Kick Off the Ski Season at the Boston Ski & Snowboard Expo!

The ski and ride season has begun! Bretton Woods started turning lifts for the 2014-2015 season Sunday, November 9. “Free Ski Sunday” was a great day to get our ski legs back and everyone who donated a canned good for the local food pantry got to ski Rangeview for free. It looks like BW is planning to reopen on Friday, now that we getting some more snowmaking weather.

Happy to have had a bit of a homecoming on Sunday, I’m really looking forward to the fall event that kicks off the season for many of us: the Boston.com Ski and Snowboard Expo at the Seaport World Trade Center November 13-16. Northeastern skiers and riders may consider the Expo to be the biggest homecoming party of the season.

Admission is $15 for adults and free for kids 12 and under. Tickets are available online or at the door and $3 coupons are available online.

Many people come to the show for the great deals on lift tickets and lodging. Snow sports fans line up for the deals of the season and find out what’s new for the coming winter at their favorite resorts.

The Prinoth Bison (Prinoth)

I’ll be joining the Bretton Woods crew at their booth again this year, and I think my mighty-machine-loving boy will be really excited to see what we’ll have on display.  In honor of Bretton Woods’ number one ranking for grooming and snow in the East by readers of SKI magazine, we will have a Prinoth Bison groomer cab right in our booth for everyone to check out. Having had the opportunity to ride in one of the groomers last winter with my little guy, I can tell you these are very cool machines.

BW will be selling lift ticket specials at the show this year, and anyone who purchases at the show can draw a prize from the “Groomer Grabs” for a chance to win great prizes like lunch, Zip & Ski tickets, pedicures, or even an overnight stay at the Omni Mount Washington Resort. You’ll also be entered to win a two-night ski and stay for four people at the Omni Mount Washington Hotel.

Here are some of the great deals being offered at the show:

• $19 Early “Bluebird” Ticket – good any day before December 19. This ticket can be purchased at the show or at shop.brettonwoods.com

• $35 Midweek “Golden” Ticket  - valid Monday through Friday during non-holiday periods, in honor of the 70th anniversary of the Bretton Woods Monetary Conference. This ticket can be purchased at the show or at shop.brettonwoods.com.

• $59 Any Day “No-Brainer” Ticket – good any day all season long. Save up to $26 off regular ticket prices. You can only purchase this ticket at the Boston.com Ski & Snowboard Expo.

• $199 Detachable “Quad” Pack  - Four unrestricted tickets valid all season long. Save up to $141. You can only purchase these at the Boston.com Ski & Snowboard Expo.

• Season Pass Price Roll-Back – Purchase the White Mountain Superpass or 4-NH College Pass by midnight November 17 and get early-purchase rates, plus get one free lift ticket for a friend, good any time during the 2014-2015 season. This is another deal that is exclusive to ski show attendees.

If you come to the show, stop by the Bretton Woods booth to say hi!

First Turns of the Season

What a wonderful surprise last week when my Facebook feed delivered the news that Bretton Woods would be opening nearly a week earlier than planned - giving us the chance to get on to the snow before the craziness of the holiday week began.  Knowing this would change our weekend plans, I decided that although we were pretty good about keeping all the ski stuff in one place over the summer, I had better make a list and take inventory to make sure all the gear was ready to go on Friday morning.

As I might have guessed, the little skiers had grown quite a bit in the last six months, and everything from snow pants and jackets to mittens to snow boots had suddenly shrunk.  Sleeves were too short and pants looked like capris.  However, I had done some research on sizing and had ordered new snowsuits for the kids, and they were very excited to find some snow to test out their new outfits.  Timmy, who's three, generally falls true to size in a 3T in most brands, but 5-year old Bridget is petite for her age, so I often have to buy a size down for her in pants.  Timmy got a one-piece snowsuit, but for Bridget we went with 4T snow pants and an xxs girls' jacket.

Just in case you're still making that gear list, here's a start:

• skis
• boots
• poles (for adults)
• helmets
• mittens
• ski socks
• polypro long underwear
• goggles
• fleece tops and bottoms
• ski jacket
• ski pants
• snow boots
• hats
• neck gaiters

On a relatively warm November weekend when there isn't natural snow on the ground, the snow boots aren't crucial for getting to the lodge, but now is the time to make sure those snow boots will fit when that first snow day hits us by surprise.  

After a stop at the season pass office for new pictures for Bridget and Timmy, we stopped at the Bretton Woods rental shop to check out boot and ski sizing for them.  (For an in-depth look at boot sizing, look here.)  Both kids had gone up TWO sizes, so I was glad we checked the fit.  Erin, the rental shop manager, suggested we stay on their current-length skis for the first few days, until the kids get their ski legs back and those "pizza" and "french fry" stances come back to them once more.

Thanks to some great new snow gun addtions on Range View, this trail from the top of the Zephyr Quad was the first to open this year.  Unlike recent season-openers, where often the Learning Center was the only terrain open, I was again pleasantly surprised to be able to make the first turns of the year on a longer run.  That personal revelation was tempered a bit, however, when I realized that this would also be the first run available to my eager little learning skiers.  I was pretty confident that Bridget would make it down just fine, after a strong finish last season, but Timmy had just started getting a little adventurous on the Learning Center last year, and  I knew both Range View's pitch and length would be a challenge for him.

My husband and I didn't want to project any of that hesitation on to our kids, so we headed up the Zephyr, knowing that this one run might take some time and that we might have to carry Timmy a bit more than we'd normally like to.  I was again reminded of that constant struggle between wanting to allow them to test their limits and trying not to put them into situations that are hard enough that they become frustrated and stop having fun.  

On the ride up, we talked about making a "pizza" or wedge to slow down, and making lots of arcing "snakeys" down the mountain.  But those first turns can be a little rusty, even for an adult.  Bridget started to whine and get frustrated, and I had to verbalize for her what I already knew: your mind has been thinking about getting back on skis for weeks, but your legs may have forgotten what to do.  We had to stop and slow down, and think about making those big arcs.  By the time we were about half way down the run, she had that grin back on her face and I knew she had her groove back.

Timmy, on the other hand, needed a lot more encouragement - it was a really long run for him.  Matt and I took turns skiing down with him in between our legs, and I think he did appreciate that sliding on snow feeling once again.  Near the bottom, Matt got him to ski towards him, asking Timmy to play "dinosaur," with his arms out in front to keep his weight forward and thinking about moving down the mountain.  I'm eager to see how he progresses this year when we can get on to the Learning Center where he's more comfortable, and get him in to some lessons, too.

Afterwards, the kids enjoyed a little time at the Kinderwoods Playground while Dad and I took turns taking a run of our own.  The sun was shining as I forced some muscle memory out of my quads and took some tentative turns on the forgiving snow.

Of course, we couldn't resist, as Timmy says, "a little lunch at Fabyans" on our first day back for the season.

We are so excited for the coming ski season, and I hope you'll join us on our adventures.  What big plans do you have for making this winter fun?

Thank Goodness for the Snow Miser

I'm pretty sure there are two kinds of people in this world: those who love snow, and those who don't. Lucky for me, since I live in Northern New Hampshire, I count myself among those who check multiple weather outlets looking to see which forecast is going to offer me hope for the highest totals, whose stomach is filled with giddy butterflies at the prospect of a big Nor'Easter, and who jumps up out of bed in the morning to look out the window and check for snowfall like a kid hoping school will be cancelled so I can romp in the powder all day long.

But as everyone knows, Mother Nature has been a fickle friend this winter. We had some beautiful snow for major holidays this season: Halloween's storm seemed a bit premature, but offered inspiration for those of us hoping for a short brown season; Thanksgiving brought another few inches as we geared up for the opening of the ski areas, and we did in fact have that white Christmas we'd been dreaming of. But in the interim, we've had major warm spells, rain, ice, and freezing cold. Unfortunately the cold and the precipitation seem to be on opposite schedules. What we really need is for the cold and the water to get together.

Enter a skier and rider's best friend on a winter like this: The Snowmaker. Like a matchmaker for those natural elements that haven't been playing nicely together, he or she orchestrates a rendezvous of just the right amount of air pressure and water depending on the temperature at a given point on the mountain to create a wonderful chemistry between those elements that results in nothing less than piles and piles of snow for us to ski on from November to April.

Bretton Woods' Head Maker of Snow is Keith Huntoon, a.k.a. the Snow Miser. You know, the guy who causes objects to burst into snowflakes with a touch, from that stop-motion animation movie The Year Without Santa Claus?

I'm Mister Snow
I'm Mister Icicle
I'm Mister Ten Below
Friends call me Snow Miser
What ever I touch
Turns to snow in my clutch
I'm too much!...

Keith very graciously took some time away from his creation of white gold to speak with me about what goes in to making skiing and riding possible when the natural stuff doesn't fall.

Keith has been at this game of helping Mother Nature along for 32 years, and he has seen everything she could possibly throw at us. I like to think of snow as a guarantee here, but he reminded me that this is, after all, New England, and nothing is a sure bet. "Sure, last year we had plenty of snow. But a few years ago we couldn't even ride snow machines until February."

"We spend a lot of time watching the weather," he said. They've got thermometers all over the mountain, since the temperature, wind, and pressure can vary so much depending on elevation. The Weather Bug, located at the Latitude 44 mid-mountain restaurant, tracks wind speed and humidity. "28 or 29 degrees Fahrenheit is what I'm looking for. At 32 it's too warm to make snow," because the process of making the snow creates some heat in itself.

The relative humidity is a key factor in determining the ability to make snow. The "wet bulb" temperature as described on How Stuff Works, is "a function of the dry bulb temperature and the relative humidity, the amount of water vapor in the air. Liquid or solid water cools itself by evaporating some water as water vapor. This releases heat, and so lowers the energy level in the water. When there is more water vapor in the atmosphere, water or snow can't evaporate as much because the air is already saturated with water to a high degree. Consequently, water cools more slowly when the humidity is high, and more quickly when the humidity is low.

In addition to the temperature and humidity factors, snow makers use air compressors to force air and water together. Early in the season, they blow wetter snow as a base, so that when it freezes up it'll have some holding power through the winter. For that they use more water in thegun and less air. Because the air compressors that power the snow guns only have a finite amount of pressure to be used at any given time, when they use less air, they out can put more guns.

Bretton Woods uses two kinds of snow guns: tower guns and land guns. Tower guns can only take 100 cubic feet per minute (cfm), so they don’twork in higher temps as well, and if it is windy, the snow direction isn’t aseasy to control. 25 new Ratnik landguns the resort purchased this season compliment 25 new guns from last year.

The snow makers also have to be strategic about where they decide to blow snow. They usually start making piles or "whales" of snow on the run that is most easily accessible from the chairlift. (The whales then get smoothed out by the groomers, but that's another post...) They also want to open terrain that is skiable for most skiers and riders, so in addition to a blue or green trail, they'll also be sure to build up a base on the bunny hill, so brand new skiers like my little ones can get out onto the slopes right away. From there, they try to open up terrain that will begin to disperse skiers and riders onto separate trails and lifts, so that we're not all on top of each other. At Bretton Woods, they start with trails beneath the Bethlehem Express Quad, then down to the Rosebrook Quad, over to the Fabyan's Express Triple, the Zephyr Quad, and finally they are making their way over to West Mountain.

In addition to all of the complicated and precise science and engineering that goes in to enabling our skiing habit, there's also a lot of hard hours of work in tough conditions. Although we love soft snow to ski on, most people don't really want to ski under the snow guns, so they do their best to blow most of the snow at night, which means there are guys out there in the coldest, darkest hours lugging guns and hoses around the mountain on snow machines and on foot, while we're all snuggled up at home dreaming of plush corduroy. (By the way, skiing under the guns may be a little cold, but there's often some very fun snow to ski on in there!)

I especially noticed the need for snow making this season when I realized that as we were starting two year-old Timmy onto the slopes in earnest, there wasn't any snow under the magic carpets. So although I would have probably had him spend more time on the very gentle slope off those moving sidewalks, we had to graduate right away to learning how to get on and off the lift and the longer run of the bunny hill. (I think he actually preferred this, being the second child whose main goal in life is often keeping up with his older sister.)

So be sure to thank a snow maker the next time you are at your favorite ski area. They work long hours to make following our passion of skiing possible. They spend all summer getting all the systems in place, but there's only a small window of time to actually get that snow through the pipes, and in winters like this, the ski industry depends on that snow.

And remember that there are two kind of people in the world? Well, guess what Keith’s wife, my friend Jenn’s, license plate reads? HEATMZR