Carving out time for Christmas - The Ski Guru Blog

Merry Christmas to all and to all good skiing!

Carving out time for Christmas - The Ski Guru Blog

Ode to the snow god - The Ski Guru Blog

Do your kids know the legend of Ullr (pronounced Ohh- ler)?

Read on for the snowy scoop on the Norse God of Winter ...

Ode to the snow god - The Ski Guru Blog

Happy Holidays and think snow from your friends at Family Ski Trips !

Meet your Ski Idol- The Ski Guru Blog

It's a dream come true to meet your ski idol. My daughter's is Simon Dumont, my son -Ted Ligety. For me it was Donna Weinbrecht - so when I met her @Okemo..imagine my glee. I was even more ecstatic to demo her Chickadee skis...and find that we have the same soul length!

Weinbrecht is involved in RAMP skis and snowboards, which stands for Riders, Artists, Musicans Project...and when you see their graphics you will be amped about the artist input.

Read all about it on Boston.com
Ski idols - The Ski Guru Blog

Guarantee your family a White Christmas! The Ski Guru Blog

Guarantee your family a White Christmas at Sunday River - The Ski Guru Blog

Brown ground just doesn't say Merry Christmas in New England, so go where they've been making snow since Ocotber for a happy holiday all dressed in white..

Read Heather's Boston.com ski guru blog about Sunday River skiing this holiday season!

Guarantee your family a White Christmas at Sunday River - The Ski Guru Blog

Guarantee your family a White Christmas at Sunday River - The Ski Guru Blog

Demo daze - The Ski Guru Blog

Today's skis come with camber, with reverse camber, rocker, shape, fat, its overwhelming! Check out Heather's take on the skis to take your best runs on!

Demo daze - The Ski Guru Blog

Dude..World Snowboard Day!

Remembering when my brother first snowboarded back in the 80's...my how times have changed...now riders proclaim their own day.

Read all about World Snowboard Day!
Celebrate World Snowboard Day  - The Ski Guru Blog

Best Historic Ski Hotels

How cool...we love when we scoop a good ski story. So when our editors glanced through the recent Ski magazine's "Best Historic Ski Hotels" we found we already tagged 5 of their 7 on our site in our top 10 on Luxury Ski Trips!

Yes, we have skied & stayed at The Hotel Mount Washington at Bretton Woods, Le Chateau Frontenac in Quebec, Timberline Lodge at Mt Hood in Oregon, Equinox Resort of Manchester in Vermont and The Sun Valley Lodge in Idaho. All stellar properties with a rich past and posh lodging.

This is a sign from the our freinds at Ski Mag and the ski gods that we must soon visit Jackson Hole's Wort Hotel and Telluride's New Sheriden soon...stay tuned to Luxury Ski Trips!

meeting mogul star Donna Weinbrecht...

One of the things I love about skiing, you never know what you are going to get, or who you are going to meet. Today at Okemo I got the opportunity to demo a fleet of fantastic ladies skis - Fischer Styles, Volkl Fuegos, Kastle's, Atomic Cloud 9s, Head Great Ones (Lindsey Vonn skis on these for fun photo shoots).

Ski Magazine was offering their 2nd annual People's Test of skis and boards at Okemo Mountain Resort in Vermont...if you get the chance to come to this free demo in the future- don't miss it. And there among the ski reps was my idol growing up, Donna Weinbrecht whose repping for RAMP skis.

Donna looks fantastic, and couldn't have been friendly (a far better experience for me than meeting Bode Miller). Now, its time for some apres ski with my fellow ski writers from Boston Herald, Ski, the NJ.com blogger, SnowEast, etc. And tomorrow I look forward to skiing so more cord at Okemo, testing some more sweet girl skis, and maybe taking a run with Donna Weinbrecht on her Chickadee Ramps.

See you on the slopes! for more...

Skiing with trying teens - The Family Ski Guru Blog

See Heather's latest blog about Skiing with Trying Teens...what to do when they'd rather sleep in on a powder morning!

Skiing with trying teens - The Ski Guru Blog

luxury ski trips on Hybrid Life Radio

My daughter joked this morning that I have a face for radio, irony is that she's growing up to look a lot like me!

Well, I was happy to chat about my favorite subject, skiing, on HybridLifeRadio today.

You can listen to our discussion about some of my favorite resorts, etc...
http://twokdprod.media.streamtheworld.com/audio/hlr_120810_100921101.mp3

Enjoy! And don't worry, I am sticking with the writing thing, not going with late night talk shows just yet!

Always another chairlift coming...

After 11 years of writing the weekly ski column for Maine’s largest paper, I decided to move on to other media outlets and online opportunities. Having contributed over 220 ski articles over a decade, I am filled with the memories of the many skiers I interviewed in Maine (from superstars Bode Miller, Seth Wescott and Simon Dumont, to handicapped Tim Giggey and Matt Bell), and the ski resorts I discovered and was able to share (to a surprising number of arm chair skiers). I am grateful for all the positive feedback I received from devoted readers over the years.

That’s why I was so eager to see who the new columnist would be. What a delight to find a dear friend has taken my written space and place, someone I admire and respect, and have interviewed numerous times in my columns – John Christie, author of The Story of Sugarloaf, former owner of Saddleback and GM at The Loaf. Along with John’s experience and enthusiasm, he brings his son who will share the column space, since it takes two to fill my ski shoes…kidding.

I will be writing more for www.Boston.com, magazines, and my two increasingly popular ski sites www.familyskitrips.com and www.luxuryskitrips.com
The adage is true, when one door closes another opens. Thhere is always another chairlift, another T-Bar or Tram coming along to take you on a different but equally exciting adventure.

You could be waist deep in Utah pow...now - Boston.com

You could be waist deep in Utah pow...now - Boston.com

A Holiday Greeting from Family Ski Trips

Joy Love Story Holiday

Make a statement with custom holiday cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

thankful

Today I am thankful for my family of 4 skiers, for our health and our freedom to pursue our passions. I am grateful that we can travel the globe, thanks to our military that protects our nation within and outside our borders. I am thankful for the natural beauty of our globe, and the ingenuinity of our people. I am blessed to be with my Greg, Ian and Aspen today...even if it is -10F in the mountains of Utah. Happy thanksgiving, and happy trails.

TSA pat down, paid a fortune to bring my skis but powder tomorrow!

Travelling for that long anticipated ski trip can often be a work out. Today's TSA pat down and full body scan was actually quite uneventful after all the media hype. Paying a fortune to bring our oversized bags was more traumatic. But Utah is expecting the storm of the century...hopefully not more media hype. The other hitch in our happy plan, our son's drive to meet us from Montana was thwarted when they closed the road at West Yellowstone. He's stranded at a hotel watching the storm, and snacking on McDonald's - the only "restaurant" open in town. At least he can indulge his passion for fast food.

More reports from the snowy Rockies of the Wasatch Range...happy turkey prep & powder day for the school kids in Utah! See you on the slopes.. http://www.familyskitrips.com/

Carving Turns or Turkey?

Love this time of year. No, not Thanksgiving – I think there is far too much focus on one stuffing meal. My family has learned that mommy would rather carve turns than turkey, so we ski on Thanksgiving, no lines, no waiting, no congealed gravy, just freshly groomed snow. Typically we start our season at Sunday River, perennial Eastern opener. But this season there is a twist as our eldest son started college out west. So we’ll meet in the mountains of Utah for our first tracks. Usually those first tentative turns have me all excited, but seeing my son has me equally atwitter. 
Reuniting our 4 skiers on the snowy slopes of Alta will be awesome. It’s dumping out west, so stay tuned for details of our first descent. Oh… and enjoy cooking, carving and cleaning the kitchen. See you on the slopes!

Alpine Anticipation

Love this time of year, the anticipation of ski season is always exciting. Ski resorts are opening faster than you can say “where’d I put my ski pass?”

One of my favorite family ski resorts, Sunday River, opened first in the nation Oct. 22 (nice!), and now western ski areas in Colorado, California and Utah are following suit and getting natural snow.

This winter, our editorial staff at http://www.familyskitrips.com/ and http://www.luxuryskitrips.com/ has plans to visit and review for you Alta/Snowbird and Solitude in Utah, Big Sky in Montana, Okemo and Jay Peak in Vermont, and more as the snow mounts up! Keep your skis handy and keep checking in with us. Heather will be writing for Boston.com as the family ski guru again, as well as contributing ski articles to the Maine Sunday Telegram, Maine Magazine, and various outlets online and in print.

Happy Trails!