Virtual Ski Club Becomes a Reality

By Jerry Graffam

Dawn had barely broken over the Mahoosucs as I ran from the Cascades Condo building with my skis flung over my shoulder, poles in tow, and my jacket barely zipped. It was 7:16 on a crisp January morning and I was already a minute late for first tracks. Having clicked into my bindings and skated under the South Ridge Triple, I could see the Quad already spinning and a group of about 40 brave souls huddled at the base. After some quick hellos and handshakes I was on the lift with three other members of the Sunday River Community Forum, all of us smiling as we glanced down at the perfectly laid-out corduroy below.

Ten minutes later, the group consisting of 30 forum members and 10 or so members of Sunday River’s Management, stood atop Spruce Peak awaiting instructions. “Now remember, the light is flat and there might be some groomers still on the hill,” said Dana Bullen, the mountain’s General Manager. With those few words, the group split in two – half racing toward Risky Business and the others toward American Express. The long GS turns were silky, smooth, fast, and best of all they were ours alone.

Having made a couple of runs on Spruce, we headed toward what Dana calls “the outback,” which consists of Aurora Peak, Oz, and Jordan Bowl. Each lift ride was shared with different individuals and was a good mix of members and management. The conversation was mostly small talk, no one asked for the resort’s master plans, but instead it was a chance for us to get to know the people that run the resort we all frequent and discuss on a daily basis and for them to meet all of us.

Having started out as a small chat room linked to the Sunday River web site, the Community Forum has morphed into its own entity over the past couple of years – a place for skiers and riders who don’t have a ski club or other means to meet others who call Sunday River their home mountain, to get to know one another and discuss the all-important topics such as our favorite trails, western resorts, and of course the ubiquitous Red Sox thread. And yet the Sunday River Forum is much more than a place for people to post trip stories and poke fun at one another, it has become a conduit for a close-knit community of Sunday River enthusiasts who hail from all over New England and as far away as England. No one cares what one another does for a living, whether you have a place on the mountain or drive from Portland or Boston for the day; our common bond is our shared love to be on the mountain. It was last year when I first met up with some of the members and took some runs one afternoon. Soon thereafter I was meeting up with a growing gang of cheerful folks with screen names I couldn’t remember, but faces I couldn’t forget. 

A few years back, a handful of the members, who had met on the mountain, decided to organize a “meet n’ greet barbeque” in the Barker parking lot. While there were only a handful of people at that first event, one that took place in mid-March, after a second round of early morning skiing, was attended by no less than 50 members, including Dana and Alex Kaufman, the resorts Director of Communications. Birthdays and a recent engagement were toasted and a wide array of food was cooked on numerous grills. At one end of the spread, one of the members collected cans of food we’d all brought to be donated to the Bethel Soup Kitchen and talk brewed of other philanthropic endeavors we could partake in. There were no sad goodbyes at the end of the day, but instead the promise of more skiing in the morning.

Members of the Sunday River Community Forum don’t meet in a restaurant once a month to plan events or request dues to belong, instead we welcome anyone and everyone to meet us at 11:30 every Saturday upstairs in the Barker lodge for a drink, some laughs, and of course some skiing. And while Sunday River has always been the focus of the members, several have gotten together and planned trips out west, hiked together in the summer, shared babysitting duties in the evenings, and even raced together in a corporate racing league on Wednesday nights down the road at Shawnee Peak or across the border at Pat’s Peak. Each day we welcome new members openly and each day there is something new to discuss and something new to look forward to. What we lack in club structure, we make up for in enthusiasm. I dare say that despite the oddity of having our roots online, we are as much of a club as any I’ve come across and I couldn’t be more proud to be a member.  

Jerry Graffam spends two weeks each winter at Lake Tahoe, is engaged to a fellow Sunday River skier, is a freelance writer and aspiring novelist. Living in Portland, ME Jerry works for UNUM Group Insurance Company and managed to log more than 80 skier days in the 07-08 season!