The cozy smell of fireplaces hung in the air early Sunday outside the Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Building. The sun cut through a dense street-level fog and illuminated golden, red and green leaves. Inside, people gathered for Santa Rosa's signature harbinger of winter: The Sonoma County Winter Ski Fest.
“It's like the old days,” said Gavin Holley, who with his wife owns Santa Rosa Ski and Sports. “In those old days, we were always skiing by Thanksgiving.”Years of late and short winters seemed to put November ski weekends in the past. But with as many as 8 inches of snow falling on certain pockets of the Sierra, and at least one Truckee-area resort, Boreal, already open for the season, a bona fide winter seemed to be on its way.
And 3-year-old Henry Smith of Healdsburg was preparing for his second year on the slopes. “Dad, I want to ski with poles,” Henry said. “You're not quite ready for poles,” said his father, Matt Smith, 43. Smith, his wife, Kimberly Riff, and their three children spend a week at Lake Tahoe's Diamond Peak each year. Riff said she looked forward to this season because her children were now all old enough to spend a lot of time on the slopes.
“What's your favorite part of skiing,” Riff asked Henry. “The lift,” he said. Sunday's sale was the 24th year Gavin and Carole Holly have run the swap since they opened shop in 1986.
This year, they loaded 200 snow boards, 175 skis, 600 boots and other gear into the veterans building auditorium for the two-day sale. Hundreds, and maybe even 1,000 people, lined up at the door to the building early Saturday before the doors opened at 9 a.m.