LIFE’S TOO SHORT NOT TO SKI AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE

An inversion seen on Whiteface Mountain during the winter of 2023-2024.

Many non-skiers ask me, “Do you really ski most days during the ski season?” They don’t seem to get why or how I could devote so much time to being on the mountain, why I would sacrifice every day, even when conditions aren’t worth it, why I would spend my weekends doing the same thing over and over again. They don’t comprehend the dedication to the mountain.

I get it. It’s not a choice that a lot of people make (unless you’re a diehard skier). However, for me, it just makes sense. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.

I grew up in rural Kentucky, where winter sports access is limited. Perhaps you could go ice skating or play some hockey if you went to the city, but aside from that all we could really do was go sledding a few times each winter. If you were willing to make the several hour trek to southern Indiana you could find some skiing.

I only skied a few times as a kid, but it was enough for me to learn that I enjoyed the sport. I already knew I was crazy about winter. It doesn’t snow a lot in Kentucky, although younger me thought it did, but anytime it snowed was exciting. An inch or two of snow was enough to cancel school. It was also enough to play in and go sledding.

As I got older and entered college my passion for winter remained, but those trips to southern Indiana stopped altogether. I had probably skied a grand total of 5 times in my life by this point, plus a few days on a snowboard. The thought of making a trip to go skiing lingered in my mind throughout my 20s, especially after moving to Pennsylvania, a state where there’s plenty of ski areas.

I went to school for broadcast journalism and eventually my career led my wife and I to State College, which is located in the mountains of central Pennsylvania. After a few years of living there, and not skiing, I was assigned a story on a brand new indoor ski slope that had just opened in New Jersey. The story wasn’t going to be shot for about two weeks so I had plenty of time to prepare. To best tell this story I knew I needed to get back in to skiing and that’s exactly what I did, except this time I never quit.

By the following winter my wife and I had moved to northern New York. We had visited the Adirondacks over the summer on vacation, amid COVID, and decided we wanted to move there after falling in love with the region. That first winter in New York I skied 42 days.

Late season conditions at Whiteface Mountain during the winter of 2023-2024

I’ve now lived in northern New York for four ski seasons. Prior to moving to New York, I may have skied 20 days total in my life. Since making the move, I’ve skied 331 days, which is about 83 days a season. This past winter I put in 136 days on the mountain.

Now, skiing is my passion and it’s developed into a way of life. So, yes, I spend as much time as possible doing this thing that I love. It took me a long time to get to this point. I look back and see many wasted years of not skiing. I could’ve gone to Indiana more or taken more opportunities to ski in Pennsylvania, but I didn’t. In many ways, I’m now making up for lost time. I’m out on the mountain no matter the conditions.

Today, I don’t take any ski days for granted, and I don’t think you should either. Even when it seems like conditions could be bad, you never really know unless you go ski it for yourself. You never know when life will make it so you can’t ski often. You never know when life will make it so you can’t ski at all.

A day on skis is better than a day doing anything else and when you really stop and think about it, life’s too short not to ski as much as possible.