Are You Ready for Snow?

And so the ski season starts again, Day 1. (If you want some inspiration, read our blog post on Day 100.)

Our local ski mountains are preparing for opening day. Sugarbush is aiming to open on November 19th. Mad River Glen hopes to open on December 10th, or sooner if they can. Hope is always present that this year it will DUMP snow. Fingers crossed.

It’s not as if either mountain is closed from May to November. There are weddings galore–one or more every weekend. There is hiking, mountain biking, nature walks, disc golf, ball golf, ski and swap sales, Brew fests, 4th of July events, and on and on. But, even as the mountains entertain us, and the deck at Mad River Glen’s Basebox makes a fine place to have a beer in the sun, the true purpose of the mountains reveals itself on the opening day of the ski season.

During the “sleepy” off-season, the mountains invest for the following year. Sugarbush put in ten miles of new snowmaking equipment, bought new groomers, and, interesting to the geeks among us, upgraded the old manual dam in the snowmaking pond to a cool new inflatable dam that is better for the environment and the snow making both.

Skiers, both full-timers and part-timers, are getting ready. In our house, we try to find all the boots, socks, balaclavas, and poles that were ill-organized at the end of the prior season. We might even take the winter storage wax off the skis. Maybe even get a new tune to start the season. Part-timers come north to move into rentals or spruce up their condos. Full-timers watch the snow reports incessantly. And probably everyone gives a little prayer to Ullr.