I sat there with my head down..

[Gary]

a huge smile on my face....just sitting there looking down at my boots.

The day started by arriving in a almost empty parking lot at 7:30 Sunday morning. It was 30 degrees and bright blue sunny skies took my mind to Colorado but I was in Bristol, NY. With no lift line we boarded the high speed quad and headed up to the black runs. I could see they groomed over night. On the ride to the top,? I could feel how fast the sun was warming things up. We got off the chair turning left towards Comet I could feel the edges bite into the morning corn snow. Oh this is going to be good fast snow. Dropping in under the high speed quad I started making turns and thinking how good this made me feel. Each run the snow got softer and my smiles got bigger. Stopping along the way to say high to friends who were cross country skiing on the mountain top, he offered me his Gargantua poles to try skating. I politely declined and ended the conversation as I heard the call of Comet once more.
My wife too was enjoying the conditions and the warm temperatures. Dressed in my spring gloves, one wickaway, vented jacket and helmet, I felt 10 lbs lighter on the mountain. There were Hawaiian shirts, blue jeans and tee shirts on the young and foolish but all just with huge smiles.
I stopped and had a brief conversation with the Head rep and we chatted about narrow waisted skis, skier skills and fat skis. With the mountain beckoning, I was not long for words. We made a run together him with his power technique and me more finesse, we carved our SS's into each pile of soft butter the mountain was offering up. By this time my wife had had enough and I was just into my element....soft custard snow...piles of it.....orgasmic conditions for me. With as much consideration as I could muster, I asked my wife if I might make a couple more runs. She smiled knowing a team of snowmobiles couldn't pull me off the mountain at that moment.
I headed for Rocket and carved up the left side under the chair in continuous sinuous arcs in all of its 1200 feet of glory back at the chair again. Heading up I listened all around to the sounds of spring. Birds singing, the sound of melting water babbling incessantly in it's journey down the mountain side, taking in the 2 feet of snow edge to edge still blanketing the mountain. Off the chair and left again to Comet. Standing at the top I bumped into another friend and we talked about ski skills, soft snow and the mountains great conditions this year all the while I kept inching forward trying hard not to be rude but aching for this run...my final run of the day.
I started in, creamy snow, slowly turning, medium turns through luscious piles of custard, one GS turn and I was under lift making short swing turns in 4" of the greatest mush on earth. I know to any watching, the smile on my face was larger than the orange coat I was wearing. I stopped just before the last 400 vertical to the bottom. I looked all around taking in snow, the sun, that feeling I was experiencing right at that moment. It was peaceful and so happy.
I skied down past the lift line and smiled at some friends heading back up. Heading for the locker part of me really wanted to stay till closing but knowing my partner and I had things to do. Skis on shoulder I headed for the lockers. Placing the skis against the wall, Alice was just about packed. She saw me coming and grabbed the sponge and the wax and began wiping down the skis and putting some travel home wax on them. I sat on the bench, a huge smile on my face...just looking down at my boots.

I knew that this had been the most fabulous year, many days out west with such wonderful conditions, shared with many friends,turns and stories and gear swapping. Still smiling and looking at my boots for what seemed like an hour, my wife came over after working on my skis and put her hand on my shoulder and said, "everyting OK"? I looked up with that big smile on my face and she knew right away all was good. I said, "wow, what a way to finish the season, but I'm just not ready to take my boots off".

I think that smile stayed on my face all day. In my mind I'm already planning next years trips and dreaming about the first turns of the season.

I hope to all that in some way, you experienced this peace and happiness skiing this season.....it's what keeps bringing me back and will as longs as I can put on the boards.

Best to all,
Gary

[midwif]

Hey Gary
That was beautiful. It brought tears to my eyes.

A good ski season. For most of us the ski year is over. 
Memories of this past season and anticipation and planning for the next.

But first, some digging in the garden.

[Gary]

Thank you Lynn.....I too know your passion runs deep.

AND...wear your knee pads....save those knees for turns!

Hugs,
Gary

[Glenn]

Very well put Gary!

[Ron]

I prefer to be in denial... the season never ends, just goes into a hiatus where you rest your bones, heal up what you destroyed and work on the quiver for next season.  That's what Ski **** is for......

if you don't have the following, I would strongly suggest:

1-Push/Pull (2 DVD Set)  go to chapter 8 on Pull, Erik Holverson's dream. Amazing skiing. An extremely under-rated skier.
2- Echo  good stuff.
3-Waiting game.. My personal favorite. Shot mostly in Jackson, Utah and AK. Some amazing powder scenes.

[bf_hill]

I was doing so well, actually getting work done on my first day back after my ski trip to Vermont.? Now I'm having flashbacks.? Visual, kinesthetic, auditory and olifactory.? The kielbasa grilling at the bottom of the slope.? The infamous bra in the liftline tree.? My brothers yelling; "on your left" and "on your right" simultaneously.? The sun, the snow, the new skis, the people, the Magic Hat Circus microbrew.

We stopped briefly at the tree on the trail my father's ashes were spread beneath to say hi on the first run of the last day of the season.

[Gary]

Ok bf....was sounding like a grand day until the part about your father, his ashes...that really hit me,

very touching....I know there must be a story there?

Thanks for sharing,
Gary

[bf_hill]

Well, since you asked Gary,

Yes, my father passed away 5 years ago on the day before my birthday, Sept. 24th.  He was on the ski teams at Brown and Wyoming back in the day when they packed down their own race courses by sidestepping up the mountain.  Circa 1945.  We (6 children) got skis at the age of about 4.  We're talking laced up boots and skis with green painted bottoms, not p-tex (sp?).  The edges were sectional and affixed with phillips head screws.  You just replaced a section if it got damaged.  I remember looking at his raw hands after lacing up 5 pairs of boots including his own.

He loved skiing and passed it on and we were fortunate to have season tickets for 4 years in upper NY and 4 years in Vermont.  He often took trips out west and to Europe.  He completly tore his achilles tendon in Chamonix one year and experience some fine French surgery. 

Since I was not as coordinated as one of my 4 brothers I did not make the college ski team as my brother did.  He often took trips out west and to Europe.  We had planned a trip out west after a long haitus from skiing because of children and moving to Florida that did not materialize when he developed a fast spreading kidney cancer.

We spread his ashes on his favorite ski mountain near the base of the liftline.  During the ceremony it started snowing.  The minister stopped and smiled as he saw us all grinning.  So the memory is more sweet than bitter.

[jim-ratliff]

Brad:

Thanks for sharing.? Amazing that the topic fell under such an approproate title, even though Gary started the thread for a completely different thought.? How touching that the snow started falling at such an appropriate time.

Imagine all the technology changes he saw over the years, sort of like me and computers.? (I still remember booting computer systems from paper tape with holes punched in it).

Jim

[Glenn]

Great story Brad.

[bf_hill]

Thanks Jim and Glenn,

Ironically Jim, my dad worked for IBM and helped develop some of those computer changes as a physicist.  He went to Japan once to look at Canon lenses for a laser holographic memory transmitting device.  I remember those punch tapes too and programing them in Basic! 

It would have been nice to save those old ski boots and skis.  What do we keep for our children or tell them to keep for 50 years down the road?

[jim-ratliff]

 What do we keep for our children or tell them to keep for 50 years down the road?

My answer??  Write a short biography (less than 10 pages or so) of who you are, what went on in your life, and what was important in your life.  Write it from the point of view not for your kids, but for your grandkids when they begin to have kids and begin to become aware/wonder?  I did this a couple of years back at a time when I realized how little I really knew about my grandparents, and also how little my kids really knew about me, and when my second grandson was born.  The first 30 years of so of our lives is a mystery or a blur to our children; because it happens before they are born or old enough to remember or to see from an adult point of view.

For me, its the memories and not the skis.

[bf_hill]

How right you are.  After asking my parents about my grandparents I decided to have my children sit down and interview my parents about what life was like when they were young.  Of course they didn't stop at technological stuff and expanded with personal stuff.  Both parties talked about how wonderful it was for sometime.  My mother, an English major, has gotten my step-father, a former govenor of Vermont, to write an autobiography.  Of course I asked her how hers was coming along knowing full well she hadn't started one.  I can be such a smartass.   Oh, mine?.....ummm...startin g that soon.....

[Gary]

Brad....such a great life experience with your dad and family members growing up. Sounds like there are plenty of fond memories there as well. Glad you shared them with us. Didn't start skiing until I was 36 but have so many nice memmories with my gang...nice.

I hope too when the Good Lord sends the "ski train" for me, my family will find such a touching way to memorialize me....

Thinking they could creamate my skis and boots with my ashes....especially the boots cause they're so well fit to my feet. Well there ya go...oh yeah...some top skin wax, my diamond stones and guides, my orange helmet, .....is it a long journey??...cause might need my granola bars, water pouch.....hmmmm.... .might need more than one mountain to spread me over!!

Best,
Gary

[bf_hill]

I understand that your skis are freshly sharpened and waxed every morning and angels take you to the top of the mountain so you won't need a lot of that stuff.  And you need the helmet because....?  Surely not for vanity, that particular sin might have you to spend some time in pergatory sharpening and waxing others' skis.  Where I'm going I fear all the snow has been melted but they make you ski anyways.