Bye Week = More Skiing for Me

Some call themselves Football widows - but I actually enjoy the game and love watching Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, Vince Wilfork - the Patriots! What's not to love, especially when they are winning?!

My only problem with football season, and particularly playoff football, is that it conflicts with my all time favorite sport- skiing! So I was doubly stoke when the Pats trounced the Dolphins and earned themeselves a Bye Week, or a weekend off in my book. That means they won't be playing next weekend and we can go skiing without concern for missing a football game, having to DVR the game or cut our skiing short to rush back home for kick off!

Here is my Boston.com ski blog about the Patriots Bye Week!

So we are heading to the fairy tale ski land of Quebec, we will be skiing Mont Sainte Anne and Le Massif, and enjoying apres ski as it was intended - in French Canadian style! Au Revior, Happy New Year and enjoy your Bye Week skiing!

The Super Bowl will be another ski versus stay home conundrum. Last year we were skiing at Stowe staying at the lovely Stowe Mountain Lodge (with a bunch of NY Giants fans ironically)...the skiing was obviously much better than the game day results. But that's another story, and this is another year! Already the snow in New England is much more promising for 2013 - so I am equally optomisitc for the post season football for the Pats!

Your friends at Family Ski Trips and Luxury Ski Trips!

Serious snow!

Thanks Santa...I ask for snow every Christmas - and I am often disappointed that there isn't a big dump and a White Christmas. Well not this year! December has been super snowy - ski resorts and this ski reporter are very pleased with the abundant, frequent snowfall! New England, the Rockies and the Pacific Northwest have been getting serious now, and its been seasonably cold to preserve the frosty flakes.

 

The above snow total map from our friends at Alpine Zone shows signifcant snow depths exceeding last year's yeild across the country.

Already skiers have had more powder days this season than all of last in New England. Sugarloaf Maine in particular has been able to open their glade terrain in Brackett Basin and the Eastern Territory on all natural snow- with base depths of up to 40"...impressive.

My son is a ski instructor at Big Sky Montana and he calls on his way home from work with big stories about how Lone Peak and the Dictactor Chutes opened earlier this season than he can remember, he's been there for three seasons now so that is his "seasoned" perspective.

So thank you Santa, Winter Warlock or whomever is in charge of the frozen precipitation...and my subsequent elation.

Only downside is my friends know I asked for all this snow, and now they want me to come get "my snow" out of their driveways.
This is a great winter to plan that big ski trip. If you are traveling as a ski family, be sure to check out our Family Ski Trip site. If its just you and your sweety, a guys getaway or your gal pals looking for the perfect ski/spa vacation, go to our Luxury Ski Trip site! Happy trails!



Mayans miscalculation = Maine skiing!

It's all good! After considerable hype and hoopla about Doomsday on Dec 21, 2012 - the first day of winter arrived seemlessly and with snow in the Maine mountains. Smart skiers, ok - Greg & myself, saw the predictions for the last day on earth (yeah, right) and for snow in the mountains, so we made the obvious executive decision to skip out of the office for a Friday ski day. Just in case it was indeed our last day, it seemed like the better choice - downhill time versus more desk time.

The drive to Sunday River was slippery to say the least, but that made for great fresh snow on our first several runs from South Ridge, and the cozy uphill confines of the Chondola cabin, to Spruce Peak where we were among the first down American Express (chaching), Downdraft and Risky Biz, followed by Barker runs on Right Stuff and Sunday Punch, then over to Aurora Peak where we felt like we were in a winter's fairy tale - few other skiers, just frosted sparkly trees draping over us, soft snow and silence - magical.

By lunch, we had logged 10 runs, and headed to the Foggy Goggle, with our foggy goggles and damp mittens. A plentiful pub lunch with a picture window out to the slopes was perfect, and allowed us to keep tabs on the precipitation situation. The morning's mixed snow had turned to the other four letter word, rhymes with pain...we tested the wicking properties of our outerwear after lunch, with mixed results in the mixed precipitation! Hey Santa, a new waterproof jacket would be sweet, but I'll probably settle for a spray of Scotchguard!

Well, like the Mayan calendar, you never know what you are going to get on Dec 21, first day of winter and the shortest day of the year. Glad we chose to spend the anticipated apolcalypse pursuing our favorite sport  - alpine!

If you are looking for winter in New England, and really long for a White Christmas, I recommend you head to the ski areas up north - Maine got the bounty this past week, 20 to 30 inches of new snow at Sunday River, Saddleback and Sugarloaf respectively.

Happy White Christmas everyone...

Vote for your favorite TP?

I have a favorite TP...everyone does, right? We are talking terrain parks here...that sweet spot at the ski resort where anything goes, you can throw big tricks or just watch as others huck themselves wildly into the air. 

Ski Area Management,  SAM,  wants you to chime in with your favorite terrain park feature and event in the 8th annual Terrain Park contest...see the full story here on Heather's Boston.com ski blog...

And we'll see you on the slopes.... this weekend we will be skiing at Okemo Vermont !