Recent content by Geoff

I could have written this about my almost 40 years at Killington. It’s nice to know a big pile of people. There’s always someone to ski with. Lots of lifelong friends. In each other’s weddings. Godparents. I took a hard look at changing mountains several times but it’s tough to give up...

I haven’t skied Waterville since college when they gave ski shop employees comp tickets. 1979, maybe. I’m kind of surprised it’s not similar skier visits to Loon like it was back in the dark ages.

Bretton Woods? I’ve never been there. Do Boston day trippers really go that far? I’ve been Vermont-oriented for so long that I’m clueless. Sunapee was bigger than I was expecting when I was there in December but that’s a very limited number of acres to be #2.

10 minutes closer but yeah. On a day trip, that helps. In the Preston Smith era, I pretty much always parked in the Bear upper lot by the Fiddle quad. Back then, Bear was the only place with uphill capacity so you could ski Wildfire, OL, and Fiddle using the Fiddle chair with minimal lines...

I’m not that familiar but aren’t Loon and Waterville always the top 2 for skier visits? It helps being on a real road.

Nyberg killed the summer business at Killington. He had a contractual obligation to run a lift with the lease on the land but it was otherwise tumbleweeds. It really hurt all the businesses in town. In the case of Vail, it’s kind of ironic. At the moment, they’re really busy in the summer...

Since they put in the K1, I always bought the season parking pass and parked in the pay lot as close to the rock at the Snowdon quad/bubble as possible. The exception was tailgate season when I parked at the snowcat gate closer to the gondola shed. And on the road getting eaten by black flies...

I have Nokians on an Outback. After selling my Killington place of 26 years, I now qualify as out of shape skier and I probably skid my turns a bit. So you need both snow tires and AWD if you’re out of shape.

I was just unsuccessfully trolling the thread to get it off the vaccine topic. I lived in Portsmouth for a decade and worked in the NH border towns for 20 years. My first turns at age 6 in lace boots and cable bindings were at Cranmore. I understand the New Hampshire value proposition...

I don’t think you want to get the true story since it conflicts with your narrative. This is about collapsing the public health system in the United States. If we had vaccinated everyone, it wouldn’t have happened. You don’t want to have a serious medical problem right now. You’ll get third...

To deflect away from VaxxWarz: Mike Barnicle had it right. This was a Boston Globe OpEd and my favorite New Hampshire slam. https://boulter.com/nh/barnicle.html So Vail has no interest in the North Conway ski areas. They’re Arkansas with snow. LOL. Sunapee is at least on the way to...

I don’t hate Vail. I lived through this at Killington. Laying off the full timers and converting almost everyone to part time seasonal with no benefits. It sucked for 5 years. Western resort people don’t understand eastern skiing. Layer on top of that a reality that Vail probably...

Err. Nope. A 35+ year friend of mine owned a house on Home Stretch walkable from the lower of the two pipes. The homeowners association paid Killington some bucks to blow snow. That trail has always had snowmaking dating back to the Great Eastern/4 mile trail days and the original gondola...

Some people don’t own good snow cars. If I were coming in from I-89 with a FWD/RWD car with iffy tires on snow-covered roads in weekend morning traffic, I’d be aiming for Skyeship base. Back in the dark ages when I was in a share house near the bottom of the Access Road and drove a Fox body...

I can vouch for the late 60s. I was mostly at Stratton from ~ 1968 to 1976 but the southern Vermont ski areas all had 30 to 45 minute lift lines on weekends. Fixed grip double chairs and little snowmaking.