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FLATHEADBEACON.COM OUTDOORS MARCH 5, 2014 | 59

LURCHING FROM ONE NEAR DISASTER TO ANOTHER. Warren Miller

A Pair of Skis and a Pickup Truck

A
He averaged about $125 a day in tips. As LMOST EVERY DAY, I GET A money to buy a pass.
What is wrong with a career like that?

soon as his shift ended, he was able to lot of interesting questions. One However, there’s something to be
To be the irst one on the lift every morn-
get on the chairlift for three hours of ski- that I am most often asked is, very careful of. Never, repeat, never have ing and checking out the runs for poten-
ing. After inishing skiing he stopped by “Do you think someone today can be an inside heat source of any kind that tial problems before any guests are even
the athletic club for a hot shower and a a ski bum as you were by living in the burns gasoline or propane so you don’t out of bed. At 7 a.m. you are probably
change of clothes. After leaving the gym parking lots of ski resorts?”
die of asphyxiation before you even get trying to ight traic, looking right into a
he went home.
My answer, “of course.”
to use your precious pass. My suggestion brilliant sunrise and listening to the lat-
Home for Tom was a small pickup There is a balance between skiing is to buy a 20-degree-below-zero arctic est snow report on the car radio.

truck with a bonnet on the back, a mat- and working. But I have said it for the last sleeping bag at an Army Surplus and you Here is the story of a friend who re-
tress and a warm sleeping bag. Tucked 20 years, “Any job that you have in a city won’t have a problem.
ally igured it out by snaring the perfect
under his mattress is the last day’s $125.
you can do at a ski resort. Quit your job The coldest night that Ward and I job and lifestyle. I’ll call him Tom. He
Skiing every day and banking that and head for the ski resort of your choice slept through in our small trailer was 32 worked for a company called Vans to Vail
kind of money, not including his salary and go for it.”
below zero and our only problem was and picked me up at my house in Vail one
for driving, what is not to like? Your par- The only suggestion I would make is warming up our boots with our feet on morning at 6:30 for a trip to the airport
ents might not approve, but who knows to purchase a van of some kind to sleep the bus ride to the chairlifts on Baldy.
in Denver. He was very polite and by the
where a winter or two such as this will and live in, instead of the kind of trailer Even back then, Sun Valley provided time he had picked up the other nine

lead?
Ward Baker and I lived in.
a free bus that we could ride to the Riv- passengers at nine diferent locations
The answer to the question of how er Run single chairlift. One of our goals almost an hour had passed. On the trip,
For more of Warren’s wanderings go to we got on the ski lifts every day the way was to ride a chairlift all day, seven days a I found out that he was saving his mon-
www.warrenmiller.net or visit him on his we did will go to our graves with us. It week until the snow melted in the spring.
ey for a piece of land near a Midwestern
Facebook page at facebook.com/warren- is certainly a lot more diicult than it The mountain manager here at the college of his choice. Almost all of the 10
miller. For information on his foundation, used to be because of electronic surveil- Yellowstone Club was born in Aspen and passengers tipped him ive or ten dollars
please visit the Warren Miller Freedom lance so bite the bullet and spend enough his father worked on the Aspen Ski Pa- each after he told his story. He would get

Foundation, at www.warrenmiller.org.
time during the summer working to raise
trol for 40 years.
the same size tips on the trip back to Vail.

EXPLORE
Turner Mountain

By JUSTIN FRANZ of the Beacon

Libby’s Turner Mountain Ski Area
recently made Cheapism.com’s list of
the 10 best cheap ski resorts in the Unit-
ed States. This isn’t the irst time Turn-
er has earned national attention, as Ski

Magazine once said it “might ofer the
best lift-assisted powder skiing in the
U.S.” With all these accolades building
up it might be time to plan your own trip
over to Lincoln County.
Turner sports 22 named runs and
has a vertical drop of 2,110 feet from the

summit. More than half of the runs are
groomed and most are for advanced or
expert skiers; only 10 percent of the runs
are for beginners.
Perhaps the coolest part of Turner is
the fact that you can rent the hill on the
days it’s not open to the public. Regular
days of operation are Friday through

Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more
information visit www.skiturner.com.

HOW TO GET THERE: From downtown

Libby, drive north on Highway 37 and cross
the river. Near the Libby Christian Church,
take a left on Pipe Creek Road and drive 22
miles.

Turner Mountain. BEACON FILE PHOTO