Life On A B-I7

Mt. Bachelor Mountain Host

I would like to be a Mountain Host next year at Mt. Bachelor. I’ve spoken to several hosts while skiing there this season. They have all been encouraging. It’s not a tough job. Smile a lot. Help people find their way around the mountain. Take photos for people, and occasionally if someone gets out of line, call the Ski Patrol. (You don’t have to be a policeman yourself.) The toughest part of the job is learning the mountain so you can give people good directions. I’ll be working on that in the off-season.

You also get a season pass and a cool ski jacket.

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1 - Powder

2 - Fresh Corduroy

3 - IPA

This is #3, extolling the virtues of #2.

If you can’t have a powder day, fresh corduroy is the next best thing. After a day of fresh corduroy or powder, a good IPA (and this is a good one) will cap off things very nicely.

I need to get a headband like that Dude has… The hair too…

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Corbet’s

You can watch a lot of videos on YouTube about people dropping into Corbet’s Couloir. Back flips, front flips, helicopters, all of it way over my head. I skied to the top of Corbet’s, took my skis off, and walked up to the edge. Looking down I gained a whole new respect for the athleticism required to ski this bit of insanity. I’m glad I took the opportunity to investigate.

Speaking of insanity. I’ve been thinking about summer skiing in South America, specifically Argentina and Chile. The good news is you can go skiing in South America when it’s summer in North America, the bad news is, it’s not worth the trouble unless you have the strength and stamina to boot-pack at 10,000 feet elevation. The lift-accessed terrain in Valle Nevado, Argentina is less than spectacular. A better bet is Portillo in Chile. More difficult to get to, but better terrain than Valle Nevado. If I were twenty years younger, I would go to Portillo and spend a portion of each day boot-packing. That’s not an option anymore.

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It’s a Small World

Life is full of surprises. I was recently on a four-day ski vacation in Jackson Hole with my Sweetheart. She was in a women’s ski camp and I was free skiing. Day 1, first chair, I rode up the mountain with this fellow. We started chatting and I learned a good bit about him. Retired, avid skier, and among other things, a former professor at Whitman College. That part intrigued me. I asked him where he did his undergraduate work, and he told me Whitman College. Now my interest was really peaked. Since he seemed about my age and my Sweetheart also graduated from Whitman, I asked him off-handedly if he knew my Sweetheart, as a matter of fact, he did. He told me with a huge smile that they had dated in college!

My new friend (and I suppose former rival — of sorts) skied together all day. He was leaving the next day for two days of skiing at Grand Targhee but he was coming back to JH on Friday. We made plans to ski together on Friday, which we did all day. He’s a terrific guy (which I assume speaks well for me…?)

He’s returning to Whitman next month to present a guest lecture. My Sweetheart and I will be attending. I’m looking forward to seeing my new ski friend again.

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Spring Skiing

Spring Skiing on Mt. Bachelor in Oregon, rockin’ classic ski sweaters. These are Delaine classic merino wool sweaters made in the USA. Reminiscent of the finest ski sweaters imported from Germany and Austria, but made right here. They make you ski better too!

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The 70+ Ski Club

In January of this year, I became an unofficial member of the 70+ Ski Club. I officially joined yesterday. The club is only open to people over the age of 70. They have over 3,000 members nationwide, many in their 80’s and 90’s, and even a few over 100 years old!

They appear to be primarily located on the East Coast, but they do have regional chapters. I’m excited to find out if they have a PNW chapter. Even if they don’t, they sponsor several trips a year and they look like a fun group to hang out with. They even have a trip to Chile, which would be very exciting.

I’m skiing better at 70 than I ever have in my life. I know that sounds preposterous, but it’s true. This season and last season in particular I have been focused on my technique. It seems like I get a little bit better at one thing each time I go out onto the hill. Yesterday I felt for the first time what it is like to get a truly early weight shift from the downhill ski to the new turning ski. This can be amazingly boring to someone who doesn’t ski, but trust me when I say how important this is. I’ve been working on this and rolling the ankles to initiate a turn for the last year. When you watch most skiers on the hill, you will see them lifting a ski, sliding a ski, or unweighting with their body to initiate a turn. Those are all signs of sloppy, and frankly ugly skiing. What I realized yesterday is that you have to shift the weight to the new turning ski before you roll your ankles. This all takes place before you even start your next turn, in other words, while you are still in the previous turn. It’s not easy, but when you accomplish it, it gives you a smooth connection between your turns and the snow, as well as greater stability and good edging throughout the arc of every turn. It also keeps you connected to the snow during your turn transition.

Enough already. I’m boring you. What I’m doing here is entertaining myself, and documenting what I have come to realize and practice after many years of not having a clue what I’m doing. One final note. This started with a private lesson at Sun Valley from a 70+ Instructor at the end of last season. It was that lesson that set me on the path to better skiing.

I’ve been skiing for almost 60 years (one year shy of 60). It has taken me that long to figure things out. With luck, I’ll have another 30 to enjoy the fruits of my recent discoveries, and maybe the 70+ Ski Club will throw me a “100 Party” 30 years from now…

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A Perfect Day

Rippin the Roy!

I call this post my ode to Instagram. If this were Instagram, I would have ended the post with the caption above. The reason I have a blog is that I like to write and arguably Instagram is not the place for that sort of thing. Of course, neither is TikTok, X, or Facebook. I’ve read that people should be familiar with TikTok slang and be able to use it to relate to younger generations. (You would be correct in assuming I am an older generation.) For example, I could have added the hashtag “xyzbca” to the above photo as a means of pointing out how cool the photo was. That’s not going to happen here. I think words are enough.

I will say the following about today’s social media platforms, you don’t have to know how to read to use them. To be frank, I think it is one of the design goals of the developers. All of the social media platforms mentioned above are designed to influence us in some way. You can say that about any form of communication, this writing included, but I think it is especially true about those sites and many other social media sites. Social media presents us with unsubstantiated ideas. By that, I mean there are often few if any facts to back up the propositions being put forward. I know what you are thinking, where are your facts for this garbage you are throwing out here? It’s simple, what I’m telling you amounts to my opinion, the difference is I’m making no effort to have this particular piece of my opinion sound like fact.

All of this is what you might want to think of as a tangent. It is my opinion that Instagram is the least dangerous social media platform, but still can be used for subtle forms of influencing. It is my opinion that X, TruthSocial, and even Facebook are a waste of time. I’ve seen too many people get hurt on Facebook, and I think X and TruthSocial (and others like them) are a complete waste of time. Not only that, they are dangerous. They can (and have) led us down paths that could ultimately change our society in ways that are intended to benefit a few, rather than benefit the many. Yes, that’s my opinion.

Something else to consider, not just my opinion, but the opinion of a growing number of social scientists, there is an expanding body of evidence-based studies showing the negative impact of smartphones on child development. (Smartphones are of course the portal to social media.) In short, the environment created by smartphones is hostile to children’s development. Here’s one example of the research: End the Phone-Based Childhood Now. This post now officially qualifies as a screed.

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# 178

Turn On The Berm

Don’t use the top.
Don’t use the trough.
Turn on the berm.

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Skiing

I’m skiing today. It’s a beautiful day. I can’t think of anything I would rather be doing at this moment. When Spring comes, that will change, but today could not be better.

I signed up for a ski lesson. I told the lesson coordinator I would like to be placed in an expert class. That’s just for the initial assignment. Once the lesson begins, the instructor you have been given evaluates your skiing to make sure you are in the right class. I call this the “sorting hat.” When I got to the bottom of the first run, my instructor said “You should be teaching the class.” Man, that gives you a satisfied feeling.

It was a great day. The instructor was inspiring to watch on the steep and deep. I skied better just watching him. At the bottom of one pitch, a woman skied up to me and said “You are a beautiful skier.” Another moment of feeling deeply satisfied. Two in one day. At my age, days like today come with an expiration date, that’s why you have to appreciate them.

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