Winter Depression

Wow. The ski season was off to such an amazing start. Three feet of snow (at least) before Christmas and just crazy-good powder. Ally and Ty have already been on the mountain at least 8 times and are really finding their groove. I was planning to take a couple of early morning runs last week, since my grown-up skiing time has been somewhat limited. On January 5th it was all so good. And then, four days later, the snow is just gone.

Thinking back to about a year ago, I was really freaked out about climate change. We had no snow to speak of, and the skiing conditions were terrible. But then, we had the Blizzard of 2007 on Valentine's Day, and the rest of the season saw pretty much a daily snowstorm and some of the best conditions I can recall. And then it was suddenly Thanksgiving, and on came the snow again, as if it had never left. Ski areas were open early, December brought a number of big storms, we had a nice White Christmas and everything was good.

This melt is such a drag because everyone else is getting pounded with snow. We've missed two straight big storms that hit many other parts of New England, but somehow skipped the folks who probably craved it the most. And if you break it down, it's really been a perfect ski winter temperature and snow-wise, save for a lousy 72 hours when it suddenly became spring.

The good news is that winter has been back for the past week or so (in terms of temperature, anyway) so the ski areas have probably rebounded a bit with snowmaking and small amounts of natural snow. We're supposed to get a little tonight and into tomorrow morning, and since Lauren is taking me to Sugarbush for my b-day tomorrow, I'm going to be optimistic and assume that we'll get a lot more than predicted.

I hope this winter ends up as good as last winter. Considering that I get to hang out at Breckenridge and Silverton later this year, I am assuming it will. But as I think about things on the night before what is effectively 'mid-life' for me I realize that you have to take advantage of opportunities when they are available and make the most out of them. There was some talk of bagging a ski day tomorrow due to lack of snow -- fortunately, we squashed that idea. In no way could a day of less than optimal conditions be less fun than sitting at work. In that light, I realize I should have had the kids out last weekend -- even if the snow wasn't perfect, it still would've been a day on the hill. We'll make sure they get out this weekend. The only way to break through snow depression issues is to get out my boards and enjoy the snow we have. We'll bust out of the winter blues in fine fashion tomorrow, and maybe appease the snow gods.