Skiing / snowboarding ain’t your bag?  Poor conditions at the mountain?  Just need a day off from downhill?  Quechee still has you covered with tons of alternate winter activities…   from ice skating, to sledding, to x-country, to snow shoeing, to just taking a sleigh ride, or getting a massage at the club.  There’s something for everyone.

This year, we’ve enjoyed ice skating on the pond behind the Club House.  We’ve done indoor skating at Babson, even the local high school back home was nice enough to put out a temporary skating rink for the wintertime… but there’s just something so much more magical about skating on an actual pond.  Definitely brings me back to my childhood where I was fortunate enough to have a pond just behind the house I grew up in.  I never really became a great skater, but I can’t tell you how many countless winter afternoons were spent out there with my friends messing around.  Great times and great memories.  Hopefully our kids will have the same experience!  Not really “skating” per se, but getting Owen out on the pond.  In the background there were a bunch of kids / parents playing ice hockey and another group learning to skate.

Sledding is another winter pastime that I remember fondly – my same childhood home had an AWESOME hill (the more I think about it, my house growing up was pretty cool!).  So we would basically sled until my parents called us in for bed time – often going right through dinnertime!  Quechee is great in that they have a HUGE sledding hill right next to the Ski Mountain (so you know it’s big time) – perfect in that the base lodge is right there to warm up by the fire, and for a quick hot chocolate break!

One of the big annual events at Quechee is the Cardbord Box Derby – 2015 will actually be the 18th year of this wild & crazy event.  People go crazy at this event – and for good reason – it’s just good ol’ fashioned fun for the family.  Dad gets to exercise his creative muscles by helping to design an over the top cardboard box… kids embarrassment is quickly washed away with their first ride down in the pimped out box.

There’s also a great video on YouTube showcasing the awesome event (a little crazy that there are actually sponsors for this thing, no?):

This year’s event is Saturday Feb 21st at 2PM – it’s so big, there’s a huge reception the night before.  For more information, check out the Quechee Club website.