Somehow it doesn’t seem as if we’ve had enough skiing this winter to be thinking about spring conditions, but St. Patrick’s Day is only four days away, and we’ve had some spring skiing weather almost once a week since the first of the year. A year ago, we were buried in snow both in the […]
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On skiing: The origins of the ski academy
Over the past few decades, we have become accustomed to hearing results of ski races and other on-snow competitions with the winners coming almost entirely from ski academies. Here in Maine, we know how Bode Miller, Seth Wescott and Kirsten Clark got their starts at Carrabassett Valley Academy. Indeed, since its founding in 1983, CVA […]
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Marching into a good month
The two biggest days for spring skiing are St Patrick’s Day and Easter, and this year they both come in March. This can be bad news for ski areas, especially in a year like this one. Many skiers consider Easter the end of the season, even coming as it does two or three weeks ahead […]
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On Skiing: Preserving history, and adding to the traditions
A pair of events a week ago brought to mind how deeply skiing is entrenched of our way of life here in Maine, and how far back this goes. One was the ninth annual Maine Ski Heritage Day at Sugarloaf, a major fund raiser for the Ski Museum of Maine. As always, we spent the […]
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On skiing: Maine Hall announces inductees
Selection committee chairman Bob Flynn has released the names of the Maine Ski Hall of Fame Class of 2016. Eight new members were elected by the committee at their January meeting. The new members will be inducted at the annual banquet at Sunday River on Oct. 29. This year’s class includes a 4-time national cross […]
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On skiing: Busiest month of the year on deck
When we hit the first of February, it’s hard to believe how much of the season is behind us. In terms of days, it’s a bunch. But in terms of top ski days, not only are the best ahead, but we can enjoy another two-and-a-half months. As we head into February, we have had day […]
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World Pro Ski Tour making a comeback
Last weekend, I mentioned Ed Rogers as part of my column remembering some snowless Christmases of the past. Fortunately, as I began work on this week’s offering, the snowless part had passed. One of the topics Ed and I had talked about has become official. For several years, Ed talked about reviving the World Pro […]
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Good news for Saddleback as well as skiers
By taking advantage of every opportunity to make snow, ski areas have been slowly adding terrain, and in spite of unseasonably warm temperatures, there is skiing for this vacation week. It may seem like not much is open, but if we could go back to the trail maps pre-snowmaking, we would find that there are […]
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Skiing: Waiting for the temperature to drop
Watching the weather forecast one day this week was discouraging. It was bad enough there was no snow in the forecast, but the forecaster seemed to be happy about it. Worse yet, the only temperature below freezing (28) on the entire map was on top of Mount Washington. Over the past decade or two, ski […]
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CVA’s weekend program features quality coaches
During the Ski Museum of Maine open house in Kingfield the past weekend, I learned that Joannie Dolan and Nikki Pilavakis-Davoren were now coaching juniors at Sugarloaf under CVA’s weekend program. Already knowing that Gail Blackburn was coaching in that program, I decided my first stop Saturday morning would be at the competition center to […]