‘Tis the Skison

What a simple joy, sliding on snow. One of the few activities where adults get to “play,” yipping and hollering, grinning ear to ear all the way down the mountain. All thanks to that magical fairy dust that falls from the sky every winter.

Today, it’s easy to take alpine skiing for granted. There are over 800 ski resorts in North America with some 3,600 lifts. Amazing to think about when you consider that skiing was more so a means of transportation for those confined to frozen climes only 100 years ago. So much engineering and technology has gone into this weekend hobby that let’s the average person experience the mountains with very little effort. From a physiological perspective, human beings have no business hanging out in the alpine in the middle of winter. Maintaining a tropical microclimate inside your coat is a small miracle. Then we have the means to slide on snow, from simple planks to the highly engineered composite skis with boots and bindings to protect your squishy body parts from the impact forces of a high speed tumble. I don’t even want to think about how many knee ligaments got torn before modern binding technology (they still get torn in ski crashes by the way).

After colonizing the mountains, it was obvious that climbing them is hard, so let’s get a machine to do the work. The chair lift is peak 20th century tech. You sit down and in a few minutes you’re on top of a mountain. Unreal. Have you ever thought about how they make a cable several miles long, flexible enough to go around the drive wheel of the lift, yet strong enough to carry the weight of hundreds of people? The towers have to be accurately surveyed and built on the side of a steep slope. Groomers drive around all night to even out choppy snow. Patrollers learn the intricacies of snow pack stability to keep you out of an avalanche. So much thought, time, and effort had gone into creating the perfect environment for all of us to have fun sliding on snow. These are the things I think about while riding a chair lift.

So Maggie and I are taking advantage of what we have left of winter. Despite being a La Niña year, delivering below average snow pack for the southwest, we are still finding that there is fun to be had out on the slopes. We kicked off our funemployment with a quick weekend ski trip to Colorado, hitting Wolf Creek and Monarch. These are two smaller ski areas off the well-beaten path that is I-70. Nestled in the San Juan mountains, Wolf Creek boasts the claim of “the most snow in Colorado,” and since no one seems to challenge that, I will happily believe them! We had an outstanding day skiing Wolf Creek with friends from Santa Fe, and my old friend Sam. A storm earlier in the week left some powder stashes in the trees and on the steeps, where the locals hadn’t skied it out yet. I’m not sure if it’s natural, or purposefully thinned, but the mountain is essentially one giant glade! You can ski in between the trees just about anywhere, which makes for new and different runs on each descent.

We then made our way to Salida, watching last light kiss the magnificent Sangre de Cristo range on the drive. We met some of my friends from Denver who graciously made the trip down to help celebrate our new found freedom. Pizza, beer, and plenty of laughter was shared after many moons away from old friends. The next day we skied Monarch with the Denver crew, the guys I grew up skiing with, my college roomie Evan and his partner Erica. The snow at Monarch that day was more conducive to ripping groomers, and so we ripped groomers! After skiing off and on for the last 20 years, I find steeps, moguls, and trees more stimulating, but on this day… wow, I had almost forgotten what a rush it is to point your tips down and push 40-50 mph.

Later that week, back in New Mexico, a storm was a brewing. We chased it to Taos Ski Valley, where 20 inches of light fluffy pow fell over night, and 20 more fell during the day. It was enough to convince a few friends to try this early retirement thing for a day. That was the deepest snow we have ever skied! Thigh deep and absolutely blower. I think half of New Mexico took the day off work because the mountain was packed for a Wednesday. Despite most of the mountain being closed literally for TOO much snow (i.e. avy danger), a great time was had by all!

We had one day to dry out our ski gear before the next trip – Alaska. Maggie’s friend had accumulated like 500,000 miles with Alaska Airlines over the years, and on a whim, offered to take us and two other friends to Anchorage so we could ski Alyeska Resort. Hard to say no to a free flight to somewhere awesome! A couple of Santa Fe friends, who had visited AK last fall, were so stoked on it that they joined the fun. We landed in Anchorage just before sunset, with the Kenai peninsula lit up with orange alpenglow.

We skied two days at Alyeska, and we were very impressed, mainly with the north face. Rougly 2,000 vertical feet with 35-40 degree slopes for the upper 500′. Look up a video of Christmas Chute, if you’re curious. Generally we had lots of low clouds and snow, but when it opened up, the scenery was amazing. It seriously looks like the way I drew mountains as a kid – a white zigzag across the sky with a smaller green zigzag below the peaks where the treeline starts. Simply a magical landscape. We probably could have spent weeks there, but alas our trip was only an extended weekend.

This is how we’re keeping busy for the time being. Another ski trip is on deck, but the pressure is slowly growing to quit having fun and get to work on preparing for the PCT…