What is it like to end a ski season when there’s still lots of snow on the mountain?
Today marked the end of my ski season. The hill is still open tomorrow and Sunday, but as I have some pressing work to get done, I thought I should target today as my last day. It’s been a week of mixed conditions — some powder, some heavy snow, some fog and flat visibility. So I wasn’t sure what might await me this morning. Oh ye of little faith…
Today was sunny and while there were not as many groomed runs as there could have been, the conditions were pretty special. There were not a great many people on the mountain when the lifts opened so I was able to get a fast start — in fact I completed my first seven runs by 10:00 a.m. And by 10:30 I had finished my tenth and final run. I had decided I would close out the year by taking the “grandfather’s trail” which is some 5 kilometres long and provides various beautiful vistas of the Cascade mountains and a special group of peaks known as the Cathedrals. There were significant portions of the run where mine were the first tracks — it was a wonderful way to conclude a season that had more good moments than otherwise.
While my best friend, due to an injury, had to stop skiing after only 14 days, he did manage to ski 126 runs and accumulate 72, 373 Vertical metres. ST before leaving on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, skied 31 days: 245 runs, 114,940 Vm’s and a total skiing distance of 538.7 kilometres. My totals when I finished today: 32 days, 288 runs, 141,994 Vm’s and 754.2 kms in distance. While this was not as much as the last couple of years, it was still a goodly amount of healthy, fresh air inhaling time in the outdoors, and my knees felt much better for the lighter workload.
The sun today made it extra special in part because the skiing was more relaxed, even when I hit maximum speeds of 70 km/h. The views were breathtaking even on the most frequently used runs. There was a sense of being connected to nature is a direct, almost subliminal way. I basically skied by myself so there was little sound beyond that of my skis interacting with the snow — on the lift rides the quiet was broken more often by the happy sounds of many birds including Clark’s Crows, Whiskey Jacks (Canada’s bird — the Grey Jay) and even a few ravens.
I know that I am fortunate to live so close to a mountain — seldom takes me forty minutes to get from the house to the condo on the hill (to change into ski gear). I’m also lucky that I had a great initiation to the sport when I learned to ski on this same mountain in 1973 under the tutelage of Al Menzies when I was already in my late twenties. And today reminded me just how good life is, when I was able to complete another season without injury and with the sun beaming down on beautiful white snow. And I worried not that there likely is enough there to have allowed us to ski well into April if the hill had stayed open.
Next week I’ll get out my bike…won’t be quite as exciting and racing down Gambit or Motherlode, but at least I’ll be out in nature again…and it will be without snow!!
g.w.