This Week In SeniorsSkiing.com (Jan. 17)

East Coast: Start Us Up.  Roll Away Stiff Muscles, Harriet Wears A Cup Cake, New Bindings Old Skis, Mystery Top Hatted Skier, Nordic Gourmet Ski Tours, Good Weather News.

Last weekend, the temperature was 70+ degrees in Boston, a record high for January 4-5.  That was not a good thing for resorts, especially lower altitude areas, that are gearing up for the busy MLK weekend and trying to preserve whatever base they have. But, change is coming for the better. Real winter is finally coming to the East and Northeast.

How do we know? Statistics tell us so.  There is a metric devised by the National Weather Service called the North East Snowfall Impact Scale (NESIS) which rates snowfalls based on how much has fallen and the area of coverage. It is a similar rating scale to the Fujita tornado rating scale and the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale many of us are familiar with. 

Using the NESIS scale, snowfalls are rated, again based on amount and area,  from 1 to 5 with an appropriate descriptor for each category:

• • Category 1 Notable
  • Category 2 Significant
  • Category 3 Major
  • Category 4 Crippling
  • Category 5 Extreme

Over time, you can look at the pattern of when these different categories of snowfalls occur over the winter. What you find when you plot Category 3-6 storms over time is the following: 

This graph shows that Category 3 to 6 storms usually show up at the end of January and the beginning of February. Which is now.

So, if you’ve been waiting for snow in the East, Northeast, Middle Atlantic, you may be able to finally get out on decent snow cover.  Place your bets because this looks like the snow train is a’-coming.

This Week

Our Incidents & Accidents this week is by Dave Irons, a noted ski journalist and patroller from Maine. His point: Safety is our everyone’s job. What can you do to avoid problems? Check it out here.

In Ask The Expert, Reader James Davis asks about using new bindings with old skis, the opposite question asked a couple of weeks ago. Those old skis might look fine, but inside…is another story. Here’s advice for James.

By now, you’ve probably been out for a day or two, or even several days of exercise on the slopes. If you are like many seniors, you are discovering some muscle soreness, knots, and stiffness. The way to smooth these normal aches and pains out is by foam rolling.  If you haven’t tried this form of self-therapy, you are missing a quick, simple, and effective method for relief. Click here for more.

Our Mystery Glimpse photo this week comes from Peak Resorts. He should be a familiar character that skiers who’ve been around for a while will recognize. We also reveal who the two racers from last week’s mystery picture. For the first time in a while, we had no guesses for those two, so we stumped the readership. Click here to see the Flippin’ Clown.

XCSkiResorts.com publisher and SeniorsSkiing.com cross-country editor Roger Lohr brings us a round up of where you can enjoy cross-country skiing and gourmet food on the same tour. Yes, there are xc resorts across the country that offer delicious food in plein air along beautiful ski trails.  Interesting concept: eat and burn calories.

Herb Stevens, the Skiing Weatherman, brings good news about the change coming to the snowfields. The winter pattern is settling in on schedule, signaling a comeback for the East and New England.

The best for last.  Harriet Wallis, our esteemed and venerable correspondent from Utah, has her 80th birthday party at Alta.  Check out her pink, cup cake helmet cover.  You have to see it to understand.  And she is offering to pass along her “80” badge to a SeniorsSkiing.com reader who will turn 80 before April. Help her celebrate.

Thanks for reading SeniorsSkiing.com.  Please tell your friends and remember, there are more of us every day, and we aren’t going away.

Hope this guy has a foam roller.

https://www.facebook.com/Vagueetvent/videos/753540895153044/?v=753540895153044