Taos is getting set to  first stop on Helly Hansen’s popular Big Mountain Battle series. The Taos race will take place Feb. 6, before the tour continues at various stops around the country. This is the first year Taos Ski Valley will be included in the celebrated event.

I am a regular reader of lifehacker.com and other hip tech sites where cool kids hack and mod everything from game controllers (Ben Heck is my hero) to toilet seats.  Well, I figured I would see if I can come up with something related to skiing.  It's a feeble attempt, so take it easy on me - so simple in fact, it requires no instructions or further explanation.  It does however work like a charm.  Take that life hackers!  Feel free to post your favorite ski and boarding mods in the comments - a perfect excuse to register:)

It's that time of year.  You're getting twitchy, anxious, and generally restless.  Expectations are high.  No, not from the in-laws coming to town for the holidays.  Your local ski hills are opening up and with each new storm creeping ever closer to that 100% trails and lifts status.  What better way to annoy your family while eating breakfast, or your co-workers during that boring meeting than to constantly monitor snow conditions from your iPhone?  Well, I've gone to great lengths to annoy as many of my friends and family as possible over the past few weeks reviewing ski related iPhone applications.  This review focuses on apps that provide snow conditions and resort information.

We recently packed up the truck and headed to Wolf Creek for an early season powder extravaganza.  It's been almost 15 years since my last visit.  Memory has faded a bit with age, so I wasn't sure what to expect.  Come to think of it, it was a full-circle, coming home kinda experience.  I was just learning to ski and living in Dallas at the time of my first trip to the Wolf.  I've since lived and skied in Europe, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Colorado Rockies.  While living in the Netherlands in 2000 I switched to snowboarding and haven't touched a pair of skis since - well until last weekend that is.