Tag Archive for: This Week

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This Week In SeniorsSkiing.com (Nov. 13)

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Classified Bonus, Skiing Weatherman, Volcano Snowshoeing, Renting Your Ski House Apt., Dust Of Snow Poem, Prep Advice, Strange Parka, Holiday Valley Review, COVID Rules Example.

So we had  six inches of snow on Halloween and two weeks later we have 70 degree weather all week around the Boston outpost of SeniorsSkiing.com. And it’s Friday the 13th. And it’s a La Nina year. And it’s COVID time. And it’s 2020. What’s going on?

We’ll stop there. We’ve run out of synonyms for “unprecedented”. 

One thing we know for sure is that our readers are beginning to discover our new Classifieds section.  Reader ads are populating that page with some interesting offers from condo rentals and requests for ski buddies to ski club trips and offers of used gear. 

We started the Classified section because we felt there was some kinetic interest in our readership for connecting with other readers. Comments in various Question For You features revealed there was some back and forth between respondents. Responses to our annual reader surveys revealed ideas for connecting with others.  So, we thought a Classifieds section would be low-hanging fruit.

Our original plan was to offer readers the opportunity to post an ad for 30 days for $1.  The offer was to end today, Nov. 13. But, because we started publishing kind of early in the season, and because this Fall as been so…um…unprecedented, we thought we’d extend our offer of a $1 classified ad for 30 days until Dec. 4th. Our regular, reasonable, affordable rates will begin after that date.

As a reminder, here are the categories:

Just click here to view Classifieds or post an ad:

This Week

SeniorsSkiing.com correspondent Herb Stevens, the Skiing Weatherman, points out there will be snowfall this week in some places and not others. Surprised? Find out where and why and what the prospects are for the near future. Click here.

Beautiful snowshoeing and XC skiing on a volcano. Credit: NPS

Make More Tracks correspondent Jonathan Wiesel writes about a visit to Craters of the Moon National Monument, a unusual park in south central Idaho where you can ski and snowshoe on top of a volcano.  Extinct, but maybe not. Click here.

We hear from Steve Bell about how to market your ski house apartment, what online services to use, and how to prep your apartment for visitors. He has guidelines for dealing with COVID and guests. Part 2 of a three part series. Click here.

Our Question For You asks how you prepare for the season.  What’s the ritual you fall into year after year, consciously or unconsciously? Click here.

Our Mystery Glimpse feature presents a photo of an old timer in an odd parka.  We also reveal the identity of the instructor in comma position. Click here.

Correspondent Yvette Cardozo forwarded an interesting web page from Summit at Snowsqualmie which we are publishing as an example of what you can expect at almost any ski resort in the upcoming weeks.  Be prepared.  It’s unprecedented. Click here.

Reader Craig Scott sends in a report about Holiday Valley, a western NY powder catcher. We believe small resorts like Holiday Valley will benefit from increased traffic as customers will seek accessible, uncrowded areas this year. Click here.

Finally, we have a poem by Robert Frost as part of our Snow In Literature series.  The message is uplifting and frankly we need an uplift. Enjoy. Click here.

Thanks for reading SeniorsSkiing.com. Tell your friends and remember, there are more of us every day and we aren’t going away.

Credit:Creasy Mahan Nature Preserve

 

 

 

 

seniorsskiing

This Week In SeniorsSkiing.com (Dec. 6)

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There Is A LOT Of Snow Out There. Have You Made Your First Run?

Snow Across North America this week. Time to get out there.

It has started. It’s official. It’s on. Go. 2019-2020 is happening. Now.

We are watching the post-Thanksgiving double-whammy snow storm fall here in New England and contemplating getting out on our xc skis this morning. We know our local ski shop has been jammed this whole past week with people collecting new or newly-tuned skis. There’s a lot of snow up country, and resorts are opening or have been open.

Open for skiing since Nov. 3 this year, the Killington snow making crew pulled off a minor miracle when the resort got ready to hold the Women’s World Cup over the Thanksgiving weekend. Mikaela Shiffrin handily won the slalom and Italy’s Federica Brignone received first place in giant slalom in front of 39,000 spectators, a record breaking crowd. Enthusiasm, much?

This week, we hear from SeniorsSkiing.com correspondent Marc Liebman on his routine for making the first runs of the season. Marc is an analytical guy, and his account of the initial moves are interesting in their focus on his tracks as an assessment of his early-season technique.

PSIA Instructor Pat McCloskey also offers his advice on making those first turns on scraped off, icy conditions.

Some of us are about to make our first turns of this new season very soon, perhaps this weekend. Many probably already have been out and about. What was special about your first outing? What was new? Different? Better?

Seriously folks, the very first turns. What do you do? Do you have a mental picture of yourself or your skis carving through a turn? Do you talk to yourself, give yourself instructions or reminders? (We do. We think, “Athletic Stance” which has meaning for us.) Are you self-conscious? Uncomfortable? Cautious?

We’re curious how you approach the first of thousands and thousands of turns extending far into the spring. Let us know. Add a comment to the Leave A Reply box below.

This Week

Fun at the Boston Ski and Snowboard Expo. Credit: Don Burch

Correspondent Don Burch has produced a short video on the recent Boston Ski and Snowboard Expo. Check out the enthusiastic faces and the energy of the crowd in what might be dubbed the official kick-off of the season around New England. FYI, this is the last year the Expo will be held at Boston’s World Trade Center and produced by Bernie Weichsel’s BEWI Productions. Next year, the show will be at the Hynes Auditorium and SIA will manage the whole show. Thanks to Bernie for decades of hosting what has become a national tradition.

Parking Lots Closed!

Salt Lake City correspondent Harriet Wallis reports on last season’s monster traffic jams in Little Cottonwood Canyon, a two-lane road leading to four prominent resorts. This season, the problem has been recognized and solutions are being implemented. The jams seem to correlate with the flood of multi-resort passes that everyone seems to be using. Cause and effect?

Our Mystery Glimpse this week is a racer who became an emerging ski industry notable. We reveal the location of the “first T-bar” in a New England state.

Finally, Herb Stevens, the Skiing Weatherman, brings us regional forecasts, based on his analysis of this week’s weather picture.

Occasionally, we publish a “Snow In Literature” piece to remind our readers there is more to winter than snow sports. This week, we offer Robert Frost’s classic “Stopping By Woods On A Snow Evening”. So, why does the person in the sleigh have miles to go before he sleeps?

Thanks for reading SeniorsSkiing.com, the only online magazine for senior snow sports enthusiasts. Please tell your friends. Remember, there are more of us every day, and we aren’t going away.

Appleton Farm, Ipswich, MA, trails are groomed by North Shore Nordic, a volunteer organization. Credit: MDM