No Snow November? No way...bring it winter!

Happy November, offically my least favorite month of the year as the leaves are off the trees, the daylight hours are deprived, it's the undecided month...not summer, not yet winter..blah.

But hope springs eternal if you will pardon the seasonal pun. Once elections are over, and everyone has made the "right" choice, we can set our sights on ski season and our own white houses and white mountains. Those slippery metal campaign signs that didn't blow away during Hurricane Sandy can be used as sleds once we get that first big November snow storm right?!

I think we are due for a big cold winter in the North East and a snowy season in the West...and not just a pounding in the Pacific mountains of Oregon and Washington this time! Squaw Valley in California has already been dumped on to open for skiing prior to halloween!

Vail will celebrate its 50th with a beautiful new Golden Peak Gondola from Vail Village - complete with wifi and heated leather seats - sweet! Aspen Snowmass hopes to open 230 acres of new glades on Burnt Mountain. Arapahoe Basin opens a new Pika Place beginner area with a magic carpet - beginner terrain that A Basin previously lacked. Jackson Hole in Wyoming has a new high speed quad to replace the ghostly slow Casper triple.

And in the East, Cranmore, Burke and Jay Peak have new lifts, Bretton Woods opens new glade skiing with T Bar access and  Sugarloaf will open more of the Brackett Basin glade expasnion towards Burnt Mountain. See what's new in New England skiing and riding for this season at FamilySkiTrips.com

Have those skis and boards waxed and ready - winter is coming. Props to Killington for their Oct 14, 2012  debut, but it was only a day and only for passholders. Shout out goes to the North Carolina ski resorts as well that got dumped on by Hurricane Sandy and opened for Halloween skiing...

Anyone want to wager on who will be the next New England Ski Resort to open and stay open?  See you on the slopes!

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Halloween Skiing!?

Can you say Cataloochee three times?! How about Halloween skiing?! Well, Hurricane Sandy has brought snow and an early ski season opener to Cataloochee and Sugar Mountain in North Carolina!  Both mid Atlantic ski resorts will open for skiing on Wednesday Oct. 31, 2012 thanks to significant snow from the "Superstorm Sandy" or what some are calling "Frankenstorm" given the timing just prior to Halloween!

Last year it was Killington and Sunday River that both opened Oct 29, 2011 for Halloween skiing following Hurricane Irene and what we called "Snowtober"!

Ironically, this huge storm system Sandy brought tropical temperatures to the North East, no snow, just rain and high winds. Well, props to North Carolina for their early season snow show for a change!

Killington has already opened for skiing October 14,2012 for one day of limited skiing on that Sunday on K-1 for passholders only, taking advanatage of their impressive snowmaking power and a cold snap earlier in the month. Killington is reclaiming their Beast of the East title.

So who will open next? My money is always on Sunday River - they blow the competition away with their snowmaking efforts. Loveland and Arapahoe Basin in Colorado and Squaw Valley in California have already opened for limited skiing out west. Thee early season ski resorts are perrenial favorites, all on our Top Early Season Ski Resorts list.

Next week is the Boston Ski Show, a kick off to the New England ski season excitement. So it's time to go in the basement, hoping that it didn't flood during Sandy's serious rain, and find your ski and snowboard equipment - cause winter is on its way.

This year Heather Burke will be blogging about skiing here, on Boston.com, Liftopia, FamilySkiTrips.com and LuxurySkiTrips.com plus facebook, twitter and Google + so keep tuned in and keep your skis tuned up!


Happy Trails!

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The Client List, Zumba, Presidents and Prostitutes

My little town of Kennebunk is making national news. Yes, my Zumba instructor was also turning tricks, videotaping her johns, and evading taxes and its all over the web, TV, newspapers, and local gossip. Can I just say Alexis is a very attractive gal, her Zumba dance workout classes were fun and she is very fit? No defense, just little details. Zumba is like skiing, it's a great work out but you don't feel like you are exercising.  The music, the movement, the hour just flies by. That's all I have to say on the subject - I am not going to get into The Client List, Kennebunk's Coming Out Party for Johns and Janes. While the Zumba/Call Girl scandal has made for lots of humor around town, it will also do some harm to families and friends in our tight community.

Kennebunk and Kennebunkport have been in the national media spotlight before, as the Summer White House for two Ex Presidents. The Bush family has brought fame and fields of reporters to our seaside hamlet through the years. Now that we have two retired Presidents, the attention is more of what we call Bush Gawkers, eager to get a photo of Walkers Point or see George and Barbara in Church, on Fidelity - their boat,  or out at Mabels for Lobster.  George W, or as we call him - 43, versus his dad 41, actually mountain bikes with my friends - a fantastic athlete and great guy they say. Not a zumba guy. 
 

Kennebunkport's Christmas Prelude, a holiday celebration the first two weekends of December, has also brought tv coverage with the Today Show,  Travel Channel, HGTV and Food Wars. I rarely participate in Prelude as it conflicts with the start to New England's ski season and my small Maine town is more packed than the ski slopes. So welcome to my world, the Kennebunks - home of Presidents, Prelude and Prostitution... party on!

In other news, the leaves out my Family Ski Trips office window are turning faster than you can say Kennebunkport Zumba scandal. So soon it will be ski season.  We are preparing our editorial and travel calendar for winter 2012-13, ski resorts are blowing the mice out of their guns, and prepping for a much bigger snow year than last...ok maybe Oregon, Washington and Austria being the exception as they made out like snowy bandits during last year's snow drought every where else.

Our ski friends at Sugarloaf, Saddleback, Aspen and Lake Louise are posting frosty photos on facebook, Killington is making snow, one resort called the contrast of autumn leaves a fresh dusting of snow "snowliage" ... love that! So enjoy the snowliage...ski season will be here faster than you can fill in the blank_____. 

Think snow, do your Zumba snow dance, and be ready for the first ski resorts to open!

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Family Ski Trips Family Skiing (familyskitrips) on Pinterest

Family Ski Trips Family Skiing (familyskitrips) on Pinterest

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No more SBX and Skier X in the X Games? What the X...

Winter X Games 17 will take place in Aspen, Colorado at Buttermilk, Jan 24-27, 2013. But don’t tune in to see the exciting skier and snowboarder cross events -  those have been cut from the racy program. 

ESPN, the creator of the popular X Games, decided to eliminate skier cross and snowboard cross, plus the mono skier X events, citing the expense for the venue among other reasons. As you might imagine, snow athletes, like snowboard gold medalist Seth Wescott and skier x champ and former US Ski Team racer Daron Rahlves, are not too pleased about this decision. There is even a facebook to page begging to Bring Back The X Course.

It is ironic that the edgy X Games are stepping away from these roller derby elimination on snow events, while the conservative Olympic Authority has recently loosened up and decided to include SBX and skier X and will add skier slopestyle to the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi Russia in 2014. The Winter X Games helped put snowboarding on the competition map, and helped athletes like Shaun White get their due. In 2012, Shaun White won snowboard superpipe for the 5th consecutive year, with a first ever perfect score of 100.

The first Winter X Games took place at Mountain Resort in Big Bear Lake, California, in 1997, to provide “a competition compiled of the greatest winter action sport athletes from around the world competing on an annual basis in skiing, snowboarding and snowmobiling."
Aspen has been the exclusive host of Winter X Games since 2002, even though Whistler made a bid to host - Aspen won the X Games bid for two more years through 2014. Winter X Games are traditionally timed by ESPN to air the weekend between the NFL's conference championship games and the Super Bowl. 


Further irony is that the two X Game events that were dropped last year, Snowmobile SnoCross and Speed and Style, are returning to the 2013 Aspen schedule.  So go figure. Winter X Games have seen plenty of zaniest events come and go – like super modified snow shovel racing, snow mountain bike racing, and the latest urban street style snowboarding.

 

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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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Vail's Epic Pass is now more...EPIC!

Vail's Epic pass has always been one of the best deals in skiing. Even vacationers were well off to buy the season pass  for about $600, often less than buying day tickets on holiday, since the pass is valid at Vail, Breckenridge, Beaver Creek, Keystone, and Arapahoe Basin in Colorado. Then Vail Resorts added on Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood in California's Lake Tahoe ski region.

Well Epic just became more Epic as Vail Resorts announced that Epic Pass holders can now use their season passes at four premier resorts includng Les 4 Vallees of Verbier. Epic Passholders can fly across the pond and enjoy three free days at Verbier, Nendaz, Veysonnaz and Thyon in Switzerland.

So say yes to the pass people! One pass, 12 amazing ski resorts! For as litle as $649 you can have unlimited unrestricted pass privileges at these big boys of skiing. Get your Epic Pass at www.snow.com

We at Family Ski Trips are big fans of Vail, Breckenridge, Beaver Creek, Keystone, and Arapahoe Basin in Colorado, Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood  in California and we are eager to ski Verbier and Les 4 Vallees in Switzerland! Just wanted to keep you in the ski loop! You're welcome!

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