New York Skiers Get First Day of the Season In Hilarious Way
Desperation or froth, however you choose to view it, reaches a fevered pitch this time of year for powder hounds. The weather is slowly but surely starting to shift. Labor Day is in the rearview mirror and even though fall equinox has not officially come, summer sure as hell feels like a thing of the past (unless you just endured that hellish heat wave in Southern California that broke thermometers this past week). Either way, there are reminders here and there that Opening Day is definitely inching closer.
The annual race to opening day is a fun thing to watch on both sides of the equator with resorts often firing up snowmaking machines long before what seems reasonable in order to be the first. But skiers themselves can be far more extreme when given the chance. Two years, ago, for example, a New Yorker by the name of Ron Konowitz simply drove up to a high enough elevation that he could get his first turns in on a two-lane road in October. Fellow New Yorker Wesley Po did the same thing last year and even hiked Northeast New York’s Adirondack Mountains in shorts and a tee shirt just a few weeks ago to make use of a small patch of snow.
Po and a group of friends did just take to local Whiteface Mountain this past week for their first turn(s) of this season, waking up at 2 a.m. and pushing across one of the resort’s wooden decks.
As Whiteface Mountain’s social media team pointed out, the crew likely beat Konowitz to the punch again this year with their September 8 rime ice and light dust session.
“That’s two years in a row of beating RonKon to it…” they said.
“Hats off to Wes and his Crew,” Konowitz confirmed. “I actually took out my skis Saturday and was watching the summit temps and cam Saturday night and Sunday….didn’t snow enough and wasn’t even cold enough for rime ice so I didn’t go up Sunday….its great that they are carrying on the tradition with great determination and enthusiasm….over the past 50 years I’ve been lucky enough to get some early tracks on the toll road….its all about getting up high and experiencing winter temporarily while making some turns…the earliest I’ve ever been able to make turns was in the 1980s-90s on Labor Day Weekend.”
The post New York Skiers Get First Day of the Season In Hilarious Way first appeared on The Inertia.