Some random thoughts

Just some end of season ramblings, things that struck me as funny, odd, or interesting.

First up is the old guys at Mt. Sunapee. I just found it really funny when Whitney and I went up there for our second trip in March. We got there just after opening on Monday morning and there weren't too many younger kids because school was in session. There were, however, lots of old guys (and women, too). These were men in their upper 60s, 70s, and probably 80+ years old. I kept seeing them coming in and out of the lodge, getting a cup of coffee, chatting with their friends, heading back out. Then about noon or a bit after, they all started clearing out. Guess they had gotten in their exercise for the day and were heading off to do other things.

Next is helmets. We have always told the girls they had to wear helmets to bike; no helmet, no biking. Same deal with skiing/snowboarding. Down here at Massanutten, not many seem to wear helmets. You would think with all the signs about it, with Sony Bono and Natasha Richardson both dying from head injuries sustained while skiing, that more people would wear helmets. Maybe they think it's a small mountain so they couldn't get injured that badly or since it's right near the campus of JMU, it's the invincibility of youth (in this case, college students). It's a requirement of the ski/snowboard team to wear helmets during practice. One of Whitney's coaches wears one all the time; he's had a couple of concussions in the past so wants to stay safe. The other coach wears one during team practice but I've seen him without one other times. I'm really surprised that Massanutten doesn't require their instructors to wear helmets. I think I would. I was just reading up about Natasha Richardson (to make sure I had the right person) and she was taking a beginner lesson when she fell and hit her head. It doesn't take racing down the mountain and falling or crashing into a tree (as Sony Bono did) to have a serious head injury.

Big difference when we were in both NH and Colorado. Helmets are much more prevalent both those places. The funniest thing was the suntans that people had in Colorado. Their helmet and goggles covered a good part of their face and many had some sort of mask that covered their nose/chin area but there was still a nice tan on their cheeks. You could really tell that some of these people spent a lot of time on the slopes.

And last is night skiing. Almost all of the ski areas around here have night skiing but very few in New England have it and Copper doesn't. I have no idea why it's different. Is it because we have a shorter season and they have to make the money where they can, i.e., night skiing? The slopes are usually open until 9:00 pm. It's definitely different skiing at night; the lights make shadows and they don't light up the whole width of the slope usually. That's about the only thing I can come up with as to why there's night skiing here and not in other places. I guess if they're going to put all that money into snowmaking they might as well get good use out of it.

That's it for this season. It was a great one, we really enjoyed the trip to Colorado and Nationals. See you all next winter!