Why conSKIerge?
Why might you ask? Why start conSKierge? There are a million resources for ski and snowboarding information, and we know what you are thinking – what the hell can a Medicare-aged man and his daughter add to the scene? Sorry, but given our love for the sport, we just couldn’t resist.
If you want to have a short conversation with either of us, don’t mention skiing; don’t mention mountains; don’t ask us where you should go on a ski vacation; and for goodness sake, don’t mention powder days. It is our favorite thing to talk about and think about. It does not matter what the season; when either of us can’t sleep we don’t count sheep, we ski.
Skiing combines three of our favorite things – the outdoors; being with family and friends; and using one of our few skills. Yeah, yeah, there are lots of other outdoor activities that one can do with friends and involve a skill, but skiing has the added pleasures of speed, deep powder, and gear – lots of cool, ever changing, you can never have enough, gear.
Kevin is to blame. His father was perhaps the least likely man to be hit by the ski bug. But it hit him hard. His dad grew up in that hotbed of skiing, Augusta GA. After a mid 1940s tour in the Air Force, his dad ended up in Rochester, New York taking advantage of the GI Bill to put him through med school. Not much to do during the six-month winters in upstate NY but ski, and that he did. Church wasn’t a priority on Sundays and one of his oft-repeated phrases was, “We are as likely to find God on a chairlift as in church, so let’s go skiing.” Kevin wasn’t given an option but was all in and took the same “no option” approach with his kids.
School choices (Middlebury, VT for Kevin; Boulder, CO for Charlotte) were made based on our love for skiing, and vacations have been centered on it. Although Kevin’s patient wife is an avid and excellent skier, her pleading to take a warm-weather vacation during the winter has, to this day, been ignored. And while Charlotte’s husband was an occasional skier before they met, he now faces the same fate as her mother. As a result, we have been lucky enough to ski almost all the name ski areas in North America and many, many smaller ones you might never have never heard of. (How can you not ski an area called Lost Trail Powder Mountain in Montana or Whitewater in British Columbia?)
We have been talking about developing a skiing/snowboarding website for several years. Kevin needed to recover from 34 years of big law firm life, and Charlotte needed to settle into her “adult” life. Naïve, we know, but it is our hope that we can add something to the skiing “scene” and that we can interest you enough to keep us company. If you are reading this sentence it means you have made it this far, so perhaps there is hope we can be a skiing resource for you, help plan your next skiing adventure and perhaps even guide you in some of our favorite terrain. We may not be great company at the water cooler (too sedentary), but try us on the chairlift. Thanks for coming along.
Kevin Dennis is a life long ski bum with a 34 year legal career on the side. Now retired, he skis 80+ days a year. While he lives in Alta UT in the winters, he has traveled extensively through skiing and has skied almost every major resort in North America (and many you have never heard of). He continues to hit the road often throughout the western United States and Canada and trips over the last several years have included ventures in British Columbia, Montana and Colorado. Whether you want to know about the behemoths like Aspen or Squaw or are interested in the road less travelled (Lost Trail Powder Mountain in Montana or Whitewater in BC anyone?), Kevin has been there, has an opinion and you will most likely have to tell him to shut up after a half hour!