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 April.  March, do you know what you are doing to us?  You are driving us crazy. First, snow, then, nothing, then warm rain, then snow. March is the transition month, the signal that the year is changing, moving from one state of being to the next.

Behind is the COVID year with all its unusualness.  Ahead is the change. It appears the virus and all the aberrations it brings MAY be receding, and, like the month of March, may be transitioning, too. One can certainly hope.

And if the virus morphs to a more benign level of threat, be prepared for a really big change, an explosion of demand for all things forbidden in the last year. People are rabid to get back to whatever degree of normalcy makes sense.

Example: In Ipswich, the picturesque little town down the road, a new bakery shop announced it would be opening in an historic building near the town green. The “soft opening” would be on Friday last week, testing their equipment, procedures, recipes, etc.  The local news carried the announcement. People were lined up for coffee, bread, pastries well before the doors would open for the first time, standing out in the chilly morning, lined up way up the hill for something different. Lots and lots of people who wanted a taste not only of pain au chocolat, but “normalcy”. Call it by the familiar cliche: Pent Up Demand.

We believe that if normalcy or a facsimile comes in the fall, then now is the time to think about your plans for next season. What have you always wanted to do that you feel you must do in the upcoming year? Time is marching on, dear readers. Think big and broadly about next season’s adventures.

Season pass, sure, but no big deal.  Trip out West, yes, definitely. But, if you want to put a real exclamation point on your COVID year, consider a ski trip to Europe.

Kirchburg: €€ and just down the road from Kitzbuehel

If you’ve always wanted to ski in Europe, now is the time to think about where and how. You can go on a group trip with our advertisers—the 70+ Ski Club, AlpSkiTour, or Inspired Italy—or  or you can venture forth yourself. If you’ve never been, you are presented with a dizzying array of questions: How do all those interconnected areas work? Will I need a guide? What’s crowded and when? What resorts are expensive? Touristy? Weather?

You can start your research with Bob Trueman’s article this week.  A long time ski coach, Bob is UK-based and knows the resorts in Continental Europe quite well. He offers some tips for first timers as well as sharing some of his favorite spots.

Time to spin some plans.  Or fantasies. Regardless, March is the time to shift out of our status quo.  Let’s hope.

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Thank you, dear readers, for your generous support of SeniorsSkiing.com.  We are humbled and gratified by your response. We plan to start mailing out premiums at the end of March or beginning of April. Please be patient.

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This Week

Jan, Judy, Erk, 1962.

Our Question For You asks what side of the risk spectrum you would place yourself? Are you a fast-and-furious hucker? A sedate blue carver? It will be interesting to see where are readers are along the continuum between those poles. Click here.

Finally, we focus on the Midwest.  Reader have rightly criticized us for not promoting Midwestern skiing.  Here’s an attempt to correct that: a compilation of the top Nordic resorts in the Midwest, part of our ongoing Make More Tracks series. Click here.

Contributor Pat McCloskey reports on a recent trip to Deer Valley and Park City. He tells us the true skinny of what it’s like to ski at big destination resorts this crazy winter. Click here.

Jan Brunvand continues his narrative of his ski life, this time, describing what happened when he returned from his Fulbright in Norway in the mid-50s. Click here.

How are your quads? Do you think you can make a non-stop run from the top of Les Deux Alpes down to the village (about one mile vertical)? Here is a video of someone who did.  Click here.

Or is this you?

Correspondent Karen Lorentz offers another profile of entrepreneurial ski resort founders, this time, the Mueller family, who bought Okemo in the early 80s and built it up, expanded, and attracted many new visitors. Click here.

The ever practical Marc Liebman shows us what is in his ski tune up kit.  He takes ski tuning very seriously. Do you? Should you? Click here.

Long time correspondent Harriet Wallis offers a memory of how she learned skiing.  Trust us, she’s just as fiesty now. Click here.

Skiing Weatherman Herb Stevens sees a storm coming to the Northeast soon. March madness, indeed.  Find out when. Click here.

Finally, our Snow In Literature series brings you a poem from Emily Dickinson about her visiting friend, you guessed it, the month of March.  Click here.

Tell your friends about SeniorsSkiing.com. Remember, there are more of us every day, and we aren’t going away.

Sunburst Six as it approaches the summit. Credit: Okemo Resort

 

 

 

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