A Sunday River Snowmaker's DNA...

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Words from Sunday River's snowmakers:

"It's a sickness. Anyone who makes snow is ill..."
"It takes a lot of Red Bull."
"There's always Plan B"
"If we're shut down, the mountain is shut down."
"We call it the war zone."
"This is not a job for the weak of mind or the weak of the body"
"It's part of our DNA."

"That's why this is the best mountain in America, we don't give up."
"I don't know why I am drinking coffee, I am going home to have a beer" at 6am...

See more of Man vs. Weather in Rory Strunk's video featuring Sunday River's snowmakers.... and the legendary White Heat trail turning white with 10 millions gallons of water in a 24 hour, 3 shift snowmaking day.

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Columbus Weekend at Ski Resorts!

Don't you love this time of year? Autumn & anticipation... Fall foliage, brilliant red maples in New England or golden aspens out west, ushers in the promise of winter as the next season on tap.  Already the Almanac is promising an exceptionally cold and snowy winter for skiers and riders. The snow flurries have begun in Idaho and Montana - confirming I made the right pick booking a January ski trip to Big Sky & Moonlight Basin- the biggest skiing in America! How about you? Have you planned a ski trip out west? Have you invested in a ski pass? Bought new ski gear? Tick tock...

Columbus Day weekend many ski resorts take advantage of the three- day holiday to build winter anticipation with fall foliage festivals, ski sales and season pass promos.

Sunday River has a fun fall festival with chairlift rides, Maine food tasting, a craft fair and their zany must-see Wife Carrying Competition! Peak foliage in the Maine mountains is capped off with couples competing in a down and dirty obstacle course for the wife's weight in beer and some serious cash.

Sugarloafhosts homecoming weekend with fun, food and foliage and an Uphill Mountain Climb as well. Mt Abram and Attitash host Oktoberfest - pre season parties with beer and the best deals on passes and gear.

These are all great reasons to head to the mountains, chill with your ski peeps - some of whom you haven't seen since March or April. Time to get stoked for the fast approaching ski season. You can ride chairlifts, drink beer at the base lodge and even wager on which New England ski resort will open for skiing first? Will it be Killington again, or Sunday River? Halloween skiing? Out west, will the first chair go to Loveland, Arapahoe...or who knows? Give me your best prediction for ski season 2013-14! 

 

See on the slopes very soon...follow us on Facebook & Twitter until then! 

- Heather Burke, Family Ski Trips & Luxury Ski Trips

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Thank you for being ski friends...

"The fact that you are back skiing so soon speaks to the passion that you have for the sport and for your ski writing," said my editor friend Susan Grisanti from Maine Magazine. Fellow ski writer Amy Patenaude (of the Pats Peak family) said, "Heather, I believe you have never taken for granted how much you love to ski and that you didn't need an injury to remind you how much you love to fly downhill! You are strong and fast and fun, and we all want you back on the slopes!"

Comments like that make me grateful for what I do, and for the people who share my passion. I am also thankful that my tibia fracture did not sideline me for the entire ski season - just 5 painful weeks. The physical discomfort was nothing compared to the emotional frustration and fear of losing what I love. Writing about skiing from my desk looking out at the continually accumulating snow was anguish. But I had friends sending me texts and messages that they were skiing my favorite runs for me, keeping me in the alpine loop  in my absence. I appreciate that more than I can express.

This weekend at Sunday River, being able to ski wall to wall corduroy, cranking arcs on a white welcome mat of soft snow with friends was amazing. We skied 45 runs and logged 54,000' of vertical in two days - which is way more fun that rehabbing on a stationary bike!  Shout out to to Sunday River's groomers for the seamless carpet from Jordan Bowl to White Heat.

I thank all of you, friends and followers for your kind words of encouragement, for reading my blogs, even when I was fractured and freaking out, broken and blue, and for the big smiles when you saw me back on the slopes.

And finally to my husband, my forever ski date and photographer, thank you for shoveling all that powder snow that fell in February and for not pointing out the obvious - that I jammed up our winter plans with my injury. But the rest, and the best, is still to come this ski season. Stay tuned.

See you on the slopes!

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Mayans miscalculation = Maine skiing!

It's all good! After considerable hype and hoopla about Doomsday on Dec 21, 2012 - the first day of winter arrived seemlessly and with snow in the Maine mountains. Smart skiers, ok - Greg & myself, saw the predictions for the last day on earth (yeah, right) and for snow in the mountains, so we made the obvious executive decision to skip out of the office for a Friday ski day. Just in case it was indeed our last day, it seemed like the better choice - downhill time versus more desk time.

The drive to Sunday River was slippery to say the least, but that made for great fresh snow on our first several runs from South Ridge, and the cozy uphill confines of the Chondola cabin, to Spruce Peak where we were among the first down American Express (chaching), Downdraft and Risky Biz, followed by Barker runs on Right Stuff and Sunday Punch, then over to Aurora Peak where we felt like we were in a winter's fairy tale - few other skiers, just frosted sparkly trees draping over us, soft snow and silence - magical.

By lunch, we had logged 10 runs, and headed to the Foggy Goggle, with our foggy goggles and damp mittens. A plentiful pub lunch with a picture window out to the slopes was perfect, and allowed us to keep tabs on the precipitation situation. The morning's mixed snow had turned to the other four letter word, rhymes with pain...we tested the wicking properties of our outerwear after lunch, with mixed results in the mixed precipitation! Hey Santa, a new waterproof jacket would be sweet, but I'll probably settle for a spray of Scotchguard!

Well, like the Mayan calendar, you never know what you are going to get on Dec 21, first day of winter and the shortest day of the year. Glad we chose to spend the anticipated apolcalypse pursuing our favorite sport  - alpine!

If you are looking for winter in New England, and really long for a White Christmas, I recommend you head to the ski areas up north - Maine got the bounty this past week, 20 to 30 inches of new snow at Sunday River, Saddleback and Sugarloaf respectively.

Happy White Christmas everyone...

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Fall = Football and Alpine Anticipation!

The New England Patriots season opener has me very excited. My big buddy Wilfork was amazing as he put all his weight into the game and made Flat Stanleys out of some of the Titans. Gronk and Tommy were impressive too, as were our Rookies! Brady took a pretty big hit and bloodied his otherwise-pretty face (btw: thank you for the clean cute hair cut Tom, or Gisele if that was your doing)! But Brady in his always-poised, powerful fashion played on, pushed through the pain and put 34 points on the scoreboard with his team. Titans' #10 JakeLocker (sounds like one word to me) was sacked and sidelined with a left shoulder bang- wonder how he is feeling today?

It was a great start to the fall football season for The Pats – hope springs eternal among New England sports fans - a welcome distraction since the Red Sox are out of the action with their usual fall folleys. Are they drinking in the Red Sox  dug out again?  I did say when they hired Valentine that I liked his spirit and his smile, ok - I liked that Bobby V was a skier and talked about heli skiing trips and how he loved New England snow. Now, I am rethinking that - perhaps downhill is a distraction, downhill is certainly the direction of the current club management.

Fall sports talk, and the emerging fall weather pattern, certainly leads me to one thing - skiing. Cool crisp mornings and an email box full of ski resort media releases means one thing: ski season is just two months away. 
The Boston Ski Show, November 8-11, will be here before we know it, and I predict Sunday River and Killington will race to open for skiing by Halloween! Last season you may recall Killington opened minutes prior to The River on October 29.  So enjoy your fall football, and get ready for ski season. The Farmers' Alamanc and every ski resort east of the Mississippi, and west for that matter, are all calling for an epic snow year. Keep riding the bike, looking for ski swaps, sales and ski news...the snow will be here soon.  Remember Snowtober, the pre Hallloween storm of 2011?

Think Snow, Go Pats!

 

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4th Annual Dumont Cup at Sunday River - but Simon is Sidelined....

Simon Dumont is from Sunday River, Maine...when the X Games Gold Medlaist and famous freeskier comes home now, he brings his best freeskier friends for his pro am Dumont Cup Slopestyle Event, sponsored by Red Bull, Target, Oakley, and Nike 6.0!

This year, the 4th Annual Dumont Cup will be different - since the host and superstar of the on snow show is sidelined, Simon left the Euro X Games earlier this month when he tore his ACL, he flew to Vail and underwent surgery last week, so he will be on crutches, not be competing on skis as he has done for the past three years.

Still this is a great big air event, free for spectators, and your chance to see the next superstars of the X Games! The skiing at Sunday River should be great too as the sun comes out and the snow softens.

See Heather's Boston.com blog about the 4th annual Dumont Cup!
http://www.boston.com/travel/explorene/specials/ski/blog/2012/03/big_doings_at_s.html

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Sugarloaf earns King of Spring rep...

Sugarloaf reigns supreme today, May 9, as King of Spring and the last resort ski standing in the North East on Monday May 9, outplaying and outlasting sister Sunday River, Jay Peak, and Killington. It was an impressively long season for all these top guns in New England, and for the fortunate skiers as snow continued through April, and even into Mother’s day weekend in May.

As for the longest ski season in the East, that title deservedly goes to Sunday River for opening October 22 and closing 181 days later on April 24. The ski season of 2010-11 will go down in history as “epic” for snow conditions, all across the country for that matter.  Mammoth, Snowbird and Alpine Meadows reported record snows and continue to ski - with Alpine peaking out on the snow charts at 852 inches. Moonlight Basin and Big Sky in Montana stayed open well past planned closing dates, skiing on deep snow on all their trails through Easter April 24! Western resorts still skiing include Bachelor and Timberline in Oregon, Arapahoe Basin Colorado, Squaw, Alpine and Mammoth in California, and Snowbird in Utah.

For those of you, like me, who have stored your boards, next winter promises the delivery of a new quad at Sugarloaf and at Northstar at Tahoe, and a replacement quad at Stowe. And you can start to get pumped for the Sochi Russia Winter Games, now that Freestyle halfpipe skiing and Women’s Nordic jumping have been approved for Olympic Competition in 2014.  Let’s keep our fingers, not our tips, crossed that next winter brings a similar bounty of snow too! Stay tuned for more ski news.

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Easter skiing...hippity hop!

Our family is more about first tracks and skiing spring moguls on Easter, than fancy hats and ham dinners...

Mind you, dragging the kids out of bed before dawn to load the Quad for Easter Sunrise Service is a task...but those early morning tracks at Sugarloaf following a beautiful sunrise are precious...even better when the Easter Bunny has left candy filled eggs on the trails for the kids.

Read Heather's blog on Easter skiing at Sugarloaf, Sunday River, Saddleback, Jay Peak, Killington and Sugarbush!

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Quality or quantity? - The Ski Guru Blog

Do you count your skis days? Are you aiming for 1 million vertical feet skied this season? Are you all about quantity or quality ski days?

Read Heather's blog on Boston.com about her obsession with ski days and vertical and her new lease on loving carefully selected ski days...like last week at Sunday River in the sunshine and soft snow.

Quality or quantity? - The Ski Guru Blog

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Simon Dumont & the 3rd annual Dumont Cup at Sunday River

My daughter's obsession with Simon Dumont began when she was 14. This amazing athlete from Sunday River was smashing freeskiing records, launching big air and giving my daughter butterflies in the process. I actually let her skip school on a sunny spring day in April 2008 to witness Simon's Guinness World Record 35' jump at Sunday River...I frankly knew it would be one of those rare sunny blue ski days with soft corn snow- the Simon show was a bonus to me.

That dreamy day led to our annual pursuit of the now pro Dumont. We attended his first Dumont Cup and met his entourage of freeskier friends - Tom Wallisch, Josse Wells, Mike Riddle, Peter Olenik...which led to the 2nd annual Dumont Cup and more famous fun athletes and another big air showdown throwdown.

And that led to my assignment to write about the mighty young man from Bethel and his 3rd annual Dumont Cup for Maine Magazine...

Like all teen crushes, Simon has grown up and my daughter Aspen has moved on to the new fresh young faces of freeskiing, specifically Olympic freeskier medalists Gus Kenworthy, Nick Goepper and Alex Schlopy who swept the podium at Sochi Russia's Winter Games 2014. These guys are going bigger and better than their predecessors who petitioned the IOC to include slopestyle skiing and super pipe skiing as an official Winter Olympic venue.

Perhaps taking my Aspen to Winter XGames in Aspen is next... and we will continue to go every March to the annual Dumont Cup at Sunday River...now turning 7 in 2015. After all, you never forget your first ski crush. Dumont is now nicknamed the Godfather of freeskiing, which makes my daughter feel old. #lol

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