fonixmunkee's Blog

While I haven't given up on the season completely, I have given up on one thing: powder days.

The ski season isn't done. Nay, it's just moved into a different phase. Long gone are the early-season days, where you ski one icy man-made run, talking new equipment and planning trips. Those are the days that you get so excited when it snows you yearn for nothing more than a 32" base and 8" of fresh snow. You'd give ANYTHING for those conditions. Those early season days end at home, watching snow reports and praying.

Then, just a mere month or two later, you get those conditions. The base is good, and every time it snows, you will it to snow more so you can get your powder fix. The days are choreographed to the sounds of bottomless turns, howls of excitement, and the sound of celebratory pint glasses clinking together at the end of the day. Those powder days are topped off with friends at the bar, talking about the huck you made over cheap beers. But those days are probably gone.

Now the days are different: they are the spring skiing days. Where it's warm out, and you're skiing in just a t-shirt or sweater, and not a shell with multiple layers. You don't look for powder days any more, you just hope that the base will stick around long enough to get a few last turns on your favorite run or stash. These days will end sitting around a grill, reminiscing about the season that is just finishing up...wishing it wouldn't end.

But all things must end. During these spring days, skiing is still great, but you yearn for the powder days. The thing to keep in mind is that you'll soon breeze through summer, with golfing and biking and backpacking, and you'll feel that first nip in the air, and the cycle will start all over. You'll start yearning for the turn, and when you get to make those first early-season runs, you'll look back on your spring skiing days and think of how you've been waiting for this moment since then. It's a vicious cycle, but it's the one that keeps us skiers such a dedicated group of individuals.

To us, the season never ends...it's there, just in a different form. The first time you click into skis for the season seems like it was just the other day you clicked in 6 months ago on your last spring run. When that first powder day hits you'll completely forget about how sad you were when the season ended. When it's the summer, you'll keep the dream of skiing alive with friends at the golf course, chatting about next year's trips and how this season "is going to be a big snow season." You'll find a way to cope and get by during "the down season." We always do.