As a student at Notre Dame Academy and a skier, winter is my favorite time of year. The leaves are off the trees, temperatures are dropping and I keep an eye on the forecast with hopes of snow.

“It’s a sad state of time in this cold snowless season,” said Ben Wagner, freshman.

I also have been disappointed that we haven’t gotten significant snow by now.

Ski Brule, in Upper Michigan, has managed to make enough snow to open one run a few weeks ago, but one run is not worth the two-hour dive it takes to get there.

Emmit Carpenter, freshman, said, “ It’s disappointing.  It seems like in Green Bay early in the season the snow just misses us. It bothers me the most that when the weather gets cold like this, and there is not any snow on the ground.”

So, due to the lack of snow in the Midwest, my family and I are heading out west. We are going to Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia, where the Olympic Games were held last winter. They have received 41 inches of snow so far this season.

“I, Benjamin John Wagner, am going to Big Sky, Montana, and It will be fun,” said the freshman.

I am excited to get some good snow and conditions early this season.

Ben Wagner agrees, “The skiing conditions are better in the West because they have more snow all year around and it has a better environment.”

But, going from great snow and high-speed chairlifts to cold and icy conditions and lifts that a glacier could beat will not be easy.

“I think they need to make the lifts faster here,” said Stu Kwaterski.

I am hoping that we will have a good winter here in the Midwest. If not, it will be a long season.