Powder Hounds Ski Trivia Game Podcast

Episode 61 celebrates an extraordinary 22-year journey to reach the century club. The one and only Erik “The ECloud” Lundquist returns to the podcast to talk about an incredible personal and musical milestone – 100 Phish shows! (And he has the custom Phunky Threads t-shirt to prove it.) Now you may be wondering what the heck Phish the band has to do with skiing in the northeast. Well; stick around...

Did you know that Pico Mountain – a ski area of firsts as the episode details - is one of the oldest and longest continually operated ski areas in Vermont (#5) and in the United States (at most Top 40)? And that Pico’s vertical drop is ranked #10 in VT; #17 across New England? And did you know you can ski Pico for $62 on weekdays; $80 on weekend (non-holiday)? And that Pico has a unique collection...

Ski Patrol the movie celebrates its 35th anniversary in January 12, 2025. If you need a quick reminder about the plot…ski school instructors align with an evil land developer to sabotage the ski patrol and convince the  Forest Service to cancel the owner's lease on the ski area. The broader context in ski movie lore, and, as Heather Hansman wrote in Powder Days, “the goofy sex appeal of mainstream...

This holiday-inspired episode features the iconic ski train(s) – the past, present and future. Thanks to a love of trains at an early age, this episode was unknowingly decades in the making. While a chunk of the episode focuses on the past, and how the ski train both a} promoted skiing regionally (and ultimately nationally and b} was the foundation of a new winter recreation industry, there is ple...

The Race to Open – Northeast edition – returns with a new format; brackets by each northeast state! That’s right, 48 ski areas are included in this year’s Race to Open Northeast Bracket Challenge. It is hard not to get excited about the upcoming season with multiple snow events in October [just don’t look at the early November forecast. Yuck!] Still, ski areas across the northeast are testing snow...

The 5th Annual Northeast Ski Season Preview episode covers [hopefully] everything you need to maximize the upcoming winter season. We have opening dates, new lifts, terrain expansions, weather predictions, stoke, discount lift ticket promotions and more! Of course, it wouldn’t be a Powder Hounds Ski Trivia Podcast without some trivia questions. So I give you the Annual 8, for the 8 states that com...

The 4th Annual Mogul Madness Bracket Challenge episode is a good one – the Toughest Ski Trails of the East! I am joined by Pete Denato, Dave Jagich and Nolan Wheeler, absolute ballers on the slopes. These guys don’t just ski fast, they ski steep, deep, and gnarly terrain, while often logging 20 hour day trips just to find the goods in the woods. We talk favorite terrain, trails and ski areas; we t...

Catamount Ski Area may be best described as a hidden gem in plain sight. After all, it has been operating since 1939. Its location, among the Taconic Range, perhaps not necessary thought of when planning ski trips. But the ski area delivers with fall lines, headwalls and trails snaking through the trees. It is affordable. Its season pass gives you unlimited access to two other nearby ski areas. Th...

While Camelback Resort, celebrating 60-years of operation, may be most well known for its gigantic indoor and outdoor waterparks, it should also get love for being home to the ‘long ski day in PA.’ A compliment! On weekends and holidays, lifts start spinning at 7:30am (First Tracks) and stop – 14 hours later – at 9:00pm. While night skiing is not unique at smaller ski areas, the sheer cluster of s...

Hot Dog...The Movie celebrates its 40th Anniversary on January 13, 2024. 40 years! Wow. While the cast, crew and fans have reunited every ten years to celebrate the movie’s legacy, I do not know where or when the 40th bash will be. Until those details surface, consider this episode a soft celebration. We kick things off with the briefest of overviews [if you’ve found this podcast, you’ve likely wa...

I kicked off my winter season at Windham Mountain Club in New York. Windham aka “The Club,” for this episode’s purposes at least, is undergoing a transformation to a semi-private model and I had to check it out before my Ikon Base Pass is no longer an accepted form of entry. Additionally, I have begun my season in the Catskills each of the past three seasons, so that’s a fun little tradition to ke...

My guest is Sarah Wojcik, the founder and editor All Mountain Mamas , which seeks to share her – and her fella mamas - passion of skiing and snowboarding with families across North America. All Mountain Mamas will celebrate its 10th anniversary in January! [Be on the lookout for 10 free lift tickets, well, maybe] Sarah was previously the Director of Marketing and Communications for Ski Vermont and...

The 4th Annual Northeast Ski Season Preview episode covers hopefully everything you need to reset the stoke - opening dates, new lifts, terrain expansion, weather predictions, ski swaps, entertainment and discount lift ticket promotions and more! Also, my Race to Open bracket challenge adds a heck of a lot of optimism to the pre-season. Finally, 8 trivia questions were inspired from the 8 states i...

And then there were three, maybe 2, or possibly just 1…While a few ski areas are still open (Mammoth, Palisades Tahoe and maybe Beartooth Basin), the 2022-2023 winter season has effectively ended. Another record-breaking ski season in the books, with over 64 million+ skier visits according to NSAA. The Northeast also saw increases in season-over-season skier visits. This end of season reflection b...

As we head into the offseason – beach season for many – it is time to kickoff a mini episode series. Think run times of 15 minutes or so. Main topic only. Light, if any editing. This mini episode features 10 Observations from this past winter season. The 2022-2023 winter season was a rollercoaster, at least on the East. A teaser of an early season start, with a warm and rainy Christmas holiday wee...

The 3rd Annual Mogul Madness Bracket Challenge is back! The 10-ski area bracket winner will ALSO serve as the group ski trip location for next winter season (or, at least offer a compelling option!). Four members of the New England Powder Hounds ski family - Kate, Mary, Mike and Tim - join me to talk the PRESENT ski season featuring the Three Valleys in France, PAST ski trips to iconic ski areas a...

As tradition dictates, our March episode has a touch of “Madness” baked into it. I am joined by the instantly likable Matthew Zabransky, an accomplished filmmaker and photographer as well as the creator of MidwestSkiers.com . Matthew will get you fired up for spring skiing, being an ambassador of the sport and encouraging you to visit different ski areas on your next powder seeking travels. We cov...

Belleayre Ski Area, one of four ski areas in the Catskills, and one of three Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) operations, is a must stop for a low-key, uncrowded, yet first class experience. I caught Belleayre in late December, before the holiday crunch, when it was one of only a handful of ski areas with almost 100% terrain open (171 acres). And if you plan ahead, an adult lift ticke...

Aspen Extreme, the American drama film inspired by writer-director Patrick Hasburgh’s early ski days, turns 30-years-old on January 23, 2023! Apparently 30 is the pearl anniversary?! Released in January 1993, this ski film re-directed the trend of slap stick comedy ski movies of the 1980s and early 1990s. Sure, the story is familiar, two friends head west in search of a better life and lots of dis...

Ski season is well underway across the country, with the East finally getting into the fun thanks to a short, 48-hour cold spell window in mid-November. Fifteen ski areas opened before Thanksgiving, the most since 2019 (and two ski areas opened on Turkey Day). Last episode focused on the race to open in the East, reviewing the historical opening dates and projected openings this November and picki...

Inspired by the Midwest’s Race to Open Mayhem, a similar first ski area to open game debuts - The Race to [Second] Place to Face Killington. With ski areas having opened in the Midwest and out West, all eyes turn back East, to a region that has yet to offer lift-served skiing. But with temperatures finally (well, sort of) dipping in the northeast latitudes, the race is on! The Race to Place to Fac...

The 3rd Annual Northeast Ski Season Preview episode covers opening dates, new lifts, terrain expansion, weather predictions, ski swaps, entertainment, and season pass info & discount lift ticket promotions to reset the stoke. Also, not just one, not two, but at least three northeast ski areas are set to re-open this winter! The trivia questions review northeast ski area stats, shift to seasonal fu...

I spent the last 9 weeks in "Endless Summer mode" – waves, sunshine and sand in some surprising places. With hints of fall in the air, I’ve emerged from the salty deep by slogging through way too many unread, ski-related emails, newsletters and press releases. This episode represents my best guess at the more noteworthy ski-news-of-the-summer-weeks-ish stories and related trivia questions. Topics...

A gem of a ski area in central Vermont changed its name. Formerly Suicide 6, the ski area is now called Saskadena Six, though the nickname S6, still works. I had a memorable day on those slopes back in January, 2022, so what better time to get to know the ski area better than now. The history of S6 is the history of early American, life-served skiing, so history buffs will delight in the twelve de...

Bathing suit season has officially arrived and with it, the pursuit of the ultimate summer activity, surfing. For the lucky few in LA, the pursuit of surfing and snowboarding (or skiing) - in the same day - is a thing, it’s doable, it’s called the California Double. While none of my ski family located on the West Coast has yet to attempt the feat, the strangers who have – and who wrote about it –...