Skiing

I wrote this a while back and now that it's the end of the season I thought I would share.

Skiing is kind of like mining; you want virgin ground. 

I don’t know why they call it skiing into powder. It should be called melting into powder. It’s quite contradictory if you think about. Melting into something even though it is more than 20 degrees below freezing; yet, it somehow all makes sense. If you’ve ever taken a closer look at butter melting on a simple piece of toast, you’ll find that it slowly fuses into it, until it simultaneously seems to become one in the same. That is how it feels to be skiing in fresh untouched powder. You start to become lost, not all at once, but fluently like butter on toast. Your worries soon leave you and you are transfigured into a world that can only be found on slopes of a mountain peak. You are waist deep in such a simple substance: a snowflake. So light and easily destroyed, but gathered in millions and hundreds of millions they become a child’s playground.

Some people cower at the sight of a blizzard, but I thrive on them. Why would I depart upon the sight of more snow? I revel having snow grace me on the lift ride up. It’s just another reminder that I’m doing the thing I love. You can barely see 15 feet in front of yourself, but that’s what makes it a challenge. People will come into and out of view like ghosts, fading away and being encompassed by the snow. It is like a movie where you enter your suspension of disbelief, but somehow it is real. As the blanket of snow thickens, it begins to obscure the light. Soon you are unable to distinguish ridges and drops. You’re perception has been tarnished, and you must rely solely on your experience now. It is a true test of skill and gut reaction. It is Mother Nature’s ultimate challenge, and it is not to be taken lightly, but instead attacked head-on

          Being on the lift is like watching a trailer for the best movie that ever existed. You get to preview the landscape and start to plan out your next run while suspended 40 feet off the ground. You start to compare yourself to other skiers, “I’m a better skier than him, but maybe not as good as that guy.” Then you finally touchdown on mother earth again, as the wind is rushing over the backside of the mountain and over the peak, testifying to you that you’re not the most powerful thing out there. Finally, the movie begins. You get to customize it and make it as relaxed or exhilarating as you want. You get to carve up the mountain try new things each time. And the best part is, the movie starts over and over and over again.