When?

It’s November 15th, the original projected start date for Okemo’s 2008/09 winter season. This evening at about 7:30PM the temperature outside was somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 degrees Fahrenheit and it had been raining for most of the day. That’s good news if you’re knitting a quilt, writing the great American novel or doing the New York Times crossword puzzle. It’s not so encouraging if you work at a winter sports resort, especially if you teach skiing for a living as I do.

All kidding aside, the reality of the effect of the weather is that it makes all of us a little anxious, perhaps a little stir crazy as we wait for winter to arrive. With all of the concerns we have about what effect the receding economy will have on our business, more anxiety is not welcome. This is compounded by the fact that all of us who work in this industry share one very effective means of releasing stress - that is skiing or snowboarding – which is not available to us at the moment. Now that it’s so gloomy and wet, riding my road bike isn’t so attractive and there’s only so much time I can spend in the gym buried in my iPod without going completely out of my mind. So, what are we to do?

Warm, wet and snowless starts to the ski season are nothing new. Those of us who work in the mountains and depend on winter don’t need to read the scientific journals to be convinced that global warming is a reality, but the fact is that snow and snow-making temperatures in New England are always spotty at this time of year. The 2006/07 season was horrible in this respect, with a dismal early season and the first real storm not hitting us until Valentines Day. That year, those of us accustomed to the ebb and flow of New England weather spent an inordinate amount of time assuring our foreign staff that, yes, it would in fact snow. There were occasions when I wasn’t sure whether they or I really needed the reassurance but, as was the case in every poor season, we were right. It did snow. It snowed a lot.

So, once again we’re walking around in circles, peeking at our cold weather clothing still hanging in our closets, anxiously talking about the amount of early season ticket sales, getting taunted by friends in the Rockies, dialing in our equipment and chomping at the bit.

The only remedy that I am aware of for the resultant psychological condition is to do the snow dance. In my experience, though there are many varieties of the snow dance, there is one tried and true formula. It involves wearing a ski hat or helmet, goggles (down over the eyes), ski or snowboard boots, and pajamas (preferably flannel with some sort of snow-themed design) while dancing around the living room or watching ski movies while seated on the couch. Please understand that in no way do I think that the snow dance affects the weather. It just makes us all feel a bit funny and helps pass the time pass while it rains in November. When, oh when will it snow? Soon, that’s when. And at Okemo we’ll make winter, we always do and we’re the best at it.