It is quiet. Almost eerily so if you aren’t used to it. All I can hear is the squeak of my skins as they slide across the snow and the sometimes random clicking of a binding or a boots here or there. The forest is so quiet I can even hear my pole planting…

  My dad always kept a chapstick in the driver’s side door of any vehicle he ever owned. And he must have kept one in a pocket somewhere, because I can vividly remember him being able to pass me a chapstick whenever I asked him for one. No matter where we were, my dad was…

Living the Dream By Merisa Sherman   Last week was probably one of the most difficult ski weeks I have ever experienced in my life. I’ve skied in that much precipitous weather for one day, maybe two. But an entire week of water pouring off the brim of your hood — this was a week…

Living the Dream By Merisa Sherman   Last week was probably one of the most difficult ski weeks I have ever experienced in my life. I’ve skied in that much precipitous weather for one day, maybe two. But an entire week of water pouring off the brim of your hood — this was a week…

  Everything I need to know about life, I learned from skiing. Right? Well, I have at least learned enough things from skiing that I should be able to translate those into my everyday life. Skiing teaches us so many things, like respect gets respect, body awareness and how (hopefully) to anticipate the reactions of…

  Getting the lights all untangled and the ornaments hung one by one never bothered me. We usually had family gatherings where everyone would take part so you could always hide in the bathroom if it got too intense. My grandmothers (both the Methodist and the Jewish one) would each spend meticulous hours opening the…

By Merisa Sherman You can see the stars overhead, twinkling against the shimmering clouds in the night sky. There are moments of clear, but this is Vermont. The clouds move about as they will, blocking different constellations throughout the evening. Almost as if by drawing your focus to different moments in the night sky, they…

  Ever get to the mountain and find that you are missing an essential piece of equipment — like your boots — or just don’t have the right goggle lens for the day? Well, I have a bag for that. No seriously, I hate having everything loose in my car, especially when I might be driving…

It’s that lovely time of year where we gather around a table with our family and closest friends. We fly across the country and drive for hours to interact with our loved ones or just sit staring at the parades and football games on television. Some of us go for a trot or a hike…

  I make the first few turns and I can feel my right leg is uncooperative. My femur is initializing the turns just fine but I can feel the latency on the finish, causing the inside edge of my tip to get caught on whatever sugar snow it can find. The delay in my right…

  We did not want to miss a moment of the pregame festivities this year, so we pulled into the parking lot around 8 a.m. Barely able to sleep, we were there two hours before the lifts were scheduled to start. But we were not the only ones with our eyes on the prize, unable to…

  You could feel the air changing. Even inside the house, I knew that this morning would be different. The air was just that much thinner and my hands were cold as they lay outside my blanket. I could actually feel my fingers stiffening up and had to pull them back inside when I woke up for a…

  By Merisa Sherman     I can feel the cold air entering my nose as I take a deep breath. I dare not open my mouth, because I just brushed my teeth and it will just feel too damn cold. I am on the chairlift, my legs swinging underneath me as the chair floats…

No matter the time of day, I love laying on my blanket in the middle of a field and staring up at the sky. While you are the one that walks through the forest to create movement, the sky appears the exact opposite. Only when you lie perfectly still can you track the movements of…

  A few steps beyond my front door and I am engulfed in a swarm of leaves. The wind lifts their lifeless yet multicolored selves off of the cold ground and they swirl around me. My hair flies all around me, caught up on the energy of the wind. I am part of the experience,…