The Ski Log Blog

Driving into Vermont with a New York license plate is fraught with peril. One must be on one's best driver behavior, lest one be grouped in with those relative few who have made a bad name for the state, fair or not. Similarly, one treads with care when asked "Where are you from?" One typically answers carefully and slowly in the hope that the first word conveys the idea that you're not "one of them." " Upstate New York." This is what I said last Saturday morning when asked that very question by one of two skiers who pulled up just after I did on Route 73 in the Brandon Gap of the central Green Mountains. There was little doubt they'd both seen the tag on my car. Turned out one had lived as a kid in the Catskills. The relief this offered was short-lived, however, as he went on to mention "the New York Times article." The reference was to a piece the Times had done on what I'd come to visit: The non-lift-served, accessible-ba...

Some people call it mud season. Spring in the Northeast can be difficult. The snow is melting or already gone, but the weather isn't nice, and is often just plain cold. It's good for nothing, and days are long but miserable. Then there are days like this. When the weather is mild, the sun shining, the sky blue, and the snow plentiful and soft, there's no better time to be on skis than early spring. Gone is the biting wind of mid-winter, the ice of January, the dark, short days of December. Expectations are low but rewards high on sunny days that hint at the summer to come. So how could I not get out when it all comes together? Weather sites had shown consistent snow showers in the western Adirondacks for the past three or four days. The McCauley Mountain webcams showed ample snow on the hill. The sky was blue, the sun was out, and the afternoon was free. So I headed out to Old Forge and the Town of Webb trails on the former ski hill. From looking at current maps and...