After 35-plus years contributing to SAM, I have decided to finally hang up my skis and press credentials.

Skiing has been part of my life from the beginning. Growing up in Vermont, I skied from an early age. I even worked at the resorts on weekends and holidays.

Great interviews. I started writing about the sport in the 1970s. One of my most memorable early features was a story on Bill Koch, who stunned the world by winning the Olympic silver medal in cross country skiing in 1976, still the only American male ever to medal in the sport.

“My wax was so good I just couldn’t stop even though I wanted to drop from exhaustion,” he told me.

I knew what he was talking about. I have taken downhill runs where an amazing leap off an unexpected mogul, a perfect line down the hill, or maybe some unbelievable corn snow kept me from stopping mid-run even though my legs and lungs were about to burst.

Other memorable interviews were Phil and Steve Mahre, Suzy “Chapstick” Chaffee, and Pres Smith, founder of Killington, Vt. The funniest misquote I ever saw was of Frank Heald, longtime GM at Pico, Vt., talking about the “perversity of Vermont skiers.”

“To the best of my recollection,” Frank said later in a correction, “I said ‘diversity.’”

Having lived nearly half my life in Vermont, I can attest both are true.

The attention skiing deserved. Back then, ski coverage was not a high priority in Vermont—something I changed in 1980 when I was named sports editor of the Rutland Herald, the second largest daily in the state. NCAA Division I college ski racing was my favorite beat. I remember the sports editor at the state’s largest daily, the Burlington Free Press, and I both told our editors the other one was being sent to cover the national championships. The gambit worked, and we each ended up traveling to the event, the start of many ski travels.

Besides the Herald and SAM, I have written about skiing for The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Boston Phoenix, Boston Business Journal, and Christian Science Monitor. I have covered skiing all around the U.S. and Canada, Europe, and as far afield as Argentina.

In 1984, I was one of fewer than 200 media awarded credentials to cover the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, the first Olympics held behind the Iron Curtain. Paul Robbins, whom some of you may remember, was my roommate. Not surprisingly, I never saw him at the room. Paul was the hardest working journalist I ever knew, the first at the press center and the last to leave. Skiing lost a great friend when Paul died in 2008.

David Rowan and SAM. During my career, I have met many great writers, racers and industry people, too many to list. But hands down, one of the nicest was David Rowan, founder of SAM. Soon after I moved to Boston in 1988, he contacted me about writing a season wrap for SAM, which eventually became a regular industry roundup. By then, I had lost my vision to an eye disease and switched my full-time job to health care writing, but it was wonderful to stay immersed part-time in the sport I loved.

Winds of change. Journalism, like skiing, has changed immensely over the years. At one time, traditional journalists like myself were top of the hill. Now ski coverage is about social media and influencers, leaving me still on the lift.

We all know how skiing has changed and improved, too: better clothing, equipment, lifts, grooming, food, ticketing, amenities, and of course, snowmaking. And I am so proud of the industry’s environmental leadership.

But please, skiing, don’t forget your roots. As we continue to Disney-fy the sport, remember what skiing is really about—the mountains, snow-capped trees, untracked powder, outdoors, fresh air, the perfect turn, speed, solitude, and the feeling of being one with the mountains and the universe. 

— Linda Goodspeed

Linda’s love of skiing, and long history with it, shine through in every article she writes for SAM. No matter what subject we ask her to pursue, she always gets the story right. Her “Roundup” reports always ring true. That’s because she listens to what you say, and understands how that fits into the broader picture she’s uncovering.

On occasion, those traits have led her to inform us that our initial assignment was off target, and that she let the story unfold in a different direction as a result.

These are the skills of a practiced journalist, especially someone like Linda, trained as a newspaper journalist—a subspecies that must react quickly, and accurately, to the news of the day. Linda has always been a supreme practitioner, and we are tremendously grateful that she has lent her perspective to the pages of SAM for more than 35 years. We will miss her can-do spirit—no one can match the speed and energy that her friend Paul Robbins displayed, but Linda comes close—and wish her a long, happy retirement. — The Editors.