Monday, December 16, 2013
Crotched Mountain - 12/15/13
Monday, December 9, 2013
I hate Gondolas. (Rant)
Warning, Rant incoming -
Why is it that the ski world has an obsession with Gondolas? It seems to me, that at least here on the Beast Coast, all of the really, really popular mountains have gondolas. Killington, Jay, Cannon and Loon all have them, and are arguably some of the most popular mountains in the Northeast. Now obviously these mountains are popular due to their terrain, not their gondolas, but what is it that makes resorts think they are a good idea?
Why is it that the ski world has an obsession with Gondolas? It seems to me, that at least here on the Beast Coast, all of the really, really popular mountains have gondolas. Killington, Jay, Cannon and Loon all have them, and are arguably some of the most popular mountains in the Northeast. Now obviously these mountains are popular due to their terrain, not their gondolas, but what is it that makes resorts think they are a good idea?
Friday, November 22, 2013
Loon Mountain - Early Season Visit
Time to knock another mountain off the list, early season style!
Surprise update! I got another day of early season runs in on Tuesday (11/19/13). I was not exactly planning on hitting up any other mountains until after Gunstock opens (on Dec 6th, if anyone is wondering), but Loon Mountain was offering 29 dollar lift tickets, and I just so happened to have nothing to do, so I figured what the hell. Again, I do feel like I am cheating a little bit, but I have been to Loon many times, and I know that its one of Newschoolers favorite locations, so it will get plenty of coverage anyway from other people later on in the season
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| Golden snow showers, facing east, late afternoon at Loon Mountain. |
Monday, November 18, 2013
Impressions - Warren Miller's Ticket to Ride
Over the weekend I got to see Warren Miller's newest film, Ticket to Ride. It was at a local theater near by and all the proceeds went to a local childrens hospital. On top of that it came with 4 tickets to local mountains who were sponsoring the event, so it sounded like a pretty good way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Opening Day - Bretton Woods!
Welcome to the first mountain post/review!
This past weekend (11/9/13), my season began! Bretton Woods was the first mountain to both open within a reasonable driving distance to me, and have a reasonable price for such early season conditions. They were celebrating their 40th anniversary so a ticket was about 20 dollars. I will admit, I do feel I am kind of cheating on my list here, counting this as my visit to Bretton Woods, but considering how tight I am on time to get everything done, I am going to count it. If I have a chance, I will return here, but seeing as I visited it late last season, I think we will be alright.
This past weekend (11/9/13), my season began! Bretton Woods was the first mountain to both open within a reasonable driving distance to me, and have a reasonable price for such early season conditions. They were celebrating their 40th anniversary so a ticket was about 20 dollars. I will admit, I do feel I am kind of cheating on my list here, counting this as my visit to Bretton Woods, but considering how tight I am on time to get everything done, I am going to count it. If I have a chance, I will return here, but seeing as I visited it late last season, I think we will be alright.
Friday, November 8, 2013
The Grand Tour of New England Skiing!
The Grand Tour of New England Skiing!
Whats up Internet?
I would like to introduce everyone to my version of the Grand Tour of New England Skiing (GTNS). I will be (hopefully) hitting 30 of New England's biggest ski resorts, in a single season. This all started as just something I was going to do this winter. I figure this will likely be the last season I have before I have a real, full time job, so I might as well abuse my ski-instructor reciprocity privileges I get from being a full time ski-instructor. I have never been to many of the mountains in ME or VT, and being able to say I did everything 'major' in New England in one season seems like something I want to say I did in my life. Doing it for close to free is even better!
Whats up Internet?
I would like to introduce everyone to my version of the Grand Tour of New England Skiing (GTNS). I will be (hopefully) hitting 30 of New England's biggest ski resorts, in a single season. This all started as just something I was going to do this winter. I figure this will likely be the last season I have before I have a real, full time job, so I might as well abuse my ski-instructor reciprocity privileges I get from being a full time ski-instructor. I have never been to many of the mountains in ME or VT, and being able to say I did everything 'major' in New England in one season seems like something I want to say I did in my life. Doing it for close to free is even better!
Monday, October 28, 2013
The Inaugural Post
Welcome to Skiing, Gaming and Guns!
My name is Charlie, aka NH_Operator on various websites that you may have linked here from, or UndercoverDeath if you are here from one of the gaming services (Steam, XBLA).
I will start with a little bit about me, for anyone who happens to care. I am currently a Police Dispatcher, Ski Instructor and zip-tour guide. I have a B.S. in Criminal Justice from Bridgewater State University and am in the process of getting my A.S. in Information Technology from NHTI. I am in a transition period on the 'professional' level from a Criminal Justice oriented path to a IT oriented career.
In my free time, my main hobbies, are quite obviously, Skiing, Gaming and Shooting. I do all that other regular stuff that everyone does for fun too, but that stuff is boring so very little will be said about that.
I have been Skiing since I was 4 years old or so, which puts skiing as pretty much the only thing I have really been interested in my entire life. I had a brief hiatus from it during college, between being away from the mountains and a fairly major (non-skiing) related knee injury. It still affects me to this day unfortunately, but it hasn't slowed me down much. This is the main reason you probably wont see me hitting any really big jumps in the park anytime soon, or likely, ever. I started instructing last year (2012), and boy, did it ever rekindle the love of skiing for me. Between getting to ski 3-4 days a week, and getting to share and teach that passion to others for the first time it has been absolutely amazing, even if the pay is total shit. As long as nothing major changes, I will be instructing again this year (and probably all future years, free season passes are awesome). I am planning a major ski-tour around New England, but I will go into more detail about that in a later post (most likely the next post). My home mountain is Gunstock Mountain Resort, located in central New Hampshire, it is also where I instruct and work as a zip-guide. I am a park rat on the mountain, I am not too great at it yet but I am working on it. My true calling on the slopes however is in the glades. I love tree-skiing and powder skiing, but being stuck on the East Coast, I don't get to do nearly as much of it for obvious reasons.
My gaming 'career' has been going on since, well, pretty much birth. I have played or owned basically every major console from the Sega Genesis forwards. Right now I am primarily a PC gamer, but I will play Xbox 360 or PS Vita if the right title comes out on them (GTA V anyone?). I play pretty much every genre, but my favorites are FPS's and Strategy for the moment. I may write some reviews or opinion pieces as well, but I don't have anything planned.
As far as shooting is concerned, my primary focus is defensive handgun tactics. I compete and help run IDPA matches (International Defensive Pistol Association) as a Safety Officer. I am currently ranked pretty much dead center as a Marksmen in the Stock Service Pistol (SSP) Category. I compete with an XDm 9mm. I do occasionally dip my toes into the waters of 3-Gun competition, but unfortunately at the moment, I do not have a rifle to compete with, and trying to hit 200 yard shots with my Kel-Tec Sub2000 is just brutal. I also enjoy shooting Trap & Skeet, but I do not have an appropriate shotgun for that at the moment either. Again, I will occasionally post about this stuff, but don' t expect too much during the winter months as I will be out skiing whenever possible, and the fact that shooting in the cold is not particularly enjoyable.
Well, if you made it this far, I applaud you. I hope to post fairly regular updates to this, but it will really vary based on how much interesting stuff I am doing. I do not want to be one of those blogs that updates you about every single tiny aspect of my life. Frankly I don't want to tell you that much detail, and I am fairly sure no one actually cares. Constructive feedback is always welcome and appreciated! Also please excuse the most likely frequent changes in format and theme for the first few weeks while I learn my way around the interface and settle on a setup and style I like for the blog.
Additionally, if you would like to follow me on social media where you will get more frequent updates on most of my skiing related shenanigans, you can find me at -
Twitter - NHoperator
Instagram - NH_Operator
Thanks for Reading! See you soon.
Copyright Charles Boulanger and Skiing, Gaming and Guns, 2013-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog's author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Charles Boulanger and Skiing, Gaming and Guns with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
My name is Charlie, aka NH_Operator on various websites that you may have linked here from, or UndercoverDeath if you are here from one of the gaming services (Steam, XBLA).
I will start with a little bit about me, for anyone who happens to care. I am currently a Police Dispatcher, Ski Instructor and zip-tour guide. I have a B.S. in Criminal Justice from Bridgewater State University and am in the process of getting my A.S. in Information Technology from NHTI. I am in a transition period on the 'professional' level from a Criminal Justice oriented path to a IT oriented career.
In my free time, my main hobbies, are quite obviously, Skiing, Gaming and Shooting. I do all that other regular stuff that everyone does for fun too, but that stuff is boring so very little will be said about that.
I have been Skiing since I was 4 years old or so, which puts skiing as pretty much the only thing I have really been interested in my entire life. I had a brief hiatus from it during college, between being away from the mountains and a fairly major (non-skiing) related knee injury. It still affects me to this day unfortunately, but it hasn't slowed me down much. This is the main reason you probably wont see me hitting any really big jumps in the park anytime soon, or likely, ever. I started instructing last year (2012), and boy, did it ever rekindle the love of skiing for me. Between getting to ski 3-4 days a week, and getting to share and teach that passion to others for the first time it has been absolutely amazing, even if the pay is total shit. As long as nothing major changes, I will be instructing again this year (and probably all future years, free season passes are awesome). I am planning a major ski-tour around New England, but I will go into more detail about that in a later post (most likely the next post). My home mountain is Gunstock Mountain Resort, located in central New Hampshire, it is also where I instruct and work as a zip-guide. I am a park rat on the mountain, I am not too great at it yet but I am working on it. My true calling on the slopes however is in the glades. I love tree-skiing and powder skiing, but being stuck on the East Coast, I don't get to do nearly as much of it for obvious reasons.
My gaming 'career' has been going on since, well, pretty much birth. I have played or owned basically every major console from the Sega Genesis forwards. Right now I am primarily a PC gamer, but I will play Xbox 360 or PS Vita if the right title comes out on them (GTA V anyone?). I play pretty much every genre, but my favorites are FPS's and Strategy for the moment. I may write some reviews or opinion pieces as well, but I don't have anything planned.
As far as shooting is concerned, my primary focus is defensive handgun tactics. I compete and help run IDPA matches (International Defensive Pistol Association) as a Safety Officer. I am currently ranked pretty much dead center as a Marksmen in the Stock Service Pistol (SSP) Category. I compete with an XDm 9mm. I do occasionally dip my toes into the waters of 3-Gun competition, but unfortunately at the moment, I do not have a rifle to compete with, and trying to hit 200 yard shots with my Kel-Tec Sub2000 is just brutal. I also enjoy shooting Trap & Skeet, but I do not have an appropriate shotgun for that at the moment either. Again, I will occasionally post about this stuff, but don' t expect too much during the winter months as I will be out skiing whenever possible, and the fact that shooting in the cold is not particularly enjoyable.
Well, if you made it this far, I applaud you. I hope to post fairly regular updates to this, but it will really vary based on how much interesting stuff I am doing. I do not want to be one of those blogs that updates you about every single tiny aspect of my life. Frankly I don't want to tell you that much detail, and I am fairly sure no one actually cares. Constructive feedback is always welcome and appreciated! Also please excuse the most likely frequent changes in format and theme for the first few weeks while I learn my way around the interface and settle on a setup and style I like for the blog.
Additionally, if you would like to follow me on social media where you will get more frequent updates on most of my skiing related shenanigans, you can find me at -
Twitter - NHoperator
Instagram - NH_Operator
Thanks for Reading! See you soon.
Copyright Charles Boulanger and Skiing, Gaming and Guns, 2013-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog's author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Charles Boulanger and Skiing, Gaming and Guns with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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