I’m the youngest of four daughters in my family. Before I was born, people always asked my dad, a longtime hardcore skier, if he was hoping for a son so he could have a ski buddy.

My dad, always my hero, said he didn’t need a son to have a ski buddy.

Daughter or son, his kids were all his ski buddies.

So, as you might imagine, I grew up skiing. Since I could walk, I could ski. Probably because it was ingrained in me so young, I’m actually pretty good at it. It’s the only sport I can do.

Every year around this time I start getting excited. It’s cold, snow is in the air. Winter is almost upon us, which means only one thing to me: Ski season is just around the corner.

In western Washington, Mt. Baker is opening today, and Crystal Mountain and Stevens Pass are considering a Thanksgiving week opening as well.

This news is very exciting to me, but I’ve been on the other side of the fence so often that I have sympathy for people who read about El Niño winters and snow reports and ski seasons and don’t understand what that means.

Here is a helpful guide to winter, from a professional sports dummy who, for the first time in this column, actually knows what she’s talking about.

You’ve probably seen in the news reports that an El Niño winter is approaching, but very rarely is it explained what that means.

There are two major categories of winter – El Niño and La Niña. These arise from fluctuating ocean and atmospheric temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, and are opposite phases. El Niño is considered the warm phase and La Niña the cold phase.

This season is supposed to be one of the strongest El Niños on record. An El Nino weather pattern brings lots of moisture with it, but because of other weather fronts it isn’t evenly distributed. Most of the wetness is expected to end up in the South, where they are also expecting colder than average temperatures.

We are not so lucky. Thanks to El Niño, the Pacific Northwest can probably expect a warmer than average, and pretty dry, winter.

Unfortunately, this isn’t great news for snow, and snow levels matter regardless of if you enjoy winter sports.

Snowpack in the mountains provide water runoff in the spring and summer, which is especially important for agriculture. With a weak snowpack, more is damaged than just a skier’s good mood. Last year’s abysmal snowpack, one of the worst in recorded history, contributed to the heavy drought we faced this year.

I’m hoping for some cold fronts and surprise precipitation to make this a snowy winter for both skiing purposes and long-term environmental health purposes.

In articles about ski season, you might see some resorts lamenting that they only have 15 inches of snow. I understand how this could seem like a lot, but because skiers and snowboarders cut up the mountain with their edges, the sheer volume of people would go through that meager 15 inches pretty quickly, and before long we’d be skiing on rocks.

Ski resorts usually wait until they have at least two feet of base snow before they open. While snowfall varies year-to-year, normal annual snowfall is usually above 400 inches.

If you haven’t been skiing before, I encourage you to give it a try this winter, once the snowpack solidifies a little. It’s a solo sport, and even the most uncoordinated person isn’t completely hopeless on skis. It’s a great full-body workout during a season where it’s tempting to stay indoors and eat chocolate all day.

I accept that it may seem crazy to whiz down a mountain strapped to two pieces of wood, but take my word for it: You feel like you’re flying, and it’s so much fun.

If a sports dummy like me can do it, so can you.

Michelle Fredrickson is a senior communication major from Issaquah. She can be contacted at 335-1140 or by [email protected]. The opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of the staff of The Daily Evergreen or those of the Office of Student Media.