Thursday, November 3, 2011

October Snow and Season Goals

The image below, widely circulated last Thursday, stoked the hopes of eastern skiers for the start of the 2011-2012 season:

Snowmaking on Rime, October 28, courtesy Killington

A widespread snowfall and the commencement of snowmaking operations allowed Killington (Vermont) and Sunday River (Maine) to each announce they would open on Saturday, kicking off the east coast ski season. Plattekill (NY) also spun one of its lifts on Sunday for a handful of enthusiastic skiers on natural snow only.

Opening day, October 29, courtesy Killington

Other skiers earned their turns at Pico and even at Killington on Friday, before the resort officially opened.

Earning turns on Pico, October 30, 2011, courtesy Ski=MC2

Local areas, including Gore and Whiteface, mostly missed out on the snowfall. Even if they had been in the hit zone, opening day is at least several weeks away. Willard Mountain got the most snow locally, and posted this beautiful scene Friday morning on their Facebook page.


Although I don’t really expect to ski until Thanksgiving weekend, the traditional start of the season, I’m not going to rule it out either. But since the ski season has now officially begun, I’ve got a few a goals. Nothing as ambitious as this guy or this guy, but goals nonetheless:
  • We ski a lot as a family at Gore. A whole lot. There are reasons why that makes sense for our family, but I’d like to expand our reach to include a few other destinations. Bromley, Pico and Whiteface are at the top of that list.
  • More cross country and back country skiing. Beth raced in the Lake Placid Loppet last winter, and we both want to race this year.
  • I’m proud of the fact (in case you hadn't noticed) that we’ve made skiing the focus of our family’s winter, and this winter our youngest will start skiing. Sylvie turns 4 in December, and my biggest goal will be getting her skiing this year. She’s athletic and enthusiastic, and she’s got pink skis with rocket graphics: I think she’s going to do great.

No comments:

Post a Comment