The group has 160 members. It is a tightly knit bunch. A Snow Searchers couple got married on a trip to Aspen, Colo., three years ago while group members toasted them on their matrimonial journey. Some jaunts, such as recent treks to Italy, France and Austria, involve a good deal of travel. Beginners on this trip enjoy free lifts, rentals and lessons, courtesy of Snow Searchers.
Many excursions fall during the work week.
These trips offer thinner crowds, more reasonable prices and better groomed slopes, members say. Longer outings planned for this year include a trip next month to Sunday River, Maine, and a March visit to Grinelwald, Switzerland. When Mother Nature won't cooperate by providing the necessary snow, members keep together by organizing canoeing, white-water rafting and bicycle trips. The bonding, as an infamous advertising campaign might say, was priceless. The day starts at a severe hour, around 5 a.m. Outside, the winds are unseasonably bitter, especially by Washington standards, as the group trudges aboard a luxury bus.