The Season

The early season hero's of an eastern ski season are the members of the snowmaking team at your local ski hill. This year is no different, as we've seen little, if any, natural snow. However a number of areas are open and offering up fantastic skiing.

I was thinking of that the other day as I was skinning up Sunday River to get a run in to work off the massive Thanksgiving meal from the previous day. If it wasn't for the snowmakers doing their thing I'd have been doing my normal hike up AND hike down, instead of the glorious ski down under the early light of a rising sun.

Consider how many more days a year we can ski, than skiers could enjoy 40 years ago. Ski areas would hope to have skiing available by Christmas, and would often have to reduce terrain during the January thaw. These days we can ski from November to April with little difficulty, no wonder the sport has progressed so much in the last few decades.

So on this morning I raise my coffee mug to the snowmakers of the world- keep doing what you do, and know we collectively say THANK YOU!