Ski Roundup: Three Big Daily Papers on Skiing 2005-06

The profusion of great websites devoted to skiing (more on that another day) seems not to have put a dent in the daily papers’ coverage of the cool and advertising-rich territory, and Geezer thinks that’s a good thing. Ski writing from papers like the Boston Globe, The New York Times, and the Washington Post is usually reliable and up-to-date, as it should be from media that have the staffs and the cash to actually visit the places they write about–every time they write about them. Many websites do not.
This year’s ski special from the Boston Globe throws a little of everything into the pot, and includes pieces on how to get over fear of falling, high-tech gear to wear while getting over fear of falling, and a comprehensive guide to New England skiing, with sections on lodging, deals and events.
The New York Times gives us a less ambitious and more linear product: one long feature with 35 single paragraph pieces describing the best resorts in seven categories: Extreme Skiing, Family Friendly, Budget, Luxury, Terrain Parks, Nightlife, and Non-Skiers. In typical Times’ manner, those resorts span the globe, as though every reader were torn between going to Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia, or to Lech-Zurs in Austria.
At the other end of worldly spectrum, the Washington Post does what it can to persuade readers that there is such a thing as a "Mid-Atlantic" ski resort. In fact, the paper’s well-put-together ski package includes a nifty interactive map of the mid-Atlantic states, with links to 26 mountains in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. That’s right–Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. The Post also makes an effort to be user-friendly, with links to weather reports and to "instant" traffic reports in the Washington area, which would be most useful to Washington-area skiers trying to get the the airport to catch a plane to Denver.