Slip-sliding away

This is odd, for a number of reasons. Mainly it’s odd because I don’t ski. It’s been years since I strapped on a pair of boards and quite honestly, I haven’t missed the out-of-control rocket rides and spectacular collisions that I used to have on a fairly regular basis. I was never very good, and there was a period of time where I really tried.

I had a girlfriend who was an excellent skier, and I followed her on the slopes for a season or two like some underachieving puppy. She offered encouragement and she really tried to help me develop some sort of technique, but I never could get past the low-intermediate, spastic ice missile stage of skiing evolution. I won’t say it was because of my schussing shortcomings that we eventually went our different ways, but it certainly didn’t help.

I have no reason to think that now, decades later, I’ll be any better. But it’s time to try again; I can just feel it. The idea of backcountry travel on skis is something that intrigues me. Maybe to combine a winter climb with a ski approach… maybe that is in my future. Maybe it should be.

All I know for now is that I will be giving it another shot this coming season. Maybe it’s not too late to learn something.