What to do for the Thanksgiving Break

This year is turning out to be a late year to start skiing. Normally I would have skied 5 days or so by this time. Unfortunately we don't have any snow and so that will be tough to do. It also has me questioning what I should do during the Thanksgiving break. Normally we throw the turkey in the oven and go skiing.

My daughter suggested the idea of driving down to Cedar City where she lives and skiing at Brianhead, which is open for skiing. Then my wife looked at the ski resort's website and saw they have a single run open. That is a long drive for a single run. Then I got a call from my ski buddy Jim. He asked if I had skied yet this season and I confessed I have not. He then gloated that he spent the day at Mammoth in California skiing some great runs. I decided I needed to be a bit more creative.

I know that the storms have split and gone north or south of Utah. I looked at the conditions at Banff and Lake Louise. They have a good covering of snow and have a lot open. I checked airfare prices online and decided $1300 is too much to spend for early-season skiing. That didn't include hotel nor rental car, both of which would be needed. I looked at some northern ski areas a bit closer to home. Big Sky is about a 5-hour drive and they open Wednesday. Furthermore I can get half-price lift tickets because of my Alta/Bird season's pass. I'm not sure I will go but I could do all this research from the comfort of my desk courtesy of the Internet.

My research today is a far cry from my teenage years. One day I didn't have much to do and wanted to know when ski season would begin. I called every ski area in and around Lake Tahoe to get opening dates. I felt proud about my research and had a pretty good idea when to start planning the first trip of the year. A relatively short time later my parents received the phone bill and I got a lecture about asking before making so many long-distance calls. You see, before the ubiquity of Internet phone calls and unlimited mobile phone plans, it cost money to make phone calls outside your local area. This is one of those things that surprises the young kids of today. My research didn't cost anything other than my time. I think that is a win for modern technology.