I remember noticing The_Man_Within_The_Map as far back as 2020. I always liked his approach as much as his skiing. There’s an upbeat life force that shines through his content.
The man himself — Shane O’Toole — had a solid following and then this season, he kind of exploded.
After I saw him stand up to defend the honor of Thunder Ridge on Instagram, I wanted to hear what he had to say. Our interview with Shane follows.
—Harvey
Editor in Chief, NYSkiBlog.com
In 2013, I discovered a valuable life hack: skiing on my birthday is a great way to forget I’m getting older. Ever since that day I’ve made it point to ski Plattekill on the anniversary of my entrance into the world. The joy of skiing drives out any thoughts associated with the inevitable passage of time.
In years when my birthday falls on a day when the lifts aren’t spinning at Plattekill, I’ll ski it on the closest operating day. At the same time, I look to one of my other favorite privately owned New York ski areas, to ski on my official date of birth.
I didn’t have a plan to ski Wednesday, and it occurred to me that this tradition/coping mechanism dated back 14 years. I didn’t want to break my streak.
There are two wolves inside me. One wants to grow snow riding. Add stoke. Support locally owned mountains that are lifebloods in their communities. The other wants to throw all that out the window on a powder day.
Royal Mountain, overlooked by some, has been getting widespread attention with recent weather events. Royal is less than an hour down the road from me, and I’ve make it a habit to ride there every season. In April 2022 I caught a late spring storm and last year Jake Tennis gave us the scoop on the new trail The Red Carpet.
When I pulled up last Saturday I was hyped to see a great little mountain getting the attention it deserves.
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