, 2021 7 comments Nostalgia, Ski History
Riding the rope. Harriet's daughter Alison, 5, in leather boots and wooden skis on Jiminy Peak's rope tow. Credit: Harriet Wallis

Don’t Tell Me To Stay Home

How I Was Reinvented As An Athlete. I learned to ski on a dare. Actually, it was a threat. When my husband announced he was going to learn to ski, I gulped. I thought skiing was something crazy people in the other side of the world did, but not here in Connecticut. “You’re going to do what?” I asked. “How[Read More…]

by March 1, 2021 1 comment Nostalgia
Dawn, Appleton Farms, Ipswich, MA. Credit: NSNA

This Week In SeniorsSkiing.com (Feb. 26)

Cross Country Bubble, Skiing Styles History, Aspen Top-Bottom Run, Gelati Apres-Ski, Norway Skiing, Yellowstone Yurt Resort, Goggle Fog, Weather Ahead. Across the street in Appleton Farms, we notice many disparate groups of xc skiers, snowshoers, dog walkers, and hikers have been descending in growing numbers whenever there is a decent covering of snow, a frequent occurrence this February.  The stalwart[Read More…]

by February 26, 2021 1 comment Features
Skiing Weatherman: Transition Month Trials

Skiing Weatherman: Transition Month Trials

Late Season Powder. Rain And Snow. Although astronomical spring begins with the vernal equinox later in March, “meteorological spring” begins on the first day of March.  That’s when the questions start to arise about how long the season is likely to extend.  Those questions are more common for resorts over the eastern half of the country, where injections of milder[Read More…]

by February 25, 2021 2 comments Skiing Weatherman
Yurts and heated tent cabins accommodations in remote corner of Yellowstone.

Make More Tracks: Yellowstone Expeditions

A Rustic Retreat In Remoteness. When skiers talk about great backcountry, they often cite the Tenth Mountain and Braun systems in Colorado; Sierra Club huts in California; Skoki Lodge, Assiniboine and Shadow Lake in the Canadian Rockies. I’d like to add a new destination, near Canyon in Yellowstone National Park. (Check an atlas, find Yellowstone in the northwest corner of[Read More…]

by February 22, 2021 0 comments Make More Tracks
Nipika is totally off the grid.

This Week In SeniorsSkiing.com (Feb.19)

Why Support SeniorsSkiing.com, Ski Test Process, Flat Light Nemesis, Women Behind Pico, Sustainable XC Resorts, Snow In Literature, Skiing Weatherman. If you are of a certain age, you’ve probably figured out by now that people in business, sports, and marketing, who design, sell and market products and services, who have hiring responsibilities, and, generally, who are under 40, view aging[Read More…]

by February 19, 2021 4 comments Features
Skiing Weatherman: Pattern Quiets Down a Bit

Skiing Weatherman: Pattern Quiets Down a Bit

Warmer end to February. March Snow Looks Good. This has been an absolutely wild weather week across the country, with more heavy snow in the West, the worst run of cold and snow in the southern Plains since 1899, and two significant storms in the East, although the first one generated a fair amount of sleet earlier this week. As[Read More…]

by February 18, 2021 2 comments Skiing Weatherman
Why I Don’t Read Ski Test Reports

Why I Don’t Read Ski Test Reports

[Please consider supporting SeniorsSkiing.com with a donation. We appreciate your help. Click here.] Seven Ways To Make Ski Tests More Objective. Way back in the late 20th Century, while running the SKIpp Testing program for SKI Magazine, John Perryman and I learned the most difficult problem to solve and the biggest variable was the ski tester. In conversations with almost every[Read More…]

by February 16, 2021 12 comments Skis
Credit: Jan Brunvand

Question For You: Flat Light Tactics

[Please consider supporting SeniorsSkiing.com with a donation. We appreciate your help. Click here.] Is Flat Light The Bane Of Your Skiing Experience? Or Just One Of Those Things? No contrast, lack of depth perception, no tell-tale marks on the snow, flat light adds another dimension to deal with. Not welcome to many. Tolerable to some. We’ve had a couple of our[Read More…]

by February 16, 2021 37 comments Features
Karl and June Acker took over from Janet and continued to expand the resort.

Women Played Integral Role at One of Nation’s Oldest Ski Areas

[Please consider supporting SeniorsSkiing.com with a donation. We appreciate your help. Click here.] Janet Davis Mead, June Aker, Verlene Belden All Kept Pico Going And Growing, Despite Obstacles and Challenges. Vermont’s Pico Mountain survived a war, two owners’ deaths, and a neighbor called Killington to become one of the 30 oldest continually operating ski areas in the country. It’s a feat[Read More…]

by February 15, 2021 12 comments East, Ski History, Ski Heroes
Nipika is totally off the grid.

Make More Tracks: Sustainable XC Ski Resorts

[Please consider supporting SeniorsSkiing.com with a donation. We appreciate your help. Click here.] [Editor Note: This article first appeared in XCSkiResorts.com.] Many cross country (XC) ski areas operate in an environmentally-friendly manner, and some of these operators, who are exemplars using the most sustainable practices, are models of sustainability in the effort to combat climate change. The operators at these[Read More…]

by February 15, 2021 0 comments Make More Tracks
Snow In Literature: On A Tree Fallen Across The Road

Snow In Literature: On A Tree Fallen Across The Road

[Please consider supporting SeniorsSkiing.com with a donation. We appreciate your help. Click here.] (To hear us talk) By Robert Frost The tree the tempest with a crash of wood Throws down in front of us is not bar Our passage to our journey’s end for good, But just to ask us who we think we are Insisting always on our[Read More…]

by February 15, 2021 1 comment Features
This Week In SeniorsSkiing.com (Feb.12)

This Week In SeniorsSkiing.com (Feb.12)

Valentine To Our Readers, Loon Visit, Resort Liability-Less, Vicarious Swiss Ski Run, Marg’s Moment, Personal Ski, XC Ski Injuries, Skiing In College In The 50s, Take A Lesson, Herb’s Weather For The Week. [Please consider supporting SeniorsSkiing.com with a donation. We appreciate your help. Click here.] Here in SeniorsSkiing.com’s New England headquarters, we are feeling very gratified. We’ve been receiving[Read More…]

by February 12, 2021 1 comment Features
Skiing Weatherman: The Hits Just Keep On Coming

Skiing Weatherman: The Hits Just Keep On Coming

Busy Storms. Slopes in Good Shape. As I write this piece at the start of President’s Day weekend, the slopes from coast to coast are in fine to extraordinarily good shape, thanks to a very busy coast to coast pattern of storms that has played out in recent weeks.  A push of arctic air delivered by the stratwarm episode that[Read More…]

by February 11, 2021 1 comment Skiing Weatherman