Surviving the Lame Duck Period

These are tough times. We are living in a period that hits us skiers and riders hard. It seems to last longer than the last presidential election campaign season. It keeps us waiting for the inevitable time of change when we can all breathe a sigh of relief for its end. It is the dreaded Lame Duck Period.

I'm not talking about the period between the election and the first time President Obama throws his car keys on that little table inside the White House door. I'm referring to a space in time far more meaningless than the 77 days between election day and the swearing in of the new Leader of the Free World. I'm referring to a stretch of roughly 6 or 7 weeks that weighs far more on the minds and hearts of the adventure sport enthusiast. I'm referring, friends, to the dreadful drag of a duration between the end of daylight savings time and the first snowfall worthy of a full-priced lift ticket. The awful Lame Duck Period.

Beginning on November 2, it is officially too cold to climb, too dark too early for a good hike, and -most crucially- too snowless for the slopes. There is no more depressing

time of the year than the days when you leave for and return from work in the dark. The cold reminds you that ski season is "around the corner," but they fail to tell you that the corner itself is (regrettably) as far away as calzone-flavored ice cream. And don't even get me started on the holiday shopping season. If it weren't for Thanksgiving, I would go into hibernation until the first time the weather man reminds me to get out the ol' snow shovel because "overnight snow flurries are going to make for a tough morning commute." God bless that tough morning commute.

While the snow shovel relaxes in the shed for now, there are a few ways to get through the grim Lame Duck Period. A few of my favorites:

-Put some time in with those non-skier friends of yours that you won't be seeing until spring. While you're there, make one last attempt at getting them to commit to learn to ski this winter. When that fails, make them like they are bad people for missing out.

-Get in shape. Work off all that gravy by turning off the ski movies for a few hours a day and getting your heart going. Remember: Santa used to rip before he went on his Oreo diet. And it's only a matter of time before they start charging more for people that take up extra space on a chairlift.

-Search for some deals. Vermont's Stratton is giving away thousands of free tickets, Maine's Sugarloaf and Colorado's Breckenridge offer big rebates if you book a ski and stay early, Crested Butte in Colorado lets you ski for free early season, and Jay Peak in Vermont offers insane early season deals. Hit up some Warren Miller and Matchstick shows for free lift tickets and head to your local ski expo for freebies. Oh yeah, sign up for email reports from RealReports.com for a chance at over 1,000 free passes. True story: I paid for exactly ONE full-priced lift ticket last year and hit the slopes nearly every weekend. The deals are out there.

- Get to work on hinting to Mom and Dad at what type of bindings you want to appear under a certain tree or candle-holding fixture late in December. Otherwise, it's another holiday filled with padded socks, GAP gift certificates, and those little 2 year planners that you always seem to get even though you haven't had a 2 year plan since fourth grade when you were going to marry Pamela Anderson and be a millionaire astronaut with 10 dogs.

-Put together your new iPod playlist. Skiing to Miley Cyrus is so last winter.

So clearly, we've got our work cut out for us- but it is possible to get through these tough times. We have to. The Lame Duck Period is only going to get longer as Christmas sale ads appear a week earlier each year and global warming continues with its little temper tantrum. As for that changing-of-the President-thing, some of us will be celebrating the change and some of us will be switching that "McCain '08" sticker on our snowboard to a "Palin '12" decal. In any case, we'll all have recovered from the dark days of late fall together and won't care who is President as long as we get our days on the slopes. Unless the economy and skiing are somehow connected...

-Christopher Eardley, New England

(photo: Captain Avalanche and his sidekick, Moguls, make an appearance at Warren Miller's Children of Winter.)