To ski or not to ski? That is the question. It’s snowing hard tonight. Will it be enough? Enough to feel the tingly rush of those ripping turns. That hair-standing-on-your-arm goosebumps of a slasher winter day? Enough to lure me back onto the slopes? I hit Solitude the day after opening day this year. Not even opening day. The motivation just isn’t there…yet. Unlike the past two years, this season is off to a slow, manmade start.

Even opening day at Snowbird today- a week later- was weak. I heard off trail was thin and the on-piste firm. The Tram is still down. Alta was probably better but I wouldn’t know. I was home writing.

Snowbird Tweets Pic of Gadzoom Opening Day Crowd (or lack of)

Brighton and Solitude opened last week and that was enough for me. It was fun to take Sage for a few runs on the easy groomers at Solitude. We had the Link Lift to ourselves. Perfect conditions for a safe time knocking the cobwebs off a five-year-old’s skis. It snowed the following day and a person died in a relatively small avalanche that pushed him off a cliff. I decided I was in no rush to ski again. Really? Me? I put in nearly 100 days last season. I can wait.

The Facebook posts today were noticeably silent- only a smattering of nods to the resorts. Nothing like you see when it’s a mondo pow day. Park City Mountain Resort opens tomorrow (Saturday) and because they haven’t been skied yet, the tweets should fly. Plus, with the Canyons waiting until Nov. 25 and Deer Valley the first weekend of December to open, PCMR is the only game in town. They’re also gifting T-shirts to the first in line at each of their three lifts running.

Perhaps the new snow will generate more energy but don’t feel bad if you’re not turning until next week. If you think about it, the norm used to be ‘wait until the day after Thanksgiving’ to ski. That’s when the skiing was skiing. We’re spoiled from the past two seasons. Now, it looks like we’re back to the norm. We’ll get maybe 14 inches this weekend, then nothing until Friday when another storm moves in. Yep. Day after Thanksgiving.

So, to ski or not? Totally an individual choice. If you go now, you have an excuse to keep things low-key, get outside, warm up and ease into the winter. If you wait, you save $40-60 bucks, your bases and your time. I’ll let you know what I decide.