Category Columns

Powder days and first tracks are a skier’s dream. Getting to the ski area on a powder day can be a skier’s nightmare! Generally the same weather that produces a good powder day also produces miserable driving conditions. Add into… Continue Reading →

I have written previously about the impact stretch pants had on skiing. In the 1960s they made skiing fashionable and became an integral part of the skiing “uniform”. There were other warmer alternatives, but many of us felt that we… Continue Reading →

The first ski area I skied after moving to Vermont was Sugarbush. That was in early November 1968 and the whole mountain wasn’t open just the lower lifts. You can tell by the date I mean the original Sugarbush. It… Continue Reading →

I’ve always said that my motto is “don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story!” However I would like to go back and set some facts straight about which Watson owned which house on Spruce. It… Continue Reading →

What was the original name of the Smugglers Notch Resort? No, it wasn’t Madonna as a couple of readers answered. The original name was Smugglers Notch Ski Ways. Glen Findholt was the first correct responder. Glen is a Smugglers Notch… Continue Reading →

AIG founder C.V. Starr was a successful business executive who got hooked on skiing and hooked on Stowe! But he wasn’t the only successful executive to get hooked on skiing and Stowe. Thomas J. Watson Jr. was the son of… Continue Reading →

A little over a month ago IBM announced that it was selling its Semiconductor division to Global Foundries – well actually IBM is paying Global Foundries to take the semiconductor division. This includes the IBM Burlington facility which as we… Continue Reading →

Cold weather has arrived and the snow has begun to fall! Skiing can’t be too far off. And neither can RetroSki. I plan to start columns Thanksgiving week in concert with when most Eastern (and some Western) resorts will be… Continue Reading →

It’s 4:30 in the morning as I load my skis and get in the gondola. I join a group of non-skiers already in the car. I ask them where they’re from and they tell me they’re from Fairfax, Vermont. That… Continue Reading →

Spring skiing always brings back memories from past springs. Last week’s trivia question took us back to a warm day of spring skiing in the early 1970s in some huge bumps on Liftline. One of the first skiers in our… Continue Reading →