Many people hate winter. It’s cold, its snowy, costs of heating your home can get expensive, and in many areas people suddenly forget how to drive once the flurries fly. But for me, winter means snow, and snow means skiing and I love skiing.

As soon as fall rolls around I break out my ski gear, make sure it is all washed, wax my skis, and slip into my boots and walk around the house to get back used to the feeling on the clomping around in my ski boots. And then I spread it all out on the floor and admire it. I get back into my biking routine to try to strengthen my quads and in turn the muscles around my knees so that my knees aren’t extremely sore after the first hour of skiing on the first day back. And then I pray it won’t be long before a ski mountain is able to pump out enough snow, or Mother Nature blesses us with enough snow in order to be able to open for skiing.

Living in Upstate NY sometimes makes being a skier a hard task.

We don’t have the huge mountains like out West. Many of the mountains we ski aren’t much more than hills. Maybe “Real” mountains should have a different classification than our mountains. I was so confused when I went out West skiing for the first time and had to take a Gondola Ride just to get from the base to where you can actually strap on your skis and take a run. And then to get from one side of the mountain to the other. The mountain I ski at doesn't even have a gondola, let alone multiple ones.

The first time I came back from skiing out west it was super hard to bring myself to go skiing at my local mountain just because I knew that there was going to be that much less fresh powder and much poorer conditions. So when you go out West to go skiing, remind yourself that it is a treat, and don’t expect the skiing to be the same.

The weather can go from being 30 degrees and heavy snow one day to 65 and sunny one day later (or even 4 hours later). This leads to trail conditions changing very quickly. Any Upstate NY skier knows what corn is, and if you don’t, look at your local ski resorts conditions page and you will now know the term that refers to the snow you ski on very often.

Upstate New York skiers know fake snow all too well. Snow gun snow is something we are very familiar with, and we all hate when the wind blows so that the fake snow pummels your face while riding up the slowest lift on the hill. But on the other hand, snow gun snow is a blessing especially when mother nature isn’t cooperating and brings just cold instead of cold AND snow. A powder day is fairly rare, and a day of powder up above the knees is almost non-existent.

Any upstate NY skier, and for that matter any skier on the east coast, knows the struggle of ice. Im not sure how many times I have been skiing where there wasn’t a single patch of ice that I skied over.

But in the end, I am thankful for mountains (even though some barely classify as mountains) and hills to ski down when the snow does fall. And hey, sometimes it’s nice being able to ski all the trails in under 3 hours…or 30 minutes...depending on what hill you are at. In the end, nothing beats a bluebird day on the slopes with fresh snow underneath your skis…or snowboard.