From The Author
28
Stories
Discover More from This Author: Merisa Sherman
When the dream takes a detour
December 11, 2024
I’ve been to World Series Games in Yankee Stadium during the 1990s, with Pettitte on the mound and 56,000 cheering, the entire structure shaking violently. But I’ve never experienced anything quite like the moment when 39,000 people felt our hearts drop into our stomachs as we went from cheering beyond ourselves, ready to burst into…
Every turn, a trip down memory lane
December 4, 2024
We floated along Upper Royal Flush, enjoying the fresh, all-natural snow beneath our feet. It feels so good, this marvelous gift of nature. Soft, rotary turns as we kept our skis flat on the snow. Using lateral ankle flexion, we can adjust our edge angle to the terrain, letting our bases float over the snow.…
Chairlift games
November 27, 2024
We’ve been riding the same chairlift up the same trail looking at the same trees for weeks now. We all talk about whether or not to choose Trail A or Trail B and then our minds are blown when Trail C opens up! It’s a snowmaking miracle, giving credit to the combination of Mother Nature and…
The return of ski season in Killington brings winter rejoice
November 20, 2024
It feels like we waited forever, but now I can barely remember the time before the mountain opened. We stared at the weather report for weeks, trying to figure out when the wet bulb would match the requirements for the guns to turn on. It felt like Mother Nature had abandoned us, the Killington faithful,…
Guided by scent: Rediscovering the outdoors through smell
November 13, 2024
As the rain began, we chose to keep paddling. We were on the far side of the reservoir, so it would be at least another hour until we could make it back to the Leffert’s side of the reservoir anyway. The rain continued, leaving little pockmarks on the water and reminding us that maybe next time, we…
Preparing for winter
November 6, 2024
One slide of the big yellow shovel at a time. The metal-tipped edge slides smoothly across the artificial wood. Slowly, deliberately, I work my way across the deck. It’s a deck that has hosted some pretty awesome musicians, but all I need for now is for it not to host this heavy snow. One shovelful at a time,…
Vermont’s Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame celebrates the spirit of the slopes
October 30, 2024
Baseball has its Hall of Fame decorated with the green serpentine marble from the Rochester Quarry in Vermont. Football has a Hall of Fame. And the Basketball one is right down the way in Springfield, Massachusetts. But here in Vermont, our versions are a little different. We have the Vermont Ski & Snowboard Museum, which…
Surviving the late fall cold: The annual “delaying the thermostat” game
October 17, 2024
Waking up this morning, I wasn’t sure if we had lost power or not. The house was cold, almost frightfully so. There was no noise coming from our hot water heater, and I couldn’t hear the water rushing through the pipes. As I stepped onto the oak floor, my feet were still ice cold—the radiant pipes were…
Playing favorites: Choosing the perfect trail
October 9, 2024
A few weeks ago, I gave an interview for my boarding school magazine, after which I was sent only one follow up question: What is your favorite trail? Now the first thought out of my head was something snarky Lambonics phrase like, the one with the most snow on it. Or the one with the least…
Autumn is a fine time to call a hump day
October 2, 2024
A girlfriend and I made a new tradition a few months ago. We decided that no matter what, how busy our schedules were or how far away we now live from each other, that at one point this autumn we would call a Hump Day. It would have to be the perfect day, where…
Foliage: where and how to see it best
September 26, 2024
Besides Vermont in general, where do you like to watch your foliage from? We always talk about where the color is the best via location — the state of Vermont even puts out an interactive map where tourists and locals alike can figure out where to spend the day across our great little state. But…
Signs of a season changing
September 18, 2024
I don’t Spartan, but I have always felt that the race itself constitutes the beginning of the fall season. Although this year, with the hot summer temperatures, I’m not really sure how that fits in to any season except “Vermont.” But at the same time, it’s my signal to kick in the dryland training, that…
Non-venomous Vermont
September 11, 2024
The first day, I chose to take the east side route. It was a plan I had never been before in a state that I had not visited in over 20 years and certainly not one that I knew anything about. The easterly route up the horseshoe ridge seemed to have the most people and…
Skirt drama
September 4, 2024
Ah, the first day of school. The anticipation, the anxiety, the new book bags and trapper keepers and pencil boxes. I remember staying up late to make sure the laces on my Bass shoes were perfectly coiled — I wouldn’t want to be embarrassed by not staying in the latest trend. It was the one…
Change at the mountain: choosing better over bitter
August 28, 2024
When the news came out on Thursday, I went numb, which took me completely by surprise. I mean, rumors had been flying for months, we all knew that the president of Powdr has been struggling with his health and I had been privy to some interesting conversations. We all knew this was coming, but what we…