Pete Bauer

For the past two months, ski resorts in New England have been closing left and right. Luckily Boyne Resorts’s Loon Mountain and Sunday River took full advantage of the cold temperatures by making snow two weeks ago. Ever since Cranmore Mountain closed for the season on March 25, I have had a blast skiing Loon.  Unfortunately, Loon closed their park this past weekend, leaving Sunday River as the closest open resort to me now. I will be making the trip up there this weekend to close out the season. Hopefully they will have a jump and or some rails setup, I would like to gather some more clips for my season edit!  

Above: Closing weekend at Loon Mountain Resort. 

It sure has been a while since my last post, let me tell you I have been super busy.  Although this has been one of the worst winters (weather wise) in years, I am still loving it!  I would share the number of days I have skied so far, but I would hate to jinx it now.  The majority of my winter break was spent skiing, driving, hot tub poaching and sleeping.  If I wasn’t spending my nights in Plymouth, NH to reduce gas costs, I was home spending time with my family and girlfriend.  Whenever I spent the night at home, I was on the road by 7am to ensure a full day on the slopes.  

Unfortunately, the majority of my ski days over break were spent alone with the exception of the weekends.  My friends either had work, family matters, injuries, lack of motivation or money.  I had high hopes of filming a bunch and making several different edits throughout the season, but the lack of motivation between my friends resulted in minimal footage.  With rainy weather, school starting up and the passing of my Grandpa, my winter break came to an miserable end.  My grandpa was someone who like me, shared an undying passion for skiing.  He had battled Parkinson’s disease for about 15 years.  I sadly cannot recall any memories of skiing with him as I was only five years old.  

Shortly after this spring semester started, I got a job coaching for Cranmore Mountain’s freestyle team.  Due to the Loon Freestyle Team being over staffed, I was not working as much as I wanted.  Luckily for me Cranmore happened to be searching for a new head coach, since the current coach is headed out West next season.  Not only was I hired to be the head coach next season, but also to coach the remainder of this season in order to get to know the kids/mountain.  I could not pass up the offer, as I will be working/skiing every weekend.  Since UNH is an hour and a half away from Cranmore, I have been staying in Madison, NH (30min away).  Although the nights spent in Madison are lonely, they provide an amazing escape from UNH.  Furthermore, I am stoked on Cranmore’s park, the jumps are true tables (easier on the knees) unlike Loon’s murderous step-downs.  Speaking of knees, my left knee has been constantly sore resulting in many bags of ice and ibuprofen.  To help strengthen/prevent injury, I have been working out at the gym throughout my weeks at UNH.  Although I am coaching at Cranmore Saturdays and Sundays, I still ski Loon every Friday.  I am thankful to have the opportunity to ski Loon on Fridays because the rail setups incredibly smooth and all my friends have season passes to Loon.  

The planning process for the annual Sunday River spring break trip is under way! Last year we had a blast.. perfect weather, good people, drinks, and amazing park conditions.  

I will try to keep the posts more frequent. For now here is a tease for the new edit dropping soon…