“Carpe Ski’em”,  the seventh and latest in the popular ski themed mystery novels by long time television journalist Phil Baily,  has hit the book stores this month (November 7).  

Like his others, Carpe Ski’em ( a take on the Latin phrase for Seize the Day) is a hefty novel of more than 300 pages, this one located in Colorado Ski Country where a death from a fall from a chair lift is the start of the latest adventure for TV journalist JC Snow. Once again Bayly offers up a plot with lots of textured narrative and local color framed by crisp dialogue. 

Author of Carpe Ski’em Phil Bayly

A lifelong skier and competitor beginning in college and continuing through masters competitions, ski settings became the natural environment for Bayly’s work. An Evanston Il native, he learned to ski on the modest slopes of southern Wisconsin, where he developed a love for the sport that led him to Colorado State University where he was on the ski team his senior year. He was also active on the college radio station which led him to work on air in Denver then a transition to television in Fort Collins. From there it was a stint in TV news in central Pennsylvania then, in 1986, to upstate New York where he admits that one of the appeals of the area was the proximity of downhill skiing.  

 THE BEGINNING

The Murder on Skis series made its debut with a novel of the same name published in 2019, a year after he retired as a reporter and long time morning anchor for WNYT in Albany NY. Like many of us, Bayly, now 71, had wondered what he would do in his post employment years. He found his calling in a re-write of a novel he had drafted in his spare time some 25 years earlier. Thus began the series that since has featured an annual release every November, just in time for holiday reading. 

Having worked as a journalist for more than four decades, the writing part came naturally, said Bayley recently. As someone who has skied lots of places over lots of years, choosing the settings for this work has been an important part of the process too.  “I have always like to travel. And with a story in mind, I pick a location and make a plan to go there. When I do, I like to read about it before I leave,” he said recently.”  When I started, I couldn’t find much fiction that matched my interests.  That’s when I pulled out my old manuscript and began re-writing.” 

People have liked what they read. While not intended for skiers only, Bayly acknowledges the connection with many of his audience.  “There is skiing in all the books. And skiers relate.”

In addition to Colorado in his first and his latest, other books feature ski locations in Montana, Wyoming, Vermont, Wisconsin, and the Adirondacks of New York. He knows them all. 

Bayley is an inveterate note taker. In the den at his home in suburban Albany, next to drafts of three more books in the series he has already completed, is a big box filled with notes from trips he has taken that will become the basis for his next project. 

NEAR CATASTROPHE

While he expresses no doubt about it, that there is a next project for Bayly is remarkable.

In past years, when not at his desk writing, weather permitting, he skis. As a long time AM TV anchorman, he is accustomed to getting going early in the day  so last March 18, he was on one of the first chairs up the hill to catch first tracks at West Mountain, half an hour north of where he lives. West, a medium size hill in the southern Adirondacks, has a growing reputation for its racing program and Bayly, the ex-racer, likes to ski fast. 

That morning, however, his first run was a warm-up on a groomed intermediate trail, easy stuff for an experienced skier. 

The surface at the top was firm, softening up as he went down the hill.

Or so he has been told. 

The next thing he recalls is after two weeks in the the intensive care unit at The Albany Medical Center, 40 miles away,  where he had been medivaced by helicopter after the accident. He had been found off the trail, unconscious, in the rocks, one ski off and blood on his helmet, with a serious concussion, lung damage,  and multiple broken ribs. From intensive care he went to a rehabilitation facility for two more weeks before going home in mid April. Since then he has had regular therapy, especially for memory and vision issues. Months later he still is not allowed to drive a car, or even ride a bike. 

While he has made remarkable progress in returning to a normal routine, wife Carolyn, who is also the designer of Bayly’s books, carefully watches over her husband’s daily activity. After an ambitious schedule of book signings this fall, he is hoping to get back to writing by the end of the year.  

WHAT’S NEXT  

As a skier now for more than 60 years, given the circumstances it might seem like a good time to reassess plans for this winter. 

Not Bayley.

“The morning  I was injured I had bought my pass for this coming season. No question I’ll ski this winter. It is too big a priority. I’m looking forward to getting out on the hill once again by the end of December.” 

Carpe Ski’em, Phil            

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Phil Johnson

Phil Johnson began his career as a sports writer for the Leominster (Ma) Enterprise then the Rochester (NY) Times Union. He wrote his first ski column in1972. Leading up to the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, he wrote regularly for UPI and Adirondack Life magazine. As a freelance writer in the 1980’s, his articles appeared in Sports Illustrated, Travel & Leisure, Skiing, Snow Country, Women’s Sports, The Conservationist and Field & Stream. Since 1994, he has written a weekly ski and winter sports column, first for the Amsterdam (NY) Recorder then, from 2011 through 2023 for the Daily (Schenectady NY) Gazette.

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