Don Burch’s Fun Times (at Mount Snow, Okemo & Stratton)
It has been decades since I’ve skied the East. Once I discovered Western skiing, I traded the long flight for the long drive, eventually moving to Utah to shorten the time to the slopes. But Don Burch is giving me second thoughts. He’s developed an appealing alternative ski video genre (shot largely at Eastern areas). His most recent, “Fun Times at Mount Snow, Okemo & Stratton,” makes me long for those long-gone New England ski days.
Click on the image to screen this 60-second gem.
Celebrate Winter: Anecdotes and Insights from a Cross-Country Skier’s Experience
Over the past 50+ years, John “Morty” Morton has cross-country skied around the world, been an international-caliber racer and coach, and, as far as I’m concerned (this is homage from a friendly competitor), is the premier Nordic ski trail designer in North America.
Morty has seen dramatic evolutions in the sport – from wood skis to synthetic, wool to spandex, the introduction of skate technique, grooming snowmobiles replaced by snowcats, narrow trails sometimes giving way to highways, etc. Over these years, he served in Vietnam, taught high school English, and has served as broadcast journalist and newspaper columnist.
Now he’s written Celebrate Winter, a book filled with anecdotes and insights based on his intriguing life. It’s his third book, preceded by Don’t Look Back (1992), where he shared his story and training program, and A Medal of Honor: An Insider Unveils the Agony and the Ecstasy of the Olympic Dream (1998), a novel about biathlon.
John Morton, age 76.
Celebrate Winter is a compilation of memories, from John’s days as a kid in New Hampshire to skiing for Middlebury College in Vermont; competing and coaching internationally in biathlon; coaching at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire; designing multi-use trails for the past 30+ years; to (most recently) skiing with his young granddaughter in a backpack while she calls out for more downhills!
Biathlon is a theme tying many of the roughly 70 stories together, as are observations on the human condition (ego, anger, generosity, laughter, inspiration). He covers the role TV plays in popularizing biathalon; Coca Cola at feeding stations; weather and altitude as they can affect racing; Olympic politics; doping; saunas; holding the Olympic torch for a moment at the Calgary Winter Olympics; and a constant sense of the magnetism of cross-country skiing, its beauty, diversity, and comraderie.
As trail designer, Morty has worked with schools and colleges, lodges and real estate projects, alpine resorts and pure cross-country areas, communities and private land owners, ski clubs and non-profits. Unlike some other designers, he’s well aware of the fact that really tough trails are only suited for elite athletes, whereas the great majority of us are recreational skiers (and the bread-and-butter for most Nordic ski areas).
If having your own professionally planned and built trail system sounds intriguing (cross country skiing, hiking, running, biking, snowshoeing, equestrian…), John Morton (https://www.mortontrails.com/) is still going strong in his mid-70s.
I recently purchased several copies of Celebrate Winter to give as gifts. Many of the anecdotes are just a few pages long, making for a delightful – no, mesmerizing – read.
Hanging On for Life and (Almost) Getting Eaten by the Rope Tow
Editor’s note: Spend enough seasons skiing and most of us will get into some form of trouble. Last issue, I explained how I got into hot water by inadvertently becoming end-of-day Pied Piper to a bunch of kids who followed me on a long winding trail, while their parents anxiously waited their return. A few readers emailed their tales of on-slope woe.
Mike Roth is a ski journalist who writes a regular ski blog for the Albany Time Union. He is also a talented cartoonist and and architect. When asked, last minute, if he had time in his busy schedule to illustrate these reader stories, he responded, “When do you need them?” A few hours later, Mike emailed his drawings.
This cliff-hanger happened to Jeffrey M. Fine when he was 40, but he still remembers the day. Jeffery is now based in Dillon, CO.
Sometime in the 1980’s while living in Indiana, I took a trip out to Squaw Valley. I thought I could ski KT-22, and it almost cost me my life. While skiing down the right side of the run, I caught an edge and almost went off a cliff with a 50’ drop. I managed to fall just before going over the edge and held on with my fingers in the snow (I was highly motivated to grab anything) while my skis hung over the edge in space. The ski patrol was able to throw me a rope and pull me to safety. I feel very lucky to have survived!
And here’s a rope tow tale from Ed Schultz, Penn Yan, NY. It happened when he was 30.
Back in the early 70’s skiing a small area in Massachusetts near Wooster, (can’t remember the name), I got on the rope tow. I had one arm behind with my pole straps around my wrist. What I didn’t realize was that the poles were bouncing in the snow behind and my pole straps somehow got twisted so when I went to get off I was caught on the rope. The rope tow rose up at the end toward a building housing some of the tow’s mechanism. I had visions of being carried up and going splat on the building. There were no safety stops in those days. Fortunately, I wriggled and twisted, freeing the straps and exiting the tow just in time.
Have a personal ski story you’d like to share? It can be about almost anything. Send it to info@seniorsskiing.com. We’ll share the most interesting with SeniorsSkiing’s 17,000 subscribers, along with an original Mike Roth illustration.
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