Soft, weightless powder drifts over the tops of my boots as I travel down the mountain and the only sound I hear is the schuss of my skis carving fresh turns across the pristine, evergreen-lined trail. A short distance ahead, my friend Mara takes the skier’s right onto Run Around and I dip in behind … Read More
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I’m standing at the top of a steep trail—one of those black diamond runs with the kind of pitch that makes it impossible to see what lies below—feeling like I’m about to fall off the edge of the earth. My daughters are long gone having propelled themselves downhill sans hesitation a few moments earlier. I … Read More
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Before we became a skiing family, I’d been daunted by the idea of doing so. I thought it would be tough to learn to ski as an adult, I thought our kids would be cold and whine, I thought we wouldn’t be able to afford it. As it turned out, all of my concerns … Read More
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The hot dog hung suspended in the air like magic against a backdrop of brilliant blue October sky. It had been launched seconds earlier by a young man whose gaze was now fixed intently on the flying wiener, watching to see if his partner on the other side of the dirt road would make the … Read More
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My three girls are pretty avid bike riders. We’ve got a great bicycle path near our house where we ride frequently and last summer they pedaled an impressive 150-miles along a converted rail trail in Quebec. Yet despite their comfort on two wheels, they were hesitant to try downhill mountain biking. And despite my own enthusiasm … Read More
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Bringing my dad on a ski trip is kind of an oxymoron. The man hates cold and snow more than just about anyone else I know and I blame his aversion to all things winter for my learning to ski so late in life. On the flip side my dad loves to travel and is … Read More
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My three girls frequently accuse me of being overprotective, but I don’t consider myself to be the hovering sort. If they’re going to walk into town after school, they need to be with friends. When I’m not home when they get off the bus, they need to let me know they’ve arrived safe and sound. At … Read More
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As the mom of three newer skiers, and as a relative novice myself, I appreciate the security my black diamond husband brings to our family ski trips. Anyone with more than two kids knows that a bigger family means that your parenting goes from man-to-man to zone defense—a fact that plays out in its truest … Read More
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The sun glinted off the windshield and I turned my car down a tranquil, Vermont country lane. As the road wound past a meadow, the quiet buzz of whatever critters lived among the swaths of wildflowers could be heard through our open windows. Marshland Farm, our first destination, came into view just beyond a lily-studded … Read More
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