A few days ago, I had the brilliant idea that the world would be a better place if The Adventure Life listed every ski hill in the United States, along with links to their websites and their snow reports. Now, there’s no shortage of fast ways to find snow reports, from websites to iPhone apps, but for some reason I thought having them all on one page would be cool. Armed with a list of every last one, I started googling, cutting, and pasting.

Alabama was easy—there’s only Cloudmont Ski Resort. And then Alaska, which has just seven. Arizona went by at 65mph, Arkansas at 90. California, I knew California was going to be a slog, and Colorado’s heavy hitters were right on its heels, but still, as the list grew, I started to suspect this might not be the best use of my time. Maybe the world wouldn’t be a better place with another list of ski areas.

And then I came to Michigan, which is more than I’ve actually done in the real world. Michigan was my low point. Guess which state has the most ski areas? Actually, it’s New York. But Michigan is close behind. I almost bailed in Michigan. This task I’d given myself seemed…ridiculous. But somewhere between Nubs Nob and Pando Winter Sports Park, I cowboyed up. I could have walked away and no one would ever know. But as I read about the doings at Shanty Creek and Snow Snake Mountain, ski areas I never knew existed (even though I’d worked at a ski magazine for 11 years), I realized that I’d made a commitment, not to myself or the job at hand or The Adventure Life reader. No, it was to these little areas themselves. They’d never know one way or the other, but I knew that if I quit I’d be abandoning them in some small but significant way.

So, Michigan. Michigan has 38 ski areas! That’s something to be proud of. I’m gonna have to get myself up to Michigan and see what it’s all about.

With renewed vigor, I jumped from New Jersey (3 areas) to New Mexico (10) to New York (50). It’s early in the season as I write this and most areas are still closed. But if enthusiasm is measured in the use of exclamation points, they can’t freakin’ wait for November 21 or November 26 or December 26. Opening day coming soon! Season passes on sale now! Tubing park open soon! Kids, get on Ski Bees!!!

Ski area statistics tell a dismal story. Despite a few short-lived upticks, the number of U.S. ski resorts has fallen steadily over the last 20 years. In 1987-88 there were 622. By 2007-08, that had fallen to 481. In 20 years, a quarter of our ski resorts have fallen victim to economic hard times, climate change, cultural shifts, and the reality of running a business that relies on snow and a three-month sweet spot. 141 of them, gone.

But 481 are still here, and judging from their websites, they’re stoked. There’s new bathrooms in the base lodge, lift towers have been painted, fresh rails in the terrain park. When you visit Vail’s website, or Squaw’s or Killington’s or any of the big resorts, you see the business and marketing side of skiing. That’s fine—it’s necessary.

But when you visit Trollhaugen in Wisconsin or Snö Mountain, Scranton, Pennsylvania’s local hill, what comes through most of all is the spirit of skiing. (An umlaut over the “O”? Are you serious? Rad!) These places don’t have fancy amenities, high speed lifts, or ungodly amounts of snow. What they have is skiing, pure and simple, and maybe something new for the kids to grind on, and that’s enough.

It’s funny. I started this project with the idea of bringing you quick access to snow reports. Then I became convinced of my foolishness and misplaced priorities. And today, as I pasted the last snow report link into place (White Pine Ski Area, Wyoming), I realized that this might be one of the most gratifying things I’ve done in my long ski career. Although it’s only been via the web, I’ve been in touch, however slightly, with every ski area in the country. I’d much rather ski every one of them, but still—I’ve had glimpses into the ski culture of Arizona, Rhode Island, and, you betcha, Michigan. I know about the Friday night fish frys at Navarino Slopes, Wisconsin, and who to call to book a wedding reception at Great Bear in South Dakota. And every place I look, I see diehard skiers who can’t wait for the snow to fall, for the lifts to turn, for the sensation of pulling that season pass lanyard over their head or peeling and sticking a ticket onto a wicket for the first time of the year. I’m just one of many, and I’m psyched for it.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Tagged as: skiing