Beat the heat - Think Winter and Skiing!

When mid summer heat hits, there are a few sure ways for skiers and riders to cool off. White wintry thoughts and plans will help you get through those dog days of summer when downhill skiing and riding seems far off. No need to fear ski friends, snow season will soon be here. Until then...

Here are 5 ways to beat the heat in summer!

1.       Watch our ski videos to cool off!

2.       Ride your bike to exercise those quads and glutes as a primer for winter!

3.    Plan your next ski vacation with these helpful ski trip planning tips!

4.     Read about our recent trip to ski the Alps of Austria! 

5.       Follow Family Ski Trips on twitter and facebook for a daily dose of snow and ski anticipation!

And of course, snow dance often and with enthusiasm!

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Snowboarding...its all about change!

Snowboarding is a sport of continuous evolution. It changed the way we thought about the sport of skiing back in the early 80’s. It changed our terrain with the emergence of jumps, halfpipes, rails and staircases, and changed the style of events on the slopes from ski racing in gates to rail jams, terrain park sessions and big air contests.  Snowboarding has changed ski slope apparel, vocabulary, the shape and size of skis, you name it. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the definitive snowboard competition, the Burton US Open, is switching its venue. After 27 years at Stratton Mountain Resort in Vermont, Burton’s US Open is changing it up and moving out west to Vail Colorado.

The first US Open snowboarding competition occurred in 1982 at Suicide Six, a traditionally small race hill in Woodstock Vermont. Competitors had to hike up Snow Valley in Manchester Vermont in the 2nd and 3rd year of the National Snowboarding Championships. In 1985, nearby Stratton became the host of the US Open Snowboarding Championships, where the venue was officially named and remained through its 30th anniversary in 2012, making it the longest-running snowboarding competition in the world.
The US Open changed the way we looked at snowboarding - not just a new snow toy to throw tricks, but serious competition with a high caliber of athletes. Backed by the godfather of snowboarding himself, Jake Burton, the event put riding on the map. In fact, IOC judges attended the US Open as part of their deliberation over allowing snowboarding in the Winter Games, It was determined in 1996 that snowboarding would be featured in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.
The US Open draws over 30,000 fans and riders from all over the globe. It is also traditionally a big party for fans and high flying riders alike. At Stratton, you would see Vermont snowboard heroes Kelly Clark, Ross Powers and Hannah Teter, and big names like Danny Kass, Gretchen Bleiler, and Shaun White.

Now Vail will have the honors, and has plans to construct a slopestyle course and huge 22-foot superpipe on Golden Peak, a bigger – potentially better venue than Stratton with more a festival atmosphere and free live music concerts for spectators and riders alike.

Read more about Snowboarding Evolution and the biggest events in Snowboarding on www.LuxurySkiTrips.com

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Winter vs Summer Olympics?

So we at www.familyskitrips.com are obviously skiers and lovers of all things snow sports related...so we are not as excited about the London Games as we were the Vancouver Olympics in 2010. We will watch the Summer Olympics 2012, we are particularly eager to see how the Brits fare competing with the last Summer Games 2008 opening ceremonies in China. The British are proper but probably not quite as polished and precise as the thousands of Chinese drummers in cadence. That was an unforgettable performance, like the agony of defeat, the unison of one huge country's beat.

We recently posted a poll on our family ski trips facebook page asking what you prefer, winter or summer games! Of the participants, mind you these are mostly skiers and snowboarders, the results were not surprising. While the majority of responders said  "I never miss watching the Olympic Games", the next most popular response was "I prefer Winter Olympics, skiing, snowboarding, even ice dancing, over Summer Games."

A few funny replies to our Winter versus Summer Olympics poll included:

"Nothing more exciting than the Open will come out of the UK this year"
&
"How can London possibly top the frenzy of the Queen's Jubilee?!"

We believe that last response was slightly sarcastic, don't you?!

Still the fact remains, Summer Olympics are more popular, more widely watched, with more participants than the Winter Games. Gymnastics, swimming, soccer, even Equestrian starring Ann Romney's horse will draw more couch potato viewers than Downhill Racing or Snowboarder Cross. 

Well, enjoy these 30th Summer Olympics on ABC with a pint of ale in hand, as the next Winter Olympics aren't going off until Feburary 7-23, 2014. The Sochi Russia 22nd Winter Olympics will feature skiing venues at The Rosa Khutor Alpine Resort near Krasnaya Polyana. After much deliberation and petitioning by the US Freestyle Ski and Snowboard Teams, the IOC will include ski and snowboard slopestyle in the 2014 Winter Games. Ski Mountaineering and Ski Orienteering did not make the cut this time...stay tuned on those crazy winter sports.

Game on, go Phelps and Rafalca - Ann Romney's dressage horse!

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Summer, no bummer, just waiting for ski news!

While we are enjoying our summer, waterskiing, hiking the green mountains and dreaming of them turning white, ski resorts are busy prepping for next winter. Ski brochures and trail maps are on order, ski show displays are in the works, and websites are being tweaked to offer the best season pass deals and ski and stay packages to lure you at the first sign of snow. 

Jay Peak and Burke, now sister resorts in Vermont since Jay bought the North East Kingdom resort in the spring, is offering a Kingdom United Pass valid at both ski resorts. We at www.familyskitrips.com had predicted this, so we are pleased at the Vermont pass deal at $749 unlimited. Of course, that does not make Jay Peak or Burke Mountain any closer by car – but still we expect exciting things from these two hills with the EB5 investment opportunities and obvious recent growth at Jay – two hotels, a waterpark, and a new fixed grip Stateside quad for next season.

Since last winter was low on snow throughout most of the US, don’t expect many more fancy new lifts. Park City in Utah is just happy to be reopening, their land battle with Talisker who owns abutting Canyons resort continues. Stay tuned, keep your skis tuned. Winter will be here soon!

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Oh the places you'll go

Ski Journalism...a passion, not necessarily a big paycheck!

I love skiing and writing about skiing. It's something I have enjoyed since age 3, a pasttime I share with my beloved Greg, and one of the most important hobbies we have shared with our two kids. Skiing and snow are our "glue" so to speak. We actually call ourselves the 4-skiers, and much of what we do is "4 skiing."

Skiing as a career for me has grown from ski instructing in college (which ironically our son Ian does now at Big Sky) to working in the ski biz, to now writing about skiing for numerous outlets from glossy magazines in the late 90's, to the newspaper weekly column beat for over a decade, to feature 4-color articles, to the world wide web - blogging on Boston.com, social media and creating and maintaining to succesful ski travel websites, www.familyskitrips.com and www.luxuryskitrips.com .

My websites, started in 1998, have grown to over 300 pages and over a half million visitors with top search results!

So when a college journalism major from North Eastern University wants to discuss writing and ski journalism with me for her college writing project...it's my pleasure. Jessica Melanson writes her own ski blog, and interviewed Greg and I about our ski writing and photographing experience over the past two decades...

Here is her journalism project featuring us:
http://hittheslopes.wordpress.com/2012/04/23/final-project-husband-and-wife-team-bring-ski-journalism-online/

As we told Jessica, ski journalism is aboutt he passion, not the paycheck. But the opportunities and open snowfields are a big reward. As Dr Seuss says, "Oh the places you'll go..."

Our recent review of Austria's Alps, read all about it....
http://www.luxuryskitrips.com/ski-austria.htm

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love skiing the Austrian Alps!

After over two decades of skiing New England and The Rocky Mountains of Colorado, Utah, Montana and a few trips to Canada...we finally made it back to Europe. Skiing in The Alps is amazing, this is where the sport of alpine skiing originated, the first lifts and ski schools were created teaching the "Arlberg" style...and apres ski was invented.

We visited Austria and skied legendary St Anton in the Arlberg and the vast slopes of Lech Zurs, then Solden in the Otztal Valley where the US Ski Team trains on glaciers, and finally Obergurgl Huchgurgl where we finished our season with 20 centimeters of fresh snow and sunshine!

5 things we love about skiing in Austria:
1. In Europe, they "prepare" their slopes for you, what we called groomed in the states is "prepared" and we love that terminology - sounds like such personal service. "Madam, your ski slope is prepared just the way you like it this morning!"

2. It's better to be off piste than piste off  (ha ha)! There is so much terrain in The Alps, above tree-line open bowls, completely accessible and totally untouched. It's legal to ski, but you need to be wary of avalanche danger (and getting lost) so tranceivers and a guide are always a good idea.

3. Eurpoean ski lifts are uber modern and efficient. Six and eight passenger chairs with heated leather seats and bubble covers are more the norm than the exception.  8 to 30 passenger gondolas - all glass lined for optimum viewing, whisk skiers from the ski villages to mid mountain and the summit with swiftness and spectacular Alps scenery.

4. Skiing to mountain chalets that serve extraordinary lunches sure beats cheeseburgers in the States. These ski huts are so charming, their menus feature authentic homecooked food like fondue, spatzle and schnitzle, in a warm music filled atmosphere. So much better fare and more fun than a ski area cafeteria. Oh and there's beer, wine and schnapps!

5. Apres ski is not an option, it's an objective. Europeans love their leisure time on the slopes in the sun, relaxing on a sonnenterasse or at an umbrella bar with a beer or schnapps in hand.

For more reasons why we love to ski Europe read our European ski reviews of St Anton, Lech Zurs, Solden and Obergurgl Huchgurgl!

We are already eager to return to Austria and to explore more of the Alps in France, Switzerland and Italy...so stay tuned to our websites www.familyskitrips.com and www.luxuryskitrips.com

Prost!

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Have you logged a million vertical this season?

 A little ski math, I typically log 40, maybe 50 if I am lucky, ski days in a season. My husband Greg tracks our vertical with his handy Vertech Ski watch and with the Alpine Replay iPhone app – for comparison. Okay, so we are a bit obsessed, but we enjoy measuring our time on the mountain, typically bagging 10 runs before lunch. It’s a game, it keeps us going. Our average ski day, we accumulate about 26,000 vertical feet, so that squeaks us in at just over 1,000,000 vertical feet in a ski season. I have always thought our alpine accumulation was worthy, till I saw Tom Hanson’s stats. Read Heather's Boston.com blog about the 4 million vertical this Loafer has logged...

Ski season is not lacking for this Loafer

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