It may sound like a lot, but once you realize how to factor in the balancing recipe of big days to short ones it starts to get easier. Basically, you just need to ski almost every day from November through April, take a few days off when forced to, and add a few days in October or most certainly when snowpack’s are still at their deepest in May.

The thing is, you can’t really ascend and descend six thousand vertical feet everyday unless you’re Greg Hill, or ski forty grand at the resort every day for that long unless you’re still doing those Buns of Steel workouts from the 90s as your post-ski workout.

You have to switch it up with “MDR’s” or Minimum Daily Requirement days. MDR’s are days you went skiing, but maybe only took a lap or a couple of laps at the resort, or hiked a thousand or less vertical feet in the backcountry. The rules are arbitrary and only mean as much as you make them, but my take has always been if you click in and slide down some snow and make a few turns, you’re skiing.