Skiing with the Other Half: A Primer on Relationship Maintenance for a Backcountry Skier

Kids want GI Joes.  Not ski couples.

As we dive headlong into the heart of ski season, perhaps you’ve found yourself forgetting what your spouse or significant other looks like.  After all, unless you’re one of those power skiing couples it is unlikely that your better half shares your ridiculous obsession with untracked powder.  For the last several months you’ve been catching only glimpses of them while you run out the door on a Saturday morning on your next adventure.

Even the most understanding of partners has already begun to attend co-dependence meetings, place ads with your likeness on the back of milk cartons, and disappear on week long “book club” outings to Mexico.

It’s time to do some relationship maintenance.  It’s time to share the addiction and do some skiing together.

Jay Peak: Actual Views from the Top

If you've ever skied at Jay, you know there's no such thing as a perfect ski day. There are FANTASTIC ski days at Jay, but there are never perfect days because perfect is a tremendously subjective term. I've had fantastic ski days that my wife felt were horrible (see pic below) to be perfect and thus ruined the perfection by her thrice hourly coco breaks. I've also had fantastic backcountry powder days that were marred by 3 hrs of standing down in Montgomery Center on Rt. 242 waiting to hitch a ride back to the lodge.

Coco anyone?

A few weeks ago I did have a day at Jay that came pretty close to perfection though. -10 degrees. Free room and board at the Tram Haus Lodge. 6 inches of powder the night before. And 0 mph wind from no direction (that's almost the icing on the cake right there). To top it all off, visibility at the Tram summit was about 350 miles in every direction. Now there's something you don't get at Jay more than twice a lifetime.

Welcome Brad!

Please welcome to the Blog our newest contributor: Brad.

You may recognize him from  classic Nor'Easter BC films like "Terrain Trapped on Ascutney" or "Skiing Killington in October".

Brad is our resident expert on all things Maine and our not so secret weapon during ski-offs with rival ski tribes.

Nor'Easter BC Non-Exclusive: Author David Goodman in Hanover

As Gered mentioned with an obvious lack of modesty in yesterday’s post, I cleared my busy schedule last night and made my way to Hanover’s Mountain Goat for a slideshow presentation by backcountry ski guru David Goodman.

Nor'Easter BC Exclusive! David Goodman Speaking in Hanover Tonight

So, maybe this is a shameless plug because we in no way shape or form have an exclusive with David Goodman, author of Nor'Easter BC's favorite guide to stolen powder stashes, Best Backcountry Skiing in the East. However, our crack reporter (aka. biggest loser with nothing better to do tonight) Brad Prescott will be in attendance to winnow bits of pearly wisdom from the original Ski Tour Guru. And maybe even a picture too. When it comes to reclusive New England icons, this guy makes J.D. Salinger look like a Park Avenue socialite. Or used to. I think old J.D. is dead...

Anyway, if you're free at 7 pm, drop on in to the Mountain Goat and try to catch Brad trying to snap a pic of Goodman. If you're not, report back to Nor'Easter BC tomorrow for a picture of Sasquatch himself!

Park City is for POW Lovers

I can't say that there was really any POW on our Park City day, given that it hadn't snowed in a week or two when we got there, and unlike the Deery Valley, people do ski out of bounds and abuse nature's dandruff at the Park. Well, Nor'Easter BC doesn't take this kind of POW abuse lightly. When the average man abuses what nature so gratiously has given, then it's up to the better man to make his own tracks. Uphill. And over the edge.