Between Seth and I, we’ve only got one ski day under our belts so far, which is not good. (In fairness, I have a newborn at home who does not yet understand the importance of skiing. Emphasis on yet.) But the lack of runs seems likely to change this weekend. The Green Mountains have been getting blasted by snow all week, it’s snowing outside Methodikal HQ as I write this, and the weekend is looking sweet.
As you might be aware, Ski Vermont’s been a client for a long time, and every year, we design and produce Ski Vermont Magazine for them. We usually wind up writing an article or two as well, especially if there’s an interesting idea to cover.
This year, I wrote about the most iconic chairlifts around Vermont, an article titled “The Uphill Allstars.” One of my favorite parts of my job is doing the research and discovery that goes into any project, whether it’s developing a new brand identity or a website or an advertising campaign for a client, or writing a piece like this. It’s interesting to spend time with the subject matter, talk to people who understand it and can offer interesting perspectives, and then pull all that together into a compelling story.
For this piece, I interviewed one person who had a unique connection to each lift in some way. I talked to the official historian of one resort who told me about having to put a huge metal part from a lift into a pizza oven to thaw it out and get it to fit. I talked to an exec at Vail who used to work in Vermont, who told me about contending with bear-mating season to install a lift through sensitive habitat. I talked to a marketing director who filled me in on the whole bizarre history of his resort’s founder, a guy who wanted to explode a nuclear bomb to create a new bowl and get more vertical. So much interesting stuff, a lot of which never even made it into the finished piece. (Hey, it's a magazine, not a book.)
Anyway, if you’re interested in reading the article, here’s a link to an online version or you can read it below. If you’d like to order a hard copy of the magazine, head on over to Ski Vermont’s site and they’ll send you one for free. And if you like skiing or riding on the goods, get out there this weekend.
