The Lake Tahoe ski areas have 25 feet of snow. Mammoth got 17 feet in one storm. Central Park in New York City has almost three feet of snow. Coral Gables Florida even has an inch or so. It is forecasted to be 10 below zero in Montana as I write this and the powder snow is chest deep in some of the chutes here at the Yellowstone Club.
So what happened to Al Gore and his Nobel Peace Prize for predicting global warming? He was even given an Academy Award for narrating a film about it. Even on this morning’s news, snow was covering more than 50 percent of America. I wonder if it is snowing on his beachfront home in Malibu. The heck with politics, wind right now is blowing 64 mph at the top of the mountain. On the bright side, most of our ski slopes here are east and north facing so the snow just piles up deeper.
Last winter, we decided to build a garage here on our slope-side ski home and it is being built between the house and the chair lift. The men manning the concrete pumps and the construction are working through the blizzards and I can report good progress on the project. I don’t envy them having to work outside in temperatures such as this, and I remember when I was their age I was playing in it instead of working in it. I lived in a small trailer so I could ski every day, and as I watch people who are older and still skiing I know they wished that they had spent a few years ski bumming. I made a lot of turns when I was young and I did it without any money instead of waiting until I could afford to buy a condo at a ski resort somewhere. I waited for someone to invent the computer so I could run a business from the condo instead of a high rise in a crowded city somewhere.
I have been lucky enough to have already spent three sunny packed powder days trying to reconnect my brain to activate the muscle memory I had before I broke my back last January.
I made a few runs on the beginners lift the first day and on the second day was talked into trying the lift to the top. It was a major mistake as I am out of shape and have no muscle memory. I quit half way down the mountain and phoned for the ski patrol that responded with a snowmobile and hauled me back to the top. I then took a rather inglorious ride down in the chairlift and had lunch in the lodge. Hey! I have every day available until April 15 to make turns, so I can pick and choose when to ski.
And that wasn’t the right day for me, I guess.
I finally had my third day of good skiing and figured out how to get my weight off of my inside ski so I no longer got locked into the fall line in a classic beginner’s mistake.
When I finished skiing and got back to the house the concrete pumping truck was waving in the wind. I have always wondered why construction at ski resorts never gets under way until the ground is frozen and they have to put special chemicals in the concrete to keep it from freezing before it cures.
I am the last person to complain about living in construction zone. I’m going to be really grateful for that garage and ski storage area next winter. The only problem is that the machinery and the workmen start making noise at a few minutes before 8 a.m. so it is early to bed and early to rise.
In the meantime I hope wherever you read this the ski resort near you is having the best year ever.
For me, I have been watching the winter snowfall since 1937 and, thanks to the car I was driving at the time, I have always been able to drive somewhere else and find enough snow to ski on. If you have too much snow, not enough snow or your chairlift is broken, get in your car and drive somewhere else. Because if you don’t do it now it might not be as good next weekend … and it’s really good right now.