So far it’s been a crappy winter. Granted, solstice-wise, we are only two
weeks in, but still, forty years ago in central NY my college ski team was well
into hill training before Thanksgiving break. Today, recovery from New Year’s
Eve festivities is complete and there is still no snow in Connecticut—even in
the northern hills. What’s a skier to
do?
Rumor has it that there is snow in other New England states. SkiResort reports that 12 of the 13 northeast ski resorts they track are open—all in Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire. The “closed” ski area is in New Jersey—and since Big Snow American Dream is an indoor resort only open in the skiing off-season the stats reassure me—until I look at the “open slopes” numbers: 299 km open; 403 km closed! Clearly, on this website Europeans are reporting about American slopes so without a calculator I actually have no idea what kind of distances they are talking about. But even without moving the beads on my abacus, I can tell that the total stretch of closed trails is far longer than the length of the open ones. If total slopes equal those open plus those closed, then aren’t more than half of the slopes at northeast ski resorts closed?? In January?? Please tell me my math is still as bad as it was in high school.
In addition to the large “resorts” stats, numbers for traditional smaller ski areas are equally dismal. Skicentral reports that in Massachusetts only four of eleven areas are open, offering skiing on a mere 18% of the state’s total number of trails; In Connecticut just one of its four ski areas is open with only 6 of that area’s 25 runs skiable.
Skiers have always embraced alternate-season sports. Talk to golfers, sailors, tennis players, bikers in the summer and you will find that many of these seemingly committed amateur athletes are only biding their time until ski season is back. No skier intentionally engages in a sport other than skiing during ski season! But with less snow every year and temperatures so warm that window box geraniums are still viable in January, what’s a skier south of the 43rd parallel supposed to do in the winter time? …A friend suggested pickleball.
Desperate for activity, I tried it. How did it compare? As when skiing, we were outdoors in January, peeling off layers as exertion increased, breathing hard, going for the win, traversing, cruising, staying focused. Also as when skiing, classic rock pumped through my earbuds, I kept water near, though not in a backpack bladder. Other similarities: Courts can be green, blue or black, boundaries of play are well marked, some areas are lit for night games, it’s hard to get a court during peak times. One of many differences: pickleball is a fraction of the cost of skiing.
In summary: Hard no. Pickleball cannot ever replace skiing. But winter has changed in southern New England. Lack of snow means affordable day trips that used to supplement week-long forays up north and out west are gone. Sister sports cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and outdoor skating that filled the void between big mountain trips are also gone locally. I have always wondered what people in snowless areas of the country did for fun in their “winters,” but I never really wanted to find out. Yet now I know. It’s abundantly clear that the time has come to embrace outdoor activities that can be done in the cool, dreary, no-niveous weather that has come to be known as "winter in Connecticut." So, I am willing to pick up a paddle and play a new outdoor game on what used to be a snow-covered flat surface.
But I refuse to love it.
