Just out of college, and with no athletic background to speak of, my two best friends turned me on to cross country skiing. After a couple of winters of flailing and falling, including falling while going uphill, I entered the Lake Placid Loppet. It's not too smart to choose the toughest venue in the northeast U.S. to ski your first 50km race, and I finished next to last. Despite being unprepared, I was hooked. These days, in between working and parenting, I train to race any distance from 5 kilometers to 50 miles.
Before I bought this domain, I spent fruitless hours trying to come up with a name that smacked of world domination, but no luck. Originally, I intended to cover all aspects of cross country skiing right here in New Jersey; nothing more. While I like to race, I also wanted to reach recreational skiers and people who were interested in trying out skiing. Thus the image on this page header, one of my favorites: Andrey's friend Serezha and his son, skiing at High Point.
The original design was a primitive, frame-based affair of which I was more than a little embarrassed. So I never put my name anywhere. "What, that silly web site is yours?! You've got to be kidding!" With the encouragement of a former co-worker, Kath Heytink, I learned more about cascading style sheets and efficient layouts. I've stolen code and ideas from a number of places, including but not limited to A List Apart and Eric Meyer's first book on CSS techniques. You might never find cutting-edge design here, but hopefully the content will be engaging. The original photographs for the header images of the High Point monument and Serezha and son are courtesy of Andrey Revyakin. Unless an author is noted, the stories are all written by me.
One of the best things about skiing is that each winter, I meet a wonderful, engaging group of people from around the northeast. I look forward each November to becoming re-acquainted with them.
Your editor, Pete Minde. 