Podcast appearances and mentions of porter fox

“Among the growing effects of the climate crisis, the evolution of hurricanes is one of the more immediate and destructive.” Our oceans are warming. Superstorms are intensifying. In Porter Fox's new book, the accelerating danger resulting from these two realities of the climate crisis is on full display. And Fox is no stranger to the ocean - as a longtime sailor and decades-long climate writer, he literally confronts deadly storms in his reporting. Now, with latest book, Category Five, Superstorms and the Warming Oceans that Feed Them, he's unpacking what he's heard from scientists and explorers alike to mark the changes we've already seen with oceans and superstorms and what's in store as warming accelerates. He joins this week to talk about the damage we're seeing from natural disasters, the disparity in disaster responses, and why he wanted to combine memoir and climate science for this book.  Porter Fox is a writer and author of books like The Last Winter and Northland. He writes and edits the award-winning literary travel writing journal Nowhere, teaches at Columbia University School of the Arts and is a MacDowell Fellow.  Read Category Five, Superstorms and the Warming Oceans that Feed Them As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.

Porter Fox is a writer, lifelong sailor and author of the new book 'Category Five: Superstorms & the Warming Oceans that Feed Them'. I was referred to Porter by our mutual friend John Kretschmer, who is a major character in the book. Porter is also the son of Able Marine founder and grew up in Maine amongst sailboats and boatyards. Porter and I had a long and winding conversation about sailing, weather, science and family. His new book is out now and widely available - I highly recommend it. -- ON THE WIND is presented by Forbes Yachts, the yacht sales professionals. Forbes Yachts sell the boats that allow you to effortlessly connect your passion for yachting to the sea, bringing your world one step closer to perfection. Visit forbesyachts.com to get in touch. -- ON THE WIND is also supported by SailTies, a free app that makes it easy to record all your sailing experience in one place. A digital record of all your voyages, certificates, crew, vessels and clubs. To find out more about SailTies, go to sailties.net  

On today’s episode: Will the death of Hamas’s leader bring an end to the war? The Economist on what comes next. Nebraskans will choose between historic, dueling abortion questions. Washington Post reporter Annie Gowen lays out the stakes. Author and journalist Porter Fox is the latest guest on Apple News In Conversation. He explains why hurricanes are only getting deadlier — and why we shouldn’t be surprised if they show up in unexpected places. NBC News reports on the annual Al Smith charity dinner, which former President Trump attended and Vice President Harris skipped. CBS News reports that Robert Roberson, who faces the death penalty for controversial charges related to shaken-baby syndrome, received a last-minute stay of execution. NBC News has what we know so far about the death of One Direction’s Liam Payne. And finally, can Sabrina Ionescu do it again? USA Today on how the exciting WNBA finals have led to record viewership.

Host Piya Chattopadhyay speaks with writer Porter Fox about Hurricane Milton and our future of living with superstorms, Adrian Ma's documentary traces how Vince Carter shaped Canada both on and off the basketball court, veteran broadcaster Connie Chung reflects on her trailblazing career, and we play another round of our monthly challenge That's Puzzling!

Aux États-Unis, l'ouragan Milton a touché la Floride mercredi (9 octobre 2024) à 20h30 heure locale. Des millions de personnes sont privées d'électricité, plusieurs personnes ont été tuées, entre autres par des tornades. Dans le Florida Times-Union, repris par USA TODAY, l'éditorialiste Nate Monroe remarque que les infrastructures de Floride, pourtant habituées aux ouragans, semblent dépassées alors qu'elles en ont subi deux, coup sur coup – Hélène puis Milton. Plus de trois millions de personnes sont privées d'électricité, écrit le New York Times – un bilan qui augmente d'heure en heure. Milton a aussi, précise le Washington Post, causé des inondations allant, selon les zones de 3 à 4,50 mètres. Le quotidien revient sur les tornades qui ont précédé l'arrivée de la tempête, tornades « inattendues », « beaucoup plus fortes et résistantes que d'habitude ». « L'ouragan Milton est terrifiant, et ce n'est que le début », écrit, dans le New York Times, Porter Fox, l'auteur d'un livre sur les super ouragans. Il explique que ce ne sont plus « des aberrations, des catastrophes exceptionnelles ou des tempêtes du siècle », mais « une nouvelle réalité » due au changement climatique. Or, déplore l'auteur, non seulement beaucoup d'Américains refusent de croire qu'un super ouragan peut les frapper, mais « au niveau du gouvernement fédéral, ce n'est pas beaucoup mieux : les assurances inondations restent optionnelles pour beaucoup d'habitants des côtes, et des maisons continuent d'être construites – et reconstruites – dans des zones très exposées aux inondations ».En plus, cette fois, avec Hélène et Milton, «quelque chose semble s'être brisé», écrit l'éditorialiste du Florida Times-Union : en un temps record et à cause d'une campagne électorale surchauffée qui a « transformé le pays », l'ouragan « a cessé d'être notre ennemi commun, pour devenir une occasion de confirmer nos préjugés, prendre l'ascendant sur quelqu'un d'autre, un sujet de prédilection pour les théoriciens de la conspiration ». Coton et présidentielle Dans la campagne présidentielle actuelle, les États-Unis parlent beaucoup inflation – un des thèmes de campagne favoris de Donald Trump. La situation s'est améliorée, mais beaucoup d'Américains restent déçus. Les envoyés spéciaux de RFI Vincent Souriau et Julien Boileau ont rencontré des producteurs de coton dans une des plus anciennes plantations de l'État de Louisiane, à Frogmore. Le secteur se porte plutôt bien : « Avant la Guerre de sécession, le coton se vendait jusqu'à 50 dollars la livre. Ça ne se vend plus aussi cher. Mais on peut toujours bien en vivre », explique Lynn Mann, l'une des cadres de la plantation. Terri Caters, agricultrice dans la région, en est certaine : les prix ont dégringolé depuis que Joe Biden est à la Maison Blanche : « On vendait la livre de coton 2 dollars et demi, il y a deux ans, aujourd'hui c'est 60 centimes. » Terri Caters est derrière Donald Trump : « Au moins, il soutenait le coton, le maïs, tous les types d'agriculture. On touchait des subventions, on n'en a plus. Je suis née démocrate, je suis devenue républicaine. Trump, je pense qu'il est fou. Mais je m'en fiche, je veux juste être protégée. » Pas de financements supplémentaires pour les universités en ArgentineEn Argentine, le président ultra-libéral Javier Milei a eu gain de cause : le budget de l'université ne sera pas augmenté, le président Milei avait mis son veto, et il a été validé mercredi (9 octobre 2024) par les députés. « Le gouvernement a réussi à protéger le veto au Congrès, mais le conflit se multiplie, avec des facultés et des rectorats occupés dans tout le pays, et une grève dans toutes les universités », renchérit Pagina 12, qui s'insurge « contre la vétocratie ». « Une victoire aujourd'hui, et des problèmes pour demain », renchérit Clarin. L'éditorialiste se demande si Javier Milei, dont le gouvernement est en minorité à l'Assemblée, compte continuer à gouverner par l'intermédiaire de décrets, et de vetos «qu'il oppose aux lois adoptées par le pouvoir législatif». Sachant que les alliances qu'il a réussi à boutiquer pour sauver son veto ne devraient pas résister à la perspective des prochaines élections. Et que selon la Constitution, les vetos et les décrets sont des outils « exceptionnels »… En Colombie, Petro en appelle à la justice interaméricaineLe président colombien est visé par une enquête de l'autorité électorale pour dépassement des dépenses de campagne pour la présidentielle de 2022. Le gouvernement parle de « coup porté à la démocratie », rappelleEl Universal, et le président a décidé de saisir la Cour interaméricaine des droits de l'homme. Le quotidien rappelle qu'en 2013, la CIDH, déjà saisie par Gustavo Petro, qui était alors maire de Bogota, avait tranché en sa faveur et annulé la destitution et les 15 ans d'inéligibilité dont il avait écopé. Aujourd'hui, El Espectador se range du côté du président, et estime que « le Conseil national électoral abuse de son pouvoir pour obtenir des crédits politiques ». Ce n'est manifestement pas l'avis du Conseil d'État colombien puisqu'il a, rapporte El Heraldo, rejeté le recours en nullité qu'avait présenté l'avocat de Gustavo Petro. En Haïti, nouvelle attaque contre la ville de Pont-SondéFrantz Duval, le rédacteur en chef du quotidien Le Nouvelliste, revient sur les articles marquants du jour, et sur cette nouvelle attaque perpétrée par le gang de Gran Grif contre la ville de Pont-Sondé. La première, la semaine dernière, avait fait plus de cent morts. Le gang a signé sa nouvelle attaque en disant « qu'ils sont libres de faire ce qu'ils veulent dans la région ». Le coordonnateur du Conseil d'administration de Pont-Sondé raconte que les autorités, au plus haut niveau, ne se sont jamais déplacées à Pont-Sondé pour constater la situation – « les ONG, le gouvernement et les autorités en général font leur cinéma loin de Pont-Sondé et ne viennent pas sur le terrain ».À lire aussi dans Le Nouvelliste, l'éditorial de Frantz Duval sur les « zombis » haïtiens – une exposition s'ouvre à Paris au Musée du Quai Branly. Il ne s'agit pas des zombis hollywoodiens, mais de personnes punies par une société secrète. Frantz Duval explique qu'en Haïti, on n'aurait jamais osé faire une telle exposition : « entre la peur et la honte et le respect pour ces questions-là, on n'y touche pas vraiment. Tout le monde sait que ça existe mais on n'en parle pas vraiment ».   Les enfants dans les gangsHuman Rights Watch alerte sur la situation de milliers d'enfants en Haïti, qui sont devenus les proies des gangs criminels. Nathalye Cotrino, chercheuse au bureau de crises, conflits et armes de HRW, estime que 30% des membres des groupes criminels sont des mineurs. Un chiffre qui est en augmentation, car « ces groupes se préparent à de possibles opérations et confrontations avec la police nationale haïtienne, et avec la mission d'appui à la sécurité ». Les enfants que HRW a rencontrés ont tous expliqué que « la faim est la principale raison pour laquelle ils rejoignent les groupes criminels ». Ils vivent dans des zones où l'État n'est pas présent, sans accès à l'alimentation, à la santé ou à d'autres services de base, et « considèrent que les groupes criminels, c'est le seul endroit où ils pourraient obtenir au moins à manger et un refuge ». Gessica Geneus, présidente du jury du festival du film documentaire Amazonie-CaraïbesLa cinéaste haïtienne Gessica Geneus s'est fait connaître du grand public en 2021, avec le long métrage Freda, en sélection officielle au festival de Cannes. Elle préside en ce moment le jury du festival du film documentaire Amazonie-Caraïbes, à St Laurent du Maroni, sur le site de l'ancien bagne de Guyane. Le public peut y découvrir, en plein air, des films venus du Brésil, de Colombie, du Surinam ou encore du Costa Rica.La réalisatrice a confié à Sophie Torlotin qu'elle était heureuse de revenir à Saint-Laurent, où son premier documentaire, « Le jour se lèvera », avait remporté le grand prix lors de la première édition du festival. Elle travaille sur un nouveau projet, qu'elle espère tourner au printemps prochain, toujours à Haïti, mais cette fois à Jacmel : «Le jour où je ne peux plus tourner à Haïti, je ne ferai plus de cinéma. Souvent, on me fait la proposition d'aller tourner ailleurs, mais un film doit documenter un espace.» Le journal de la Première La situation se dégrade en Martinique. La nuit dernière, deux gendarmeries et une grande surface sont parties en fumée…

We'd love to hear your thoughts on the podcast. Take the survey at wbur.org/survey. It's been nearly 5 years since cash bail was removed for most people charged with misdemeanors in Harris County, Texas, home to Houston. Here & Now's Peter O'Dowd heads to Harris County for a special series on how bail reform has changed the criminal justice system there. And, North Carolina is a critical swing state in this year's presidential election. Democrat Kimberly Harding and Republican Dallas Woodhouse explain how they're organizing voters in the state. Then, in his new book, "Category Five: Superstorms and the Warming Oceans that Feed Them," author Porter Fox explores the vital role that oceans play in weather and climate change.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Porter Fox grew up on the coast of Maine sailing small boats. His father designed and built Whistler sailboats and founded Able Marine. Porter has written three books and also writes stories for The New York Times and other journals.  His latest book is Category Five, which we talk about.  We also talk about sailing around New York City, sailing a Whistler that his father built, sailing a cat ketch, cruising the New Jersey coast, sailing canoes in The Bahamas, sailing with John Kretschmer, climate change, the amplification of storms, sea-level rise, why we love the ocean, the importance of keeping a calm mind, defeating trauma, John Kretschmer's books, freeboard, net zero, and more. Shownotes are at https://www.paultrammell.com/podcast-season-7 Support through Patreon here patreon.com/paultrammell

We meet with Porter Fox, who is a former collegiate wrestler, personal trainer/coach, and a runner. Since his wrestling career concluded earlier this year, he wanted to challenge himself to running his first-ever marathon. Sunday, November 5th, 2023, Porter is attempting to run the Rim Rock Marathon in Grand Junction, Colorado.To get in touch with Porter, here is his contact information:https://instagram.com/porterfox__?igshid=MzMyNGUyNmU2YQ==(435) 640-5270

This podcast hit paid subscribers' inboxes on August 7. It dropped for free subscribers on August 10. To receive future pods as soon as they're live, and to support independent ski journalism, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription. You can also subscribe for free below:WhoDanielle and Laszlo Vajtay, Owners of Plattekill Mountain, New YorkRecorded onJuly 14, 2023About Plattekill MountainClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: Danielle and Laszlo VajtayLocated in: Roxbury, New YorkYear founded: 1958Pass affiliations: NoneReciprocal partners:* 3 days each at Snow Ridge, Swain, Mont du Lac, Ski Cooper* 2 days at HomewoodClosest neighboring ski areas: Belleayre (28 minutes), Windham (41 minutes), Hunter (46 minutes)Base elevation: 2,400 feetSummit elevation: 3,500 feetVertical drop: 1,100 feetSkiable Acres: 75 acresAverage annual snowfall: 175 inchesTrail count: 40 (20% expert, 20% most difficult, 40% more difficult, 20% easiest)Lift count: 3 (1 triple, 1 double, 1 carpet)Why I interviewed themThink about every ski area in the country that almost everyone knows. Almost every one of them has a smaller, less-well-known, slightly badass neighbor lurking nearby. In LA, it's Baldy, forgotten in the shadow of Big Bear and Mountain High. In Tahoe, it's Homewood, lost in the Palisades Tahoe circus. We can just keep going: Hoodoo/Bachelor; White Pass/Crystal; Mt. Spokane/Schweitzer; Soldier/Sun Valley; Snow King/Jackson; Sunlight/Aspen; Red River/Taos.In New York, we have a few versions of this: West and (currently closed) Hickory, adjacent to Gore Mountain; Titus, intercepted by Whiteface as cars wind north. But the most dramatic contrast lies in the Catskills. There, you find four ski areas: Hunter, recently expanded, owned by Vail Resorts and flying two six-packs; Windham, two new investors on its masthead, an Ikon Pass partner that runs three high-speed lifts out of its base; Belleayre, owned by the state and run by the Olympic Regional Development Authority, or ORDA, with a shimmering gondola that no other ski area of its size could afford; and Plattekill.Plattekill is owned by Laszlo and Danielle Vajtay, former ski instructors who purchased the bump in 1993. They have added snowmaking to one of their 40 trails each year that they could afford to. Their lift fleet is a 1974 Hall triple and a 1977 Hall double, moved from Belleayre in 1999. It took the Vajtays three years to install the lift. The parking lots cling layer-cake-style to the mountainside. Plattekill is open Friday through Sunday, plus Christmas and Presidents' Weeks and MLK Day. Access is down poorly marked backroads, half an hour past Belleayre, which sits directly off state route 28.It's fair to ask how such a place endures. New York is filled with family-owned ski areas running vintage lifts. But only Plattekill must compete directly with so many monsters. How?There is no one answer. There's the scrap and hustle, the constant scouring of the countryside for the new-to-Platty machines to rebuild to glory. There's the deliberate, no-debt, steady-steady better-better philosophy that keeps the banks away. There's the 1,100 feet of pure fall-line skiing. The vast kingdom of glades. The special geography that seems to squeeze just a bit extra out of every storm. There's the lodge, rustic but clean, cozy, and spacious. And there's the liftlines, or miraculous lack of them, for such a ski area just three hours from the nation's largest city. And there are the midweek private-mountain rentals – Platty's secret weapon, a $8,500 guarantee on even the feistiest weather days.That algorithm, or some version of it, has equaled survival for Plattekill. When the Vajtays bought “Ski Plattekill” in 1993, the Catskills were crowded. But Bobcat, Scotch Valley, Cortina, Highmount, and Sawkill all vanished over the decades. Plattekill could have died too. Instead, it is beloved. Enough so that it can charge more for its season pass - $779 early-bird, $799 right now – than Vail charges for the Epic Local Pass ($676 early-bird, $689 today), which includes unlimited access to Hunter and most of the company's 40 other resorts. When a harder-to-reach, smaller mountain running 50-year-old lifts can charge more for a single-mountain season pass than its larger, more up-to-date, easier-to-access neighbor whose season pass also gets skiers in the front door at Whistler and Breckenridge, it's doing something mighty right.What we talked aboutPlattekill's “surprisingly good” 2022-23 ski season; building a snowmaking system gun-by-gun; 2023 offseason improvements; how the Vajtays have grown Plattekill without taking on traditional debt; what killed independent skiing in the Catskills; private mid-week mountain rentals; a growing wedding business; why Plattekill was an early adopter of lift-served mountain-biking, why the mountain abandoned the project, and whether they would ever bring it back; assessing Platty's newest trail; potential terrain expansion within the existing footprint; plans to moderate the steep section at the end of the Overlook trail; the potential lift and terrain expansion that could make Plattekill “a big, big player in the world of ski areas”; considering outside investment to turbocharge growth - “the possibilities for the mountain are that it could be a lot more”; “I don't have an interest in selling Plattekill”; Snow Operating; assessing Plattekill's Hall chairlifts; “anybody taking out a lift, please don't cut it up and throw it in the Dumpster before contacting” small ski areas; the lightning strike that changed Plattekill's summer; helping save Holiday Mountain; competing against the Epic and Ikon passes; competing against state-owned and taxpayer-funded ski areas; how New York State could help independent ski areas compete against its owned ski areas; Liftopia's collapse; the Ski Cooper season pass; and reconsidering the Indy Pass.Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewThe Vajtays have appeared on The Storm Skiing Podcast before, in episode two, which I released on Oct. 25, 2019. They'd agreed to do the interview without knowing who I was, and before I'd published a single episode. I will always be grateful to them (and the other seven folks* who recorded an episode when The Storm was still gathering in my brain), for that. The conversation turned out great, I thought, and fused the podcast to the world of scrappy independents from its earliest days.But in the intervening years, I've gotten to know the Vajtays much better. Laz and I, especially, communicate a lot. Mostly via text, but occasionally email, or when I'm up there skiing. In May, he joined a panel I hosted at the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) convention in Savannah, Georgia. Alongside the general managers of Mt. Rose, Mt. Baker, and Cascade, Wisconsin, Laz articulated why the Vajtays had so far elected to keep Plattekill off of any multi-mountain pass.The NSAA's convention rules forbade me from recording that panel, but the conversation so closely aligned with my daily pass-world coverage that I knew I had to bring some version of it to you. This is installment one. Cascade GM Matt Vohs is scheduled to join me on the pod in October, followed by Mt. Rose GM Greg Gavrilets in November (you can always view the upcoming podcast schedule here). I've yet to schedule Mt. Baker CEO Gwyn Howat, but I'm hopeful that we can lock in a future date.So that is part of it: why has Plattekill held firm against the pass craze as all of its better-capitalized competitors have joined one coalition or the other? But that is only part of the larger Platty story. Vail was supposed to ruin everything. Then Alterra was supposed to ruin it more. Family-owned ski areas would be crushed beneath these nukes launched from a Colorado silo. But this narrative has been disproven across the country. Because of a lot of things – the Covid-driven outdoor boom, the indie cool factor, the big boys overselling their passes – small ski areas are having a moment. No one, arguably, has a tougher hill to defend than Platty, and no one's proven themselves more.*Those six people were: New England Lost Ski Areas Project founder Jeremy Davis, Lift Blog founder Peter Landsman, Boyne Resorts CEO Stephen Kircher, Magic Mountain President Geoff Hatheway, Killington President Mike Solimano, and Burke GM Kevin Mack.What I got wrongI said that The New York Times profile on Plattekill's private-rentals business ran in 2018. It actually ran Jan. 4, 2019.Why you should ski PlattekillI can endorse all four large Catskills ski areas. Hunter holds a crazy, possessed energy. Impenetrable on weekends, you can roll 1,600-vertical-foot fastlaps off the sixer on spring weekdays. Belleayre throws past-era vibes with its funky-weird trail network while delivering rides on a top-to-bottom gondola that is the nicest lift in New York State. Windham's high-speed lift fleet hides a narrow and fantastically interesting trail network that, when wide open with new snow in the woods, feels enormous.So Plattekill is not, for me, a family-diner-versus-McDonald's kind of fight. I probably ski all four of those mountains about the same amount. But I will make an appeal here to those New York-based Epic and Ikon passholders who are scanning their mountain menus and deciding where to ski this winter: take one day and go to Plattekill. Make it a day that you know will be miserable at Hunter or Windham. A day when the lift queues can be seen from space. A holiday, a Saturday, a powder day. I know you already invested in your pass. But suck up one more lift ticket, and check out Plattekill.Here's what you will find: no liftlines, ever. The parking lots simply aren't large enough to accommodate enough skiers to form them. A double chair with this view:At the top, three choices: loop green-circle Overlook all the way around, thread your way down through the tight and narrow blues, or ride one of four double-blacks all the way back to the valley. I prefer the blues because they lead to the glades, unmarked but maintained, funky, interesting, tap-shoes required.The triple side is more traditional, more wide runs, especially Upper Face. Powder Puff is fabulous for kids. The snow doesn't stick to the triple side like it does to the double side, but when it's deep enough, wild lines through the trees lie everywhere.Plattekill is littered with curiosities. A rock quarry. An old T-bar terminal. An overgrown halfpipe in the trees. Abandoned MTB trails still signed and useable for skiing. More than any ski area in New York, Plattekill rewards exploration and creativity, enables and encourages it with a permissive Patrol and line-less lifts. Twenty or 25 runs are possible here, even on a big day. Just keep ripping.In some ways, Plattekill is a time machine, a snapshot of a Catskills otherwise lost. In others, it is exactly of this moment, stripped of the pretense and the crowds that can seem like skiing's inevitable trajectory. The bozos who can't stand a fixed-grip lift ride longer than three minutes don't come here. They would rather stand in a long line for a fast lift. But you don't have to. You can come to Plattekill.Podcast NotesOn Platty's singular atmosphereNo one has written more on Plattekill than Harvey Road, founder of the fantastic New York Ski Blog. I asked him to share links to his five favorite Platty write-ups:Return to Plattekill Mountain – Jan. 8, 2013“Those intangible forces pull me inexorably to Plattekill. Don't get me wrong, Plattekill has some solid tangibles too: lake effect powder and steeps and trees and beautiful views are important to people who love to ski.  But there's also something more. A simplicity of purpose that fills my soul with an exuberance I have a hard time capturing in my nine-to-five life.”Plattekill: The Life of Riley – March 5, 2018“Later in the morning the snow and the wind really picked up. It must have snowed two or three inches an hour well into the afternoon. By noon all traces of the bottom were gone and Plattekill was 100% open for business. Twist and Ridge were deserted and any tracks you left on that side of the mountain were gone by the time you returned.”I'm Done Skiing Alone – March 20, 2018“When I was a little kid living on a farm, I'd play by myself in a big tractor tire that served as a sandbox. I developed a reputation for playing alone. ‘Harvey doesn't need playmates, he's happy all by himself!' It wasn't true, down inside I didn't like it, but I didn't know myself well enough to push back.”Chasing Plake – Feb. 4, 2019“Around 10:00 am we headed into the lodge to give our legs a break, hydrate and warm up a little (it was maybe -1 F at this point). As we got to the door, we saw the man himself. ‘I was wondering when you'd show up.'“'Hi, my name is Glen!' he said, offering his hand. I introduced myself and my son and asked if he'd been skiing yet.“'No, we kind of take our time on Saturdays. I love to watch a mountain wake up and come alive.'  We chatted about Tahoe and the weather for a couple minutes. I asked if we could take some pics. Of course we could.”Plattekill: Five Days Later – March 11, 2019“We skied down to the double and Sam the Smiling Liftie let us step around the rope and head up early with Patrol. At the top, a new character was introduced. Maybe he'd seen my custom skis, as he said ‘Road? I'm Soule. Jeff Soule.'“I use the word character in it's broadest sense. Gregarious and engaging, with homemade poles he'd carved from tree branches, Jeff had switched to tele this season and was absolutely ripping, hucking everything in sight.”On the lost ski areas of the CatskillsWhen the Vajtays purchased Plattekill in 1993, the mountain was one of six family-owned ski areas in the Catskills. One by one, the other five failed. Here's an overview of each:Highmount, circa 1985Bobcat circa 1996Cortina, circa 1995Scotch Valley, circa 2004I don't think a trailmap exists of Sawkill, which was basically one or two runs and a ropetow on 70 vertical feet.On that ominous New York Times article from the ‘90sLaszlo referred to a New York Times article covering the Vajtays' disastrous second season as owners – that article ran on Jan. 21, 1995. An excerpt:A sign posted at the Ski Plattekill resort here warns against packing the cozy, wood-paneled cafeteria beyond its capacity of 242 people. That has hardly been a problem this winter.With a third of the ski season already over, this resort in the central Catskills has yet to open a single one of its 27 trails. The reason is plain: it has barely snowed this winter, and whatever snow has fallen has been washed away by driving rains and unseasonably warm temperatures. When Laszlo Vajtay, the owner of Ski Plattekill, looks out at his mountain, all he sees is brown grass."It is depressing," he said, as he trudged through the mud blanketing his steepest trail, Blockbuster, on this 52-degree afternoon. "Look at how warm it is. It's like summer. Winter's just not here yet."Mr. Vajtay's experience is the starkest example of what has been a disastrous season for skiers and ski areas across the Northeast. Of the 50 ski areas in New York State, all but nine closed down late this week, hoping to preserve their remaining snow cover for the weekend, according to Ski Areas of New York, a trade group. Things were not much better in New England, where nearly 60 percent of ski resorts reported being closed.On The New York Times article on private mountain rentalsPlattekill has offered private mountain rentals for 15 years. That part of the business really took off, however, after The New York Times profiled the ski area in 2019:Plattekill, in turn, has branded itself as an intimate, old-fashioned resort for expert skiers and families alike. Most important, however, it has been able to guarantee income on the slower weekdays, by becoming a private mountain of sorts. Four days a week, it puts itself up for rent. Any group can have exclusive access to it for just a few thousand dollars a day.In their early years as owners, the Vajtays were obsessed with two things that were not always compatible: making snow and avoiding debt. In the summer, they opened up the mountain for camping, music festivals and mountain biking. They took what they earned and invested it into snow-making equipment.Eventually, a new business idea came from Plattekill's regular skiers, who visited the mountain every time it snowed, even when it wasn't open. (The mountain was and is only open to the public Fridays through Sundays.) This became so common that the Vajtays decided to open the mountain, regardless of the day, following a major snowfall. Typically, about 500 paying customers would show up for the event, called Powderdaize.Powderdaize led to another idea: renting out the entire mountain to groups. Some Plattekill regulars so enjoyed the quiet setting of the last-minute weekday openings that they intimated to Ms. Vajtay how great it would be to have a “power day” to themselves, she recalled. The couple knew of a few members-only mountains in the United States but these were fancy, expensive resorts like the Yellowstone Club in Montana and the Hermitage Club in Vermont. Why not rent out their humble little mountain?In 2008, they started to do just that, charging $2,500 a day for exclusive use of Plattekill Monday through Thursday. (The price has since increased to $4,500.) Clients have ranged from corporations, like Citigroup, to religious organizations. Every year since 2010, Jehovah's Witnesses congregations from New Jersey and New York have met there once a year.On being “The Alta of The Catskills”Laz referred to an old Powder article that glossed Plattekill “the Alta of the Catskills.” The author, Porter Fox, also visited Hunter and Belleayre, but here's the Platty section:Two lifts rose 1,100 vertical feet from the base of Plattekill Ski Resort to the 3,500-foot summit. Between them were a few lift enclosures—designed to mimic gambrel barn roofs in the valley—an oversized base lodge, dirt parking lots, a dirt driveway, and about 200 skiers lapping trails as fast as they could.Plattekill is the Alta of the Catskills. The Little Ski Area That Could has fewer trails but gets more snow than most resorts in the range, averaging 150 inches annually. It is easy to forget that New York State borders two Great Lakes (Ontario and Erie), and that lake-effect storms often carry all the way to the Catskills. Sitting on the northwestern fringe of the range, Plattekill rings out most of the moisture before storms warm up and dry out.The mountain's 38 trails are only open Friday through Sunday. (You can rent the whole place for $3,500/day midweek.) If it snows 12 inches or more, the staff will get the chairs spinning midweek as well. Last year, “Platty” opened on a Monday after receiving four feet of snow in one dump. It wasn't a fluke, resort owner Laszlo Vajtay told me as he pulled up National Weather Service radar images of the storm. Precipitation spanned all the way from Manhattan to Albany in the image. The red dot in the center of the maelstrom was positioned precisely over his mountain.Vajtay, 56, started skiing at Plattekill when he was 7 and never left. He taught skiing, met his wife, Danielle (also an instructor), proposed and got married there. In 1993, he bought the place. The Vajtays didn't have deep pockets, so when their ancient DMC 3700 groomer broke down, they hired a nearby mechanic, named “Macker,” who learned how to fix it. He fixed all of the groomers on the hill, then refurbished an older model that Vajtay bought for a song. In 2014, Plattekill became the only authorized Bombardier service center in New York and Pennsylvania.Meanwhile, one of their snowcat clients asked them to work on their snow guns as well. There was no snowmaking at Plattekill when Vajtay bought it; the Platty crew cobbled one together from used guns and pumps they salvaged from old fire trucks. They took the job on and now part of Plattekill's business is also repairing snow-making equipment and lifts throughout the Northeast. “We run this place like they run farms in the valley—no debt,” Vajtay said. “The one time we had to borrow, we asked our skiers to chip in for a new lift. We paid them back on time, with interest.”Vajtay's standard look is one of excitement, or shock. His clear blue eyes are penetrating, and his gray hair is usually messed up by a ski hat or helmet. The “shock” part is real. He is genuinely amazed at how well he and his crew have done with a small ski area in an era when many others have gone belly up. Sixty-five resorts in New York have closed in the last 40 years, according to the New England Lost Ski Areas Project.In the new world of mega resorts, Plattekill is a time capsule of the way things used to be—steep runs, wild-eyed locals, friendly staff, boot cubbies, $2 frozen pizza slices, and an oversized base lodge bar, where auburn alpenglow settles on the last skiers of the day cruising down. The hand-hewn rafters, deer antler chandeliers, stained pine paneling, antique snowshoes and skis hanging on the wall reel the clock back to the 1980s, '70s, '60s —when televisions received three channels, every car had 300 horsepower under the hood, politicians were accountable for their actions, and all anyone in the Northeast wanted to do in the winter was sleep and ski.Laszlo Vajtay is not just the owner of Plattekill, he grew up skiing there. He and his wife, Danielle, run the ski area like a farm--debt free. They also run it as a family. Above,It's easy to fall into that world at Platty. The day we arrived was the Friday before the annual “Beach Party.” The ticket-seller-bartender-receptionist-office-manager-landscaper gal took a break from blowing up balloons and unfolding last year's tiki decorations to give us tickets before Vajtay took us on a tour of the grounds. Here was the PR-mountain-ops-ticket-sales-manager's office; there were the ski lockers; there was the cafe and the cabinet-sized ski shop run by George Quinn—who wrote two books about ski history in the Catskills and knows the range better than anyone since Rip Van Winkle. Lastly, Vajtay showed us the main eating hall, where a circular fireplace flickered in the middle of the room, itself an actual invention of the 1960s that now absolutely vibes the place with a '60s aura.Out the double picture windows at the northern end of the Blockbuster Lounge was a quiver of double-diamond runs Platty is known for: Blockbuster, Freefall, Plunge, Northface, all of which are pitched straight down. At the top, a long, wooded ridge hems in the resort.Vajtay had rounded up a scrappy crew of locals who were anxious to go, including Scott Ketchum, a longtime local who moved to Phoenicia the same week that Jimmy Hendrix played at Woodstock a few miles away and grew up skiing Simpson's rope tow. After a quick introduction, Ketchum offered to show Reddick some leftover powder in the trees while Vajtay and I talked.Turned out that, at Platty, “leftover powder in the trees” was code for: traverse 45 minutes east across the ridge; find a foot of fresh a week after the last storm; plenty steep and plenty of vertical; bad route-finding at the top; a thicket of trees so dense it became impossible to simply get down; multiple over-the-handlebar moments; broken pole; run-in with an ornery neighbor who had fired a shotgun over someone's head the week before; a few laughs; and, finally, a smelly pig-pile ride in a pickup truck back to the resort.On Snow OperatingLaszlo referenced a podcast episode that I recorded with Snow Operating CEO Joe Hession. Listen here.Laz also talks about Hugh Reynolds, who joined me on a different podcast episode. Listen here. On the Olympic Regional Development AuthorityWe talked extensively about the Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA), which manages three ski areas owned by New York State: Belleayre (which is right down the road from Plattekill), Gore, and Whiteface. Recent NPR reports detailed the stunning level of taxpayer funding channeled into ORDA's coffers over the past six years:Standing in the boardroom of New York's state-run Olympic Regional Development Authority in Lake Placid, CEO Mike Pratt spread out photographs of Olympic sports venues in Beijing, Berlin and Sarajevo that lie abandoned and in ruins.His message was plain: This almost happened here.Pratt convinced New York state to bet on a different future, investing huge amounts of taxpayer cash rebuilding and modernizing the sports authority's venues, most dating back to the 1980 Winter Olympics."The last six years, the total capital investment in the Olympic authority was $552 million," Pratt said. "These are unprecedented investments in our facilities, no question about it. But the return on investment is immediate."NPR found New York state has actually pumped far more dollars into the organization since Pratt took the helm, with government documents showing the total outlay closer to $620 million.You can read more here. It's an incredible story.On Ski Cooper's controversial season passI asked Laz and Danielle about Plattekill's longtime reciprocal partnership with Ski Cooper and where they stand on the controversy around it. I've covered that extensively here, here, and here.On Mount Bohemia's $99 season passI've covered this extensively in the past, but my podcast with Boho owner Lonie Glieberman goes into the whole backstory and strategy behind the mega-bargain pass at this ungroomed glade kingdom in Michigan's remote Upper Peninsula. This year's season pass sale is set for Nov. 22 to Dec. 2. The $99 pass no longer includes Saturdays – skiers have to level up to the $109 version for that. Bohemia also sells a $172 two-year pass and a $1,299 lifetime pass.The Storm explores the world of lift-served skiing year-round. Join us.The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 67/100 in 2023, and number 453 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. Want to send feedback? Reply to this email and I will answer (unless you sound insane, or, more likely, I just get busy). You can also email skiing@substack.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

Seth takes a closer look at reports of Fox News' dossier of alleged dirt on Tucker Carlson amid its messy separation from the recently ousted host.Then, Rep. Katie Porter reacts to the news about Tucker Carlson getting fired by Fox News and Biden announcing his plans for reelection before discussing the class divide in Congress and running for the Senate.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

http://www.porterfox.com/ (Porter Fox), author of "https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/porter-fox/the-last-winter/9780316460934/ (The Last Winter),” trekked the world to tell the story of what he's seen firsthand — a winter that's shrinking. Fox is a lifelong skier, so he has a personal interest in cold, snowy weather. But less winter and less snow doesn't only mean less skiing; it could also spell the end of the natural world as we know it. In today's episode, http://www.porterfox.com/ (Porter Fox) explains what he learned by crisscrossing the globe with scientists and adventurers to better understand the scale of this climate catastrophe and how humans might yet have time to respond. Visit the link below to learn more about http://www.porterfox.com/ (Porter Fox) and pick up your copy of "https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/porter-fox/the-last-winter/9780316460934/ (The Last Winter.)" https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/porter-fox/the-last-winter/9780316460934/

California is the first state in the country to require private insurance to cover at-home testing for sexually transmitted diseases. The law is the first of its kind.Stephanie Arnold Pang of the National Coalition of STD Directors discusses the new law. And, a changing climate is making the winter Olympics harder to pull off — both in the future and the present. Porter Fox, author of "The Last Winter," joins us to discuss.

Join Matt for an interview with Porter Fox, Author of The Last Winter about environmental issues facing us all. 

Matt Matern and Porter Fox discuss his book, The Last Winter, and climate change's impact on snowpacks. He stresses voting, reliable education, supporting advocacy groups, and policy changes. Porter urges focusing on scientific facts and expressed hope in American innovation.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jeremy Arthur strikes the right balance between dramatic storytelling and a journalistic tone in Porter Fox's remarkable audiobook about climate change. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile's Alan Minskoff discuss this audiobook that features author Fox's globe-trotting climate reporting, which includes stops in the Cascades, Alaska, Greenland, and Switzerland. He interviews experts and aficionados ranging from glaciologists to alpinists to help him suss out the crushing facts of rising oceans, calving glaciers, and hottest temperatures. Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile's website. Published by Hachette Audio. Find more audiobook recommendations at audiofilemagazine.com Today's episode of Behind the Mic is brought to you by Oasis Audio, publisher of the 2020 Christian Book Award for Best Audiobook, Chasing Vines, find your way to an immensely fruitful life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Winter is shrinking. In Utah, we see snowlines receding up the mountain and around the world, ice is melting at incredible rates. In a new book, the writer Porter Fox explores this drastic change and how it could change much of the world.

Winter is shrinking. In Utah, we see snowlines receding up the mountain and around the world, ice is melting at incredible rates. In a new book, the writer Porter Fox explores this drastic change and how it could change much of the world.

As the planet warms due to greenhouse gas emissions, winter as we know it is disappearing. In the last 50 years, the Northern Hemisphere lost a million square miles of spring snowpack, and in the US alone, snow cover has been reduced by 15-30 per cent. On average, winter has shrunk by a month in most northern latitudes. In this deeply researched and adventure-filled book, journalist Porter Fox travels along the edge of the Northern Hemisphere's snow line to track the scope of this drastic change and ultimately predict what the future of winter - or lack thereof - will look like. This original research will be animated by five harrowing and illuminating journeys - each grounded by interviews with idiosyncratic, charismatic experts in their respective fields and Fox's own narrative of growing up on a remote island in Northern Maine. Timely, atmospheric and expertly investigated, The Last Winter will showcase like never before the true cost of climate change.

As the planet warms, winter is shrinking. In the last fifty years, the Northern Hemisphere lost a million square miles of spring snowpack and in the US alone, snow cover has been reduced by 15-30%. On average, winter has shrunk by a month in most northern latitudes. In his new book “The Last Winter,” journalist Porter Fox travels along the edge of the Northern Hemisphere's snow line to track the scope of this drastic change, and how it will literally change everything—from rapid sea level rise, to fresh water scarcity for two billion people, to massive greenhouse gas emissions from thawing permafrost, and a half dozen climate tipping points that could very well spell the end of the world as we know it. This original research is animated by four harrowing and illuminating journeys—each grounded by interviews with idiosyncratic, charismatic experts in their respective fields and Fox's own narrative of growing up on a remote island in Northern Maine.

This week's episode is with adventurer, polar explorer, environmentalist, Minnesotan, and wonderfully nice guy Paul Schurke!! Paul is a legend in the adventure world- completing multiple expeditions to the North Pole (including an unsupported trip in the 80s), dogsledding across Siberia (to convince the US and Soviet Union to open the Bering Strait to help out Inuit families), following in the footsteps of Teddy Roosevelt's River of Doubt expedition in the Amazon, crossing South Georgia Island by the same route as Ernest Shackleton, and so much more. He now lives on and is a huge proponent for the protection of the Boundary Waters in northern Minnesota (one of my favorite places on the planet), helped establish the Wilderness Inquiry (a program which has the mission of outdoor adventures from all walks of life) and spends his time running the Wintergreen Dogsled Lodge in Ely, Minnesota. In what became one of my favorite episodes yet, you will hear all about a lifetime of adventure with a wonderful storyteller!! Can't wait to share this one with you all!! Big thanks to my dad for telling me that I have to reach out to Paul after reading "Northland" by Porter Fox. The lesson is...always listen to your dad! More from Paul Schurke: Wintergreen Dogsled Lodge: https://www.dogsledding.com/a-history-of-wintergreen-dogsled-lodge Wilderness Inquiry: https://www.wildernessinquiry.org "North to the Pole" Book: https://www.amazon.com/North-Pole-Will-Steger/dp/0873519906 Bering Bridge Book: https://www.amazon.com/Bering-Bridge-Soviet-American-Expedition-Siberia/dp/0938586319 Wintergreen Northern Wear: https://www.wintergreennorthernwear.com MORE LIKE A BIGFOOT: Subscribe and Review on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/like-a-bigfoot/id1160773293?mt=2 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7EhpBoeVG2pcTCGwHG85UG Soundcloud Archives: https://soundcloud.com/chris-ward-126531464 Stitcher Archives: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/like-a-bigfoot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/likeabigfoot/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/likeabigfoot/

The Storm Skiing Podcast #2 | Download this episode on iTunes and Google Play| Read the full overview at skiing.substack.com.Who: Danielle and Laszlo Vajtay, Owners, Plattekill MountainWhy I interviewed them: Because Plattekill flat amazes me. Situated deep in the Catskills interior, surrounded by better funded and bigger neighbors, nearly unknown outside of die-hard ski circles, the odds of this family-owned mountain still existing at all, let alone thriving, would seem remote in our days of octuple chairlifts and Ikonik gigapasses. But there it is, a sort of Little-Engine-That-Could clanking one refurbished snowgun at a time into 2019. This was not an accident. It was not luck. It was two people busting their ass for 26 years, reinvesting deliberately in the hill, plugging snowmaking at a one-run-per-annum rate into the incline, and slowly building a community around that intangible thing called atmosphere that makes skiing Plattekill unlike skiing anyplace else in the state. And they did all of that by avoiding debt like blue ice after a refreeze. How they did that against considerable odds was a story that I wanted to hear.What we talked about: Skiing together since they were kids; their terrific first winter as owners (1993-94); when the mountain almost fell apart during their second, terrible winter (1994-95; imagine not opening until February!); snow farming; why real estate is a dumb strategy for building a sustainable ski business; the Plattekill model of deliberate investment/no debt; how the Plattekill model could have saved lost Catskills ski areas Bobcat and Cortina; the mountain is one giant glade; yes the front five double blacks are absolute freefalls but the mountain has some terrific greens and blues and for families or novices it offers a hell of a lot; turns out a The New York Times feature story about your mountain rental program is pretty damn good marketing, so if you own a mountain maybe do that? How the mountain rental program started when 20 people showed up on a midweek powder day and Laszlo was like, “we’ll open for $2,500,” and some dude was like, “cool,” and they all went skiing; what happens when Vail sets up shop in your backyard by buying your largest rival; is Alterra buying Windham inevitable? And speaking of giant unwieldly conglomerates bwah-ha-ha-ha Platty is still here and has anyone seen American Skiing Company around here anywhere oh yeah there’s its carcass in a Dumpster in lower Manhattan; Laszlo does have a favorite big ski conglomerate though; The Freedom Pass; the Indy Pass and why the Vajtays, uh, passed on it; where Platty’s passholders come from; Belleayre. Oh, man, Belleayre. Laszlo is not a fan of operating in direct competition with a state-subsidized ski area, especially as a taxpayer who is essentially then doing the subsidizing. How can that be remedied? Laszlo has some ideas. Why the Vajtays would rather compete with Vail or Alterra than ORDA. Also – how often and where the Vajtays ski (turns out that when you own a mountain, you get to ski a lot); what Win Smith said to Laszlo when they went skiing together. Also, this:Four of Plattekill’s front five double-black divebombers in February 2019. L to R: Northface, Giant Slalom, Plunge and Freefall. A T-bar used to run up Plunge. Laszlo talks about the painstaking process of refurbishing and installing the Northface Double Chair that replaced it and is pictured here.Things that may be slightly outdated because we recorded this a while ago: Laszlo announced a reciprocity agreement with Homewood, a mountain seated on the shores of Lake Tahoe. The place looks rad but I’ve never skied there or anywhere in Tahoe (big ski resume gap). This appears to be a separate agreement from the Freedom Pass arrangement, as Homewood is not listed as a partner in that alliance but does have a pretty amazing list of season pass reciprocity deals (really wish more East Coast mountains forged these sorts of free-ticket partnerships with their neighbors instead of their standard “you can get 10 percent off a full-priced lift ticket at our partner mountains,” which isn’t much of a bargain when you can typically find those tickets far cheaper elsewhere). Platty’s season pass details are here. What I got wrong: When I mentioned that the three ORDA mountains (Belleayre, Gore, and Whiteface), were on Max Pass, I forgot to mention that Windham was as well. I sort of flubbed the description of Aspen’s role in Alterra – The Aspen Skiing Company, which is in turn owned by Henry Crown and Company, owns Alterra in conjunction with KSL Capital Partners. I said something slightly different during the interview, but it’s interesting to note that I don’t think most skiers realize that Aspen is the Ikon analogue to Vail/Epic, and it’s kind of amazing how they’ve transformed themselves into Captain Good Guy when their pass is more expensive and their day ticket prices are just a pair of disposable foot warmers cheaper than Vail’s in most cases. Why I thought that now was a good time for this interview: Plattekill is on a roll. Besides the aforementioned Times piece, an excellent Catskills write-up by Powder Magazine’s Porter Fox last winter featured Plattekill (along with Belleayre and Hunter) prominently, describing it as a throwback, a scrappy survivor, and, most importantly, “the Alta of the Catskills” for its 150 inches of annual lake effect snow. The mountain rental program is working, and the place, relatively speaking, is thriving. This is in part I think due to a general backlash against our Ikonik/Epik landskape and the perceived cost and generic experience of skiing those mega-pass mountains. While I have both of these passes and will likely continue to buy them and believe the Disneyfication angle is overstated, I also make sure to ski Plattekill and other indies over the course of the winter, for exactly all of the reasons articulated above. Why you should go there: Because this is the coolest damn ski hill in the state of New York. Yes, it’s the smallest of the four Catskills mountains by acreage and vertical drop and number of lifts and size of the parking lot and size of the lodge. No, there are no high-speed lifts and the trails are shockingly narrow in places and the lodge is not some starchitect-designed spaceship ready to transport you to Jupiter. This is what skiing looks like when it’s run not by block grants airlifted from Broomfield but real people who love their mountain and love skiing and put every damn thing they have into making it work. Plus, it’s never crowded, the lift tickets are fairly priced, they have the friendliest lifties I’ve every encountered, and, yes, it feels like skiing in the 1960s. I think. Since I have no first-person recollecation of the 1960s, I’m going to make some assumptions here and say it feels like skiing in some indeterminate bygone era when kids didn’t spend all their time smartphoning and playing the Halo. Seriously though, make a day for this one (as long as that day is a Friday through Sunday, because a midweek lift ticket is $4,500 – not bad actually if you can round up 100 friends or bribe your company into paying for it). While we’re on the subject of throwbacks: Ribbing the this-is-my-secret-mountain-don’t-you-dare-tell-anyone-it-exists-let-them-all-ski-at-Hunter attitude of his core skiers, Laszlo says, “OK, just tell one friend,” and then he mentions an old “and then they’ll tell two friends” shampoo commercial. This appears to be that commercial:A 1970s Brady Bunch-style version:And then Wayne’s World spoofed it:While I was alive for most of that and doubtless saw the commercial dozens of times while my mom was re-watching that day’s soap operas on our Betamax or whatever, I don’t remember it at all. But apparently it was cultural currency back in the day.The Storm Skiing Podcast is on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, and Pocket Casts. The Storm Skiing Journal publishes podcasts and other editorial content throughout the ski season. To receive new posts as soon as they are published, sign up for The Storm Skiing Journal Newsletter at skiing.substack.com. Follow The Storm Skiing Journal on Facebook and Twitter. Get on the email list at www.stormskiing.com

With climate change threatening to make our winters shorter and warmer, writer Porter Fox looks to ski areas around California to understand how higher temperatures are already changing how resorts operate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With climate change threatening to make our winters shorter and warmer, writer Porter Fox looks to ski areas around California to understand how higher temperatures are already changing how resorts operate. What he learns may change the way you think about winter forever. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp speaks with Mary Delaquis, who for 16 years was on the front lines of securing North Dakota's busiest port of entry as Pembina's Area Port Director. Then, Heitkamp talks to author Porter Fox, who traveled the Northern Border by canoe, car, freighter, and foot. Fox illustrates the vastness of the border and challenges we face to secure it in his book, Northland: A 4,000-Mile Journey Along America's Forgotten Border.

This week, two stories from the borderlands of the U.S. First, the story of poet Javier Zamora. When he was nine, he crossed the Sonoran Desert into the U.S. to reunite with his family, who had left home before him in order to escape the political violence in El Salvador. Years later, Zamora found a way to process this childhood trauma by writing furious, luminous poetry. In this interview, he describes indelible images from his border-crossing—guns, dogs, crawling through tunnels, conflicted border guards, and craving water—and how revisiting the experience through writing has brought him to a new understanding of what it meant. At a time when the relationship between the U.S. and Canada has become unusually tense, we speak with Porter Fox, the author of Northland, who spent three years exploring the 4,000-mile border between Maine and Washington. His writing illuminates a stretch of land unknown to most Americans, and engages with its history and beauty but ends up encountering a very contemporary narrative of an increasingly policed border and Native American protests in Standing Rock and elsewhere. Phonographer Ernst Karel explores physical space through sound. Using two microphones, each pointed at a different country, Karel created an uncanny soundscape of a triangular section of the border between Switzerland, France, and Germany, and how each uses the border region to different economic ends. Lastly, as part of our ongoing series, Vi Vered sends a new dispatch from the iTunes Library of Babel. You can read more from our interview with Javier Zamora at mcsweeneys.net.

Travel writer Porter Fox's latest adventure is a quest to rediscover America's other border—the fascinating but little-known northern one, a journey he recounts in his new book “Northland.”

Porter was born in New York and raised on the coast of Maine. He lives, writes, teaches and edits the literary travel writing journal Nowhere. His fiction, essays and nonfiction have been published in The New York Times Magazine, The Believer, Outside, Men's Journal, National Geographic Adventure, Powder, Salon.com, Narrative, The Literary Review, Northwest Review, Third Coast and Conjunctions, among others. In 2013 he published DEEP: The Story of Skiing and the Future of Snow. The book was featured on the cover of the New York Times Sunday Review, CBS national news, NPR and in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. I first met Porter while searching for a new work space in Brooklyn. He owns Nowhere Studios in Bed Stuy, along with his wife, providing an ideal enclave for freelance creatives of all backgrounds. His open and supportive personality was immediately clear. Easy to talk to and knowledgeable on a diverse range of subjects, it is no surprise he’s had a successful career as a journalist and writer. As the podcast continues these are the kinds of conversations I hope to have with creatives working outside of the film industry. I believe there are many similarities and parallels that can be made with other freelance roles. This discourse provides the type of perspective needed to appreciate the universal nature of our needs, problems and solutions.

The honeymoon is meant to be the most romantic juncture in a person's life. Does it hold up? Lori speaks to Porter Fox, who wrote about his incredibly romantic honeymoon in a New York Times article titled "A Honeymoon Through Italy." Want the Real Simple podcasts delivered straight to your inbox? Opt into our weekly newsletter here (it’s easy!)    

In 2012, two skiers from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, noticed that snow was disappearing from the western U.S. and wondered how long it would be before it affected the mountains in their backyard. They called Porter Fox, a longtime Powder magazine editor and writer, and asked if he was interested in writing a book about climate change and snow.

“We want skiers to literally help save the world,” said Porter Fox, editor at Powder Magazine. Climate change has already impacted the length and intensity of winters and reduced snowfall means many of the nation's ski centers will eventually be forced to close, especially those at lower temperatures. Jeremy Jones, professional snowboarder and founder of Protect Our Winters, reminisced about a spot he revisited in Chamonix: “I used to be able to snowboard here.” This two-panel conversation first explores the science and personal experiences behind shorter winters, then looks at how ski resort CEOs are dealing with the problem. “If you're going to allow carbon emissions to be free, in the end nobody's really going to do anything,” said Mike Kaplan, president and CEO of Aspen/Snowmass. With the popularity of winter sports, the ski industry may be able to help communicate the impacts of climate change. “This industry gets it,” Kaplan said. Porter Fox, Editor, Powder Magazine; Author, The Deep: The Story of skiing and the Future of Snow (November 2013) Anne Nolin, Professor, Geosciences and Hydroclimatology, Oregon State University Jeremy Jones, Founder and CEO, Protect our Winters; Professional Snowboarder Dave Brownlie, President and CEO, Whistler Blackcomb Mike Kaplan, President and CEO, Aspen/Snowmass Jerry Blann, President, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on October 22, 2013