The final day of December finally arrived, and with it, so did much anticipation for whether or not we’d be able to get out and find some snow for Dan to ski on to keep his Turns-All-Year streak alive. After skiing in early November, Dan had knee replacement surgery around the 12th of the month, and whether or not he’d be able to keep his streak going was very much in question. He’d been experiencing some stiffness and soreness during Christmas week, but fortunately he was feeling good during the last week of December and the weather aligned for the Pass to have (only) the Sleepy Hollow chairlift spinning, so we made plans to head up and see if he could make a run or two. Joe and I met early at Dan’s house, and after loading our gear into his Tesla, we headed up to the Pass.
Since none of us had patrolled yet because the season was off to such a dismal start, we met up with Chris to get our season passes printed, and then geared up in the patrol room. Both Joe and I were glad to see Dan was able to step right into his skis and skate over to the chair, and we worked our way over as well.
We loaded the chair without incident, and Dan unloaded without a problem as well. As soon as he took off, I could tell it was going to be a good day — it was like he was feeling 100%. I headed down and snapped a few photos as he skied by, and as usual he made the turns look effortless, despite being just over 6 weeks out from having a fully replaced knee.
On the drive up, we had discussed maybe doing two to three laps, but Dan was feeling good so we pounded out 6-7 laps in rapid succession, enjoying both sides of the lift on good grooming on the man-made snow. After 7 laps or so, we decided to head in and take a break and enjoy a beverage as well as a bite to eat.
We ditched our gear near the patrol room, and set up shop on a couple of coolers behind Dan’s car. The sun was out and it was a beautiful day, and everything almost seemed to be normal, with the exception of the lack of snow in the ski area. There wasn’t even enough snow to make a berm from what had been plowed in the parking lot.
I pulled out a tasty Hop Lei IPA from Aloha Beer Company that I’d picked up on the Big Island in Hawaii a month or so earlier while vacationing with my family, and it hit the spot. I reveled in the moment of hanging out with Dan and Joe, enjoying a good beer in the sunshine, and making turns on Sleepy, and was super glad that I’d took the day off work to take part in keeping Dan’s streak alive.
After our beverage and snack, we headed back over to the lift to pound out a few more laps. Dan even took the camera and snapped a few shots of me enjoying some New Year’s eve boarding on Sleepy!
We rode the lift four more times for a total of 11 laps, with a combined vertical of over 1,000 feet, which Dan counted as legitimate to keep his streak alive (his usual number is 1,500 feet, but 1,056 would have to do for December). Satisfied with a great day of making turns, we ended the day by heading down to the Gold Lake snow park to grill up some brats. As usual, the brats hit the spot, and put the cap on an excellent day of skiing and riding at the Pass. Although it wasn’t big vertical, deep powder, or riding gnarly terrain, it will go down as one of my favorite days at the Pass and one that won’t soon be forgotten. Cheers to Dan for keeping his streak going. His consecutive month count as of December 2025 now stands at 362 months (30 years, 2 months).
