Haven Pell

Adventurer & Pundicator

Haven Pell learned the sport once but learned to love it twice. The learning and first loving happened at a boarding school in Gstaad and, over Christmas vacations, in Kitzbuhel. 

Then life set in and the first love slipped from view. There were a few family ski trips but his children mostly learned to ski from their friends. The rekindling began when the tsunami forces of grandchildren and bucket list collided.

A San Francisco techy son with a penchant for weekends in Tahoe led to a few trips there and the bucket list led to a 10 week, 13 venue, 35 ski day Skihad adventure two winters ago.

Haven and his daughter fight an uphill battle against kid sport specialization and their annual ski trips are etched in stone on his calendar.

As skiers, Haven’s children have surpassed him but as yet his grandchildren have not. He prefers real ski towns — better still, repurposed something-else towns — over intentional ski resorts.

He blogs on all sorts of things at Pundificator.com where he is the Chief Everything Officer.

Favorite Resort / Trail:

My best moment in more than six decades of skiing was on a catwalk in Big Sky. There were trees on both sides and a gentle snow was falling. There was barely enough pitch to keep moving; but, at that moment, there was nowhere else on earth I would rather have been

Aspirational Resort:

Heli-skiing, but probably not this year

2020-21 Season Goals:

The fourth edition of Skihad, this time with more one-week sidekicks. A 10,000 mile roundtrip from Washington, DC also to include several weeks with children and grandchildren. Make full use of both Ikon and Epic passes

Most Days in a Season:

36