Picked up our passes

Last night we made the trip over the Shawnee Peak to pick up our passes for the year. It is always an exciting time to get your picture taken knowing that that little piece of plastic is your ticket to a winter of fun. Of course the odd part was it was 55 degrees outside, at night, on December 3rd. Hmmm we might have to work on that.

But back to the passes. I started thinking about all the places I've had a seasons pass, I'll try to do this in order:

Pleasant Mountain
Sunday River
Chamonix (gotta love connections)
Stowe
Sugarbush
Trapp Family Lodge
Catamount
Great Glen Trails
Mount Washington Valley Ski Touring
Cranmore
Attitash
ASC (Attitash/Sunday River/Sugarloaf/Killington/Steamboat/Canyons)
Shawnee Peak

I think that's it for season passes. But each of those places has a very special place in my heart as any time you have a seasons pass you feel a connection to the area. It feels like it's "yours" for the winter. You can come and go and not worry about did you ski enough that day to "pay" for the pass. At the same time you can ski all day and by the end the lifties all know your name.

Now that I have my pass in hand I am getting very excited for the season. I'm very tempted to head over to Sunday River or Bretton Woods and get in a few turns as they have been lucky with the weather and in Sunday River's case- busted their butt to offer up some early season skiing despite the cold temps. The River has been open since October!

On the Nordic side, I'll need to look out my window and see white before the bug bites me, although I can only hold my criss-cross gear at arms length for so long before I will jump in the car and go find snow.

So here is to hoping for cooler temps and a fantastic season!

Sven