Friday, December 14, 2012

Kmart Special: Ski the Skiddies for Free

A rare shot of Killington without hundreds of
human cannonballs overhead

Two days ago the New York Times reported that the ski industry was dead. And the Times is almost never wrong. Everyone but me remembers what they did to disco. And maybe Donna Summers too. But skiing? Not on my watch you leftist tree-humping pessimists. Not when mankind can harness the power of dead dinosaurs to pump millions of gallons of reclaimed sewage water into sub 32 degree air, to freeze before it falls like concrete onto the logging and fire road wastelands of America's ski areas.

And this magical phenomenon is even more appropriate when you consider how much manmade snow in a bad snow year makes a mountain look like a pile of s#it with streaks of white skiddies all over it. A white ribbon of death from your a@%.

Luckily I'm within driving distance of the cradle of s#itty man-made skiing, and this morning I rose extra early to find out for myself if the rumors were true. It's been years since I've violated that sacred oath that every Vermont grade schooler takes daily before the pledge of allegiance. To never, ever, not even for a million dollars ski at Killington. Would the ski gods ever forgive me?

Monday, December 10, 2012

Another Thin Cover Winter?

Whiner.
It's mid December.  Do you know where your snowpack is?

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Map of Northeast Mountain Biking Trail Reports

I will now start sorting through the angry emails from mountain bikers in Rhode Island and Connecticut.

Now that I finally brought order to our backcountry skiing chaos, I was inspired to clean up the mess that was our mountain biking trip reports.


Friday, November 30, 2012

Mangy, Mangy Moose

The crowning moose.
Little known fact. Moosilauke is an ancient Abenaki word for babyheads. Moose-hillock literally means "crowning fetal moose." A horrible image to describe an even more horrible early ski season phenomenon that I've never before encountered. Until this morning, my first ski tour of the season.

I'd been talked into a solo dawn patrol of Moosilauke late last night by Andy, who made a number of excellent points about the importance of getting a 2012 NEBC tour of The Moose on the books as soon as conditions allowed.

That conversation went something like this:

Thursday, November 29, 2012

New Feature: Backcountry Tour Map

This made me realize how much time I spend in New Hampshire.
You demanded and we responded!

Monday, November 26, 2012

Seven Cyber-Monday Deals for the Backcountry Skier


How many First Ascent items can you spot?
While everyone was out getting the jump on their holiday shopping this weekend, you were probably doing some lame thing like spending time with family, climbing a mountain or getting in a few last runs of mountain biking.  Now you only have a month of shopping left!  Have no fear, because today is internet shopping day.  The day the state tax collector hates.

So while you're cruising around feeding the flames of your internet shopping addiction, be sure to check out our seven favorite deals for the backcountry skier.  Why seven?  Cause we couldn't settle on five.