10 Reasons to Ski This Weekend...or Any Weekend of January's Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month

Vail, I'm coming to ski you--hopefully as good as I did last April!

There’s powder in the forecast, which means you’ve had a case of the powder flu growing all week. The winter chill that spread across most of the country just after the new year has finally thawed out (hello 40 degrees ABOVE zero in the Midwest after a few days of 40 BELOW zero wind chill temperatures). And while we’re all a little bummed that Lindsey Vonn announced her withdrawal from next month's Sochi Olympics, skiers aren’t going to let that ruin their winter fun. If anything, we’ll just ski harder and take a run or two for Vonn.

If there’s a weekend your skis shouldn’t collect dust in the closet, this one is it. The holidays are over. The resorts are clear of those Christmas and New Year’s crowds. And skiing is mindless exercise, especially on a pow day—we’re starving by day’s end and feel a good quad burn simply by playing in the snow. Need more reasons, concrete ones, to ski in January? Here are 10:

Fit-Pic: It's an Alta Christmas...on Skis

To quote a popular tale this time of year: Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! And what a merry Christmas it was for this girl. I got to spend it on skis in one of my most favorite places on Earth: Alta, Utah. Don't get me wrong: I can ski just about anywhere, but there's something special about Alta--or more my memories of it. I skied it for the first time exactly a decade ago this December (man, time flies!), back when Utah had an early season dumping--not this year unfortunately--and Alta's vast terrain felt like a true winter wonderland. The history buff in me is fascinated by its past, how it was the first of the Utah resorts to run a chair lift and how it looked back in a vintage 1974 video.

Fit-Fact: Happy Birthday Alta

Alta in 2009

With all of the cold weather and snow we've been having in Chicago, I've wanted nothing more than an escape to ski country, one of the few places where I can tolerate--and love--the hours outside and pray for another snow dump. So when I read about this ski news, it had to become a Fit-Fact for the week.

Alta Ski Area, one of the last skiers-only areas left in the states, turned 70 years old. While I knew it was celebrating its 70th season, I didn't realize that the date of opening was pinpointed and recognized. Turns out that Alta opened its lifts to skiers on January 15, 1939. The Collins lift, Utah's first ski lift and the fifth in the U.S., opened to 350 skiers.

Here's a little comparison for what's changed (or hasn't) in the past 70 years at Alta:

• In 1939, a lift ticket cost 25 cents for one ride, $1.50 for the full day.
• In 2009, a lift ticket costs $59 for a full day, plus a $5 charge for the reusable Alta card that serves as your pass for the day.
  
• In 2005, the Collins lift, which was upgraded a few times since 1939, was replaced with a high-speed quad that travels higher up the mountain, also christened Collins.
• In 2002, Alta and Snowbird paired up to offer a joint ticket for skiing between the resorts.
• Alta continues to use the same World War II howitzers to blast for avalanches in the area.
  
• Alta still is for skiers only. Snowboarders have to stay in Snowbird. Posted by Kate