Month: January 2008 (Page 1 of 2)

Ski Press’ Anne- Marie Boissonnault models the Bula Stereohead hat in our booth. With a smile like this around, it’s hard to complain.

I lead a privileged life. I skied five consecutive powder days last week and six in a row earlier in January. I’m reminding myself of these things as I walk down the aisles of the SIA show in Vegas in a daze, fondling gear and gazing at life-sized ski photos, while Tahoe is getting hammered. The calls have been coming in all week. “Yesterday was the best day of my life,” a friend taunts. “Get to the airport and get on a plane now,” insisted another this morning. I just got a call and learned that it’s snowing two inches an hour. The forecast is calling for a foot and a half today, on top of the fifteen feet that Tahoe got during the month of January. And I’ve been running around, flexing skis, dodging drunk snowboarder punks on motorized carts, collecting swag and trying to stay positive. I wish I was watching the snow pile up instead of schmoozing around a convention center, but I have to remember that I’m living my dream of a career in the ski industry. And that career is just a fancy word for work. Plus, today I can finally say that I’ll be home tomorrow (fingers crossed).

The guys from Snow Visual just stopped by our booth at SIA to show off their new business taking satellite photographs of ski resorts around the country. So far, they have A-Basin, Vail, Beaver Creek, Loveland, Copper, Breckenridge and Heavenly. Squaw is coming soon! Check out Heavenly here>

The weather has been good to Lake Tahoe this week. Two feet of snow have fallen on the mountains, blanketing the icy layer. NOAA is calling for another two feet by tomorrow night, just in time for Robb Gaffney’s “ski the book” Squallywood clinic on Saturday. I’ll be watching footage from the day at the party on Saturday evening and reporting back here on it. Next up is SIA. One of the coolest things on the radar isn’t a new ski or jacket, but a new packaging and shipping system that is being presented to the snow sports industry at SIA. The system reduces the amount of material used for shipping skis, boards and accessories to dealers and consumers (no more little goggle in a big box syndrome) and uses renewable, recyclable materials, like corn-based packing peanuts to protect goods. More to come on this on day one of the show (Tuesday, January 29th).

Squaw Valley got over six feet of snow in the last week and I got out skiing on five incredible powder days in a row! Some of the best runs were first tracks down Broken Arrow, lapping of Rock Garden as it filled in each run and following Robb Gaffney to deep secret stashes off of Far East. Unfortunately, we got some rain followed by cold temperatures on Thursday, so things have glazed up a bit. During the storm, I also managed to finish up my pre-press writing assignments for the SIA SnowPress Show Daily, the daily magazine that reports on the annual ski show in Vegas. This will be my fifth year reporting from Vegas on all of the newest trends in ski gear. Look for daily updates here on what’s new in skiing and riding for 2008-09 when I hit the floor January 28-February 1. Check out my clips from past years for an idea of what’s to come >>