John Giuffo
John Giuffo has been a journalist for 20 years, and a travel writer for half that time, most recently for Forbes.com. He's written for a variety of other outlets, including Newsday, The Village Voice, Publisher's Weekly, and Entertainment Weekly. Here's one of his favorites: a profile of Anthony Bourdain from 2011.
But he's only been a skier since 2014, when he suggested to his wife that they visit Breckenridge and take skiing lessons. It was an off-hand idea, really. Just a bit of fun to help spice up a late-winter trip to Colorado. He'd only skied once before, on his 13th birthday, and hadn't thought about it again for almost three decades. He didn't know it, but he was about to become a junkie at the age of 42.
As soon as he learned how to wedge-turn down a trail without falling, he began to giggle uncontrollably. We're talking full-on, shameless, grown-ass-man giggles. He was hooked. He decided to write about his newfound obsession for Forbes, but soon realized there was more he wanted to say than would fit in that format, so he decided to write the book he wished had existed when he started: a how-to/where-to/why-the-hell-would-you-at-your-age guide to skiing for older newbs.
But who the hell was he to write it? He was no athlete, would never qualify for an Olympic event (other than curling), and had no experience or background in the sport. He needed a hook; something that would impress on a book jacket, but also a goal that would help him improve quickly, so he set out to ski 50 mountains in his first year. That sounded like a crazy number that would stand out, but more importantly it was a way to get better quickly, to constantly set new goals and challenge himself in ways he couldn't have imagined a year earlier. Like a crash course in cred.
That was in 2015. He's visited another 30 ski areas since, and he aims to make it an even hundred by the end of the season – sure, because round numbers are badass, but also because he knows he'll never be featured in a TGR edit or lock down a Red Bull sponsorship, but he will be able to say he knows enough about skiing to write about it with some authority.
He's still working on the book and hopes to find a publisher soon, but in the meantime there are other skiing stories to tell, and there's always more to learn and share about this addictive sport and its unique, crazed, always-entertaining culture, which is why he teamed up to start Ice Coast Magazine – so he'd have a place to talk with other East Coast snow junkies about our shared obsession.
Not too long ago, Adam hated winter. The cold, the short days, the tendency to huddle inside all the time. Then in 2012 he went skiing for the first time and that all changed. He was hooked as soon as he learned to link turns down Belt Parkway at Hunter.
He wanted to spend all his time doing his new favorite thing, but his job as a manager at a Manhattan restaurant keep him working six days a week, so he did what he could – he skied every Monday, driving back and forth to the Catskills to sharpen his skills on uncrowded midweek trails. When a career change allowed for more skiing time, he began chasing mountains whenever possible.
His growing obsession has taken him all over the Northeast, from the Adirondacks to the Whites, New York to Quebec, and to bigger western mountains all over Colorado, Utah, and British Columbia. He's progressed from a shaky power plow stance to a confident ripper who has conquered the highly technical terrain of Hourglass Chute at Alta, the steep bumps of Pallivicini at Arapahoe Basin, and two visits to Tuckerman Ravine – one of which did not involve an extended tomahawk and a collective gasp from the crowd below.
Undeterred, he's continued following wherever winter has taken him. He started writing about his adventures for NYSki Blog in 2017, where he discovered he loved writing about the sport and the various road trips he's taken almost as much as he loves skiing. His partnership in helping to found Ice Coast Magazine is a natural outgrowth of those efforts. He's now devoted to spreading the stoke for the East.
When Adam is not skiing, he likes to travel, hike the Hudson Valley, play softball and tennis, and put his culinary skills to work whenever possible. His tailgate chili brings all the boys to the yard – or tailgate, as it were. Adam now lives in Rockland County, New York, with his heroically-patient wife, Rachel, and his Jack Russell Terrier, Fred.
© 2018 by ICE COAST MAGAZINE.