realskiers

Gary,
Did my commute to Blue yesterday and your original post was on my mind during the trip. There is no way skiing at the local mountain compares with the experiences many have shared about early snow out west. The only snow at Blue is the WROD where they make it. For one of the few times in my life, I was not excited as I was boot'n up. I should be thinking, hey, I'm finally skiing again after all these months, but, damn after seeing the video Ron posted on Epic about his tree skiing, the shine has been removed.

Thankfully, full recovery began in a few runs. Local skiing gets me through the winter and, in a much larger sense, powers the experience when I go west or to Vt. in that it enables me to ski with you guys. It's just so neat to feel to forces when you turn and hold an edge on the hard stuff. The technique returns, the smiles come back. The ride home was so much better, achy back, knee and all.

Among my blessings is that I can be at an area with 1000 verticle feet drop and high speed lifts any day I'm willing to make the 90 minute drive. Can do 20 runs in 4 good hours and then head home. Sure, it's easy to trash what's in our backyard, but, many would love to have what's available to me. I just need to screw my head on straight.

And Perry, hearing snow-boarders and faster skiers coming up from behind is plain scary on a narrow trail. Had that experience many times yesterday. I guess from time to time, people hear me coming up from behind, so it's give and take.

But, at night, I still dream about skiing with all you on a great mountain bathed in hero snow.