I don’t think I could successfully survive a ski season anymore without this wonderful community of trip reporters, commenters, readers and tracksetters. I’d also like to mention the advertisers, who have made it possible for me to have this dream job in the winter!
Trip reporters have proven to be articulate, descriptive, entertaining, humorous, always informative, and occasionally controversial.
That’s probably why the the Trip Reports page gets viewed approximately 75,000 times every winter.
This is my thank you to everyone who has left a trip report over this past ski season. I’ve collected over 40 photos(plus some duplicates), but I’m still missing at least 40 individuals. If you left a report this winter, I can still add your photo. Send me an email. bobtruman@shaw.ca
Chuck leads the pack with 269 comments since he started posting in 2011. Of course, not all of those were trip reports because Chuck gets asked a lot of questions about his adventures and is kind enough to reply to all.
When I made my first-ever post on Nov 10, 2008, I didn’t know if I would ever get a trip report, or for that matter, any readers. Finally, 20 days later, on Dec 1, Ray gave us an update on the Chester-Sawmill trails. It’s encouraging to see the numerous individuals who are willing to take time to contribute to this blog, and help all skiers find good skiing opportunities. That was more important than ever in this winter of low snowfall.
For the first three years of this blog, I didn’t have a separate page for trip reports, and they were entered in the general comments. I also received a lot of emailed comments with photos attached which would not be counted in my statistics. That’s why I’ve indicated on Chuck’s photo that it’s 269plus comments. In the early days, I received quite a few emails from Alf, Steve, and Chuck with photos attached.
As I was doing some searching around in the archives, I came upon my flawed prediction of this blog’s future popularity:
On Feb 1, 2011, I said: “This blog set another record for views in Jan with an average of 763 per day. That will probably never be surpassed.”
Update: In Feb 2015, the blog was viewed an average of 4487 times per day. This time I’m certain it will never be surpassed. 🙂
Thank you to everyone who has entered the discussions and left comments, not necessarily a trip report. I’m very pleased to say that it’s a very rare occurrence where I have to delete a comment.
If you ever have occasion to meet any of these folks on the ski trail, say thanks for the trip reports! (take note, there are 2 pages of photos)
And a very fit-looking bunch of trip reporters too!
Oh Bob – I am so sorry to hear that this might be the end of the season, but sadly, it seems to be so (my first spring flowers have now popped up in my flowerbeds). It seems the ‘in-between season’ (too late to ski, but a bit too early to hike) has begun early this year. I’m sure I speak for so many of your loyal readers when I say thank you from the bottom of our hearts, for keeping up this wonderful website. You have united this little community who share the love of cross country skiing in way that never would have happened without your efforts. This is an open, welcoming and informative forum unlike any other, and I hope you continue for many years to come. Don’t be so modest – you’ve done a great job, and those statistics prove it. I hope to see a few more posts yet from everyone before we really put the nail in the coffin. If there happens to be one more big dump of snow before a weekend (which there could be yet), I’ll be out there for sure, smeared with unintentional spots of klister on my ski pants, and a big grin on my face.
This post makes it look like I’ve given up on skiing for this year, and that wouldn’t be too far from the truth. Today’s rain sealed the deal, the final nail in the coffin. I can only see one way to get more snow – everyone should get their summer tires installed immediately 🙂
A very good looking set of trip reporters indeed. Well done to you all ! Those like me who are geographically, or otherwise -), challenged have enjoyed your reports immensely.
Bob, re. the weather, I see that they are now predicting more snow than at first anticipated, so there may some (low elevation) trip reports on Monday or Tuesday. Yippee.
I didn’t realize it at first, but in the photo of Chuck at the top of this post, you can also see Ray(in the blue and yellow jacket), who made the first-ever trip report on this blog. Very fitting!