Pre-Season Stoke: Video Tour of the Gulf of Slides

This is where you realize you should have worn sunscreen.

Are you pumped for this backcountry ski season, yet?  If not, let me throw another log on that bonfire of backcountry stoke and see if we can't get you corking those backcountry skis so compulsively you'll be able to see your reflection in the wax.

Thin Cover Sanctuaries

Better Days

I’m beginning to wonder if Old Man Winter is lying in a ditch with a bullet in his head.

If he’s not already dead, he’s definitely in hiding.  Before La Niña 2012 comes knocking looking take your backcountry mojo, it might be time to pack your bag, grab your rock skis, and seek some thin cover sanctuary.

-Trip Report- Doublehead Mountain: Thin Crusts Are For Pizzas (January 2012)

There are some days when you know the trip down is going to be more work than the climb up; days where your knees ache just looking at the snow pack;  days where you feel like you're skiing in a straightjacket.

Those are the days of the thin crust.  And I'm not talking pizza.

-Trip Report- Gulf of Slides: The Sideshow (April 30 - May 1, 2011)

Spring skiing at its best.

Mt. Washington can resemble a Spring circus.  The crowds gather for an annual festival that marks the end of the ski season.  Some people enjoy the show under the big tent: lions, clowns and of course, those candy peanuts.  But the main event isn't the only show in town.  Somewhere near the big tent sits the sideshow: a mystery tent with freaks, thrills and otherworldly experiences waiting to be discovered.  While the sideshow lacks the pomp and circumstance of the main tent, it can still blow your mind.

March Madness: Don't Drink the Kool-Aid

"Dude.  That was epic.  Where'd you find my ski?"

It's finally here!  Like a jerk with his new phone book, skiers are rejoicing the best ski month of the year: March.

March is also the month when you're guaranteed to hear at least one person per day cry about how much they wish winter would end and how living in New England is such a horrible chore.

Before you take a sip of the "I'm soooo sick of winter" Kool-Aid and start thinking that ski season is almost over, there's a few things to consider.

The Bike Trainer Companion

Where are my biking shorts?

 

So you're spinning away on the bike trainer for the entire month of November trying to maintain some of your mountain biking muscle for the upcoming ski season and you need something to keep you from completely losing your shit like Jack Torrance.

Enter the Ski Channel.

Tsacmoc! Tsacmoc!

The boy that lives in my mouth (who also issues profanity laden posts on the Time for Tuckerman Ski Forums) brought to my attention the fact that Comcast offers this channel through its on-demand menu.  There are plenty of ski movies and ski related content to get you through the month of November and pumped for the winter ahead.

While you're there, check out "Intrepid Descent" featuring Tuckerman's Bowl, or the aptly named "Flakes" for some backcountry telemark knee bending.

Nor'Easter Alert!

The L's are Lining Up

The first winter storm of the 2010-2011 season appears to be on its way to the higher summits of New England, and its a Nor'Easter.

-Trip Report- Hillman's Highway: A River Runs Through It (May 2010)

Did somebody bring an auger?

There's nothing like skiing with the sound of rushing water beneath your feet.

The words skiing and water usually end in disaster unless there's a boat involved.  That includes the late spring contests where skiers dress up in ridiculous costumes and go skimming across open water to reaffirm principles of speed, air displacement, and blood alcohol content.

But I wasn't picturing the margarita fueled crowds of some resort.  I was more focused on driving out thoughts of a dark, cold, wet hole that was waiting for me on the other side of an unknown thickness of snow and ice beneath my feet.

Such is the mental battle on Hillman's Highway on a warm spring day.