That’s me, a ski-bum-at-heart-professional-working-guy, who feels responsible for his relentless pursuit of skiing at the cost of the environment. With no intention of giving up skiing, I seek to answer one question: Can I Be Committed to Skiing and to the Earth at the Same Time?

How can I believe climate change is real, yet buy SUVs and plane tickets to go skiing? Jetting down the hill and through the air with me are my wife and kids. Our family spends a good chunk of our two-kids-and-a-mortgage-disposable income on ski gear and ski trips. And looking around the ski resorts at other middle-aged family guys, I know I’m not alone.

That’s just the problem. I’m like a lot of other skiers. Just take a look around your favorite ski resort’s parking lot and you’ll see row after row of cars and SUVs that handle great in the snow but aren’t so great when it comes to gas millage.

Maybe we’ve seen each other at destination resorts when we’ve driven or flown hundreds of miles just to spend a few days getting in some sweet powder turns. Yup, that’s me sitting across from you: just another skier with a big fat carbon footprint and a beer sitting at the bottom of the hill.

Skigreenguide.com combines my professional background in technology transfer with my skier roots. I have a Ph.D. in Psychology in the Public Interest so issues like technology transfer, economic development, and social change are interesting to me. But that’s just a job. My passion is still on the snow. I was a ski racer through high school and into college. I took a long break after getting my undergraduate degree to be a ski bum (”I’m finding myself, Mom!”). I moved from Minnesota to Colorado, taught skiing, coached racing, and chased the best woman skier I could find (I finally caught her and got married).

I’ve created skigreenguide.com as a place to share information on how to get powder turns AND take responsibility for the carbon emissions that skiing creates. I welcome your comments and hope you enjoy this journey!

-Dave Meyer