Rick Bolger

Rick first laced up a pair of old ski boots and tumbled down a hill in 1970. He pursued his newfound passion through a combination of Sussex County, NJ cornfields and an occasional trip to Ski Dutchess (now lost) in Beacon, NY. He graduated to the Vermont backcountry as a teenager, and ultimately developed a fondness for small, “hidden gem” type ski areas. Rick’s frank and occasionally snarky reviews make skibum.net a go-to website for U.S. ski resort intelligence.

 

Bill O’Hara

Another lifelong skier, Bill got his start on the challenging slopes found in the wilds of the Philadelphia suburbs. Today he’s our regular reviewer for Utah. An engineer by trade, Bill’s reports are seldom fancy, but always informative and enlightening.

 

Liz Holste

Author Elizabeth Holste is widely recognized as one of the foremost authorities on the history of skiing in the New York metro area. Liz writes the popular “Ski Babe” blog; she also contributes to our history oriented pages and is our key connection to the expanding universe of ski-related social media. Perhaps the only thing she enjoys more than being a guest speaker on ski history is clicking into her race skis and competing on the hill.

 

Sam Shirley

New England Skier Extraordinaire…Sam’s insightful reports and keen eye for photography quickly earned him a following on the NELSAP Snowjournal website.  Considering that he skis mostly in the northeast, trip reports usually involve ice, sleet, drizzle, dust on crust, or worse.  But as they say, attitude is everything, and Sam’s reports generally conclude with “…fun mountain to ski and I will definitely be back.”  

 

Bob Sisco

Our Midwest Connection…Bob resides in Michigan, where he is currently teaching his grandsons to ski, and teaching the rest of us that you don’t need massive vertical to have a fabulous day on the slopes.

Lift Tickets at Discount: This is a “clearinghouse” of sorts that many ski areas use to raise cash by selling discount tickets in advance, called Liftopia. If you haven’t used this service, it is important to knowfor certain that you are going on a specific date. The deeply discounted tickets must be purchased in advance; generally up to two days out. The sticking point is that some ski resorts only make a limited number of tickets available to Liftopia for any given day, so they might be sold out if you wait too long…so, as soon as you are absolutely, positively sure that you will be skiing on a certain day, click this link to get deeply discounted tickets. I’ve used this service many times, but again, ONLY when I am absolutely certain I will be skiing on a specific date. You need to have access to a printer to print out your receipt, and you have to take identification with you to the mountain. I’ve knocked a third off the price of some tickets. Not every area participates, but it’s well worth checking if you’ve got a date nailed down.