The North American skiing world still dreams of a white Christmas. There are some places that are high enough, or shady enough, or uniquely cold enough to offer a few kilometers of skiable trails. But many places where skiers typically go to find silky grooming and endless kilometers of well-tended trails are still waiting for opening day.
New England’s holiday season has been swept by heavy rains and surging floods, though Craftsbury (Vermont) and Lake Placid (New York) continue to deliver reliable snow-making on a few skiable loops. Much of the west was still brown a week ago, but snows are beginning to fall. The shady end of the Vail Nordic Center is nicely skiable, and Grand Mesa (Colorado) continues to be a snow-covered miracle (being at nearly 11,000 feet above sea level definitely helps). Alaska has tons of snow (as it has had for some months). West Yellowstone finally has the snow cover it missed at Thanksgiving. Mt. Bachelor (Oregon) is well covered, Sun Valley (Idaho) has trails . . . though, mysteriously, Soldier Hollow, UT is still waiting for snow. Even in many of the high valleys of the Rocky Mountains, the snowpack isn’t to deep yet. But a few hopeful flakes did begin falling in Boulder on Christmas Eve . . .
We watch the forecast, we scan the horizon for clouds, we witness snow-dances being conducted at junior ski team practices across the continent, we turn up the Bing Crosby . . . and continue Dreaming of a White Christmas.
John Teaford
John Teaford—the Managing Editor of FasterSkier — has been the coach of Olympians, World Champions, and World Record Holders in six sports: Nordic skiing, speedskating, road cycling, track cycling, mountain biking, triathlon. In his long career as a writer/filmmaker, he spent many seasons as Director of Warren Miller’s annual feature film, and Producer of adventure documentary films for Discovery, ESPN, Disney, National Geographic, and NBC Sports.
