I have early childhood memories, from around age 3, of riding up the J-bar with my father at Pats Peak in Henniker, NH. I really started learning to ski when I was 7 years old, when my parents put me in ski lessons at Mt Sunapee. In upper elementary school, the entire class would take ski lessons every Monday night under the lights at Pats Peak. In middle school, my family would take many ski vacations in Northern New England. In College, our ski club would go each weekend to a different mountain in Vermont and New York.
When I started working in New Jersey, I didn’t have good access to mountains. I would really only ski one or two times a season usually when I would visit family in New England. One time a co-worker took me to Blue Mountain in the Poconos in Pennsylvania. It wasn’t much bigger than the bunny hill at Pats Peak. The first time I ever skied out west was during an extended business trip to Colorado when I skied at Breckenridge. I was there for 2 months in the winter, so I skied nearly every weekend. A-basin was my favorite.
Winter of 21/22, I had just moved back to New England, so I skied a handful of times with friends and family. This most recent winter, I decided to finally break down and buy a ski pass. I chose an Epic Northeast Pass, which gave me access to about half of the ski areas in Northern New England. The other half are on the Ikon Pass, and a few stragglers on on the Indy Pass book.
I have to say it makes skiing much more pleasurable not feeling obligated to ski all day to get my money’s worth. I skied 16 days this season, which is a new personal record. Many of those days were just a few quick ski runs. I liked doing the ski pass enough to purchase a pass for next season. Maybe a trip out west is on the horizon for next season.