My friend Lisa and I aren’t great skiers, but we still enjoy skiing. Like most, we much prefer skiing without the lines or crowds, so we coordinated a weekday trip for early March. Typically, that would be a great time to ski. Well, in 2024, early March in Vermont is producing a lot of rainy days.

We debated whether it was worth making the trip because there was rain in the forecast, but decided we should at least make the effort to salvage the day. We didn't head out to the slopes until it stopped drizzling, which was nearly 1pm and were disappointed to learn the trails we were hoping to ski were closed. We nearly headed home then, but decided to see if some other easy trails were skiable. After our first run, we survived, but couldn't say it was much fun. We tried another trail, which was better, but still not great.

Finally, we headed over to our usual place and were delighted to see the lift was open, despite the fact that the app listed it as closed. While the conditions were still crappy, we found our groove and enjoyed doing several runs. And, riding the lift didn't feel as long as usual because we were together and it wasn't cold!

At the end of the day, we were proud of ourselves for making the most of the experience! We could have bailed at several points, which probably made the end result that much more enjoyable. We chose to keep trying because, as I always tell my kids, “you have to be in it to win it." We will stress about global warming another day...