Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Smells like.....fall.


The boys have returned from South America with tales of long descents, sunny afternoons lounging in the sunshine, and epic andean nights. The combination of their stories, and the recent weather change in Whistler has made the upcoming ski season feel like a bit more of a reality.

You can see it in the people too. Roaming through the village,overheard conversations float around like autumn leaves. Dominant topics seem to be La Nina, the gym, and when the first snow will fall on the Peak. Everyone has an opinion: "best season ever...", "couldn't possibly top last year...", " ...can't wait two more months."

With the fall comes the usual bounty of new releases from ski film industry big dogs and bit players alike. This phenomenon just fans the collective fire amongst the locals, leading to various desparate acts of pseudo skiing. Long sets of stairs, gravel pit jump turns, 16 hr hikes to narrow, snakey couloirs hiding the last bit of brown, rotten snow from last years bounty. All of these are regulars in the autumn ritual. The local kids have even set up a rail outside the hockey rink using the Zamboni cast offs. There's only enough snow for an in run though, the landing is 100% pure canadian concrete. This doesn't seem to faze them at all, so strong is their hypnosis.

Thinking and dreaming of snow when the world around you is still focused on mountain bikes and golf is hard on the soul. It's important for us skiers to band together in these tough times. If you see a fellow skier lost, wandering dazedly through the freezer section at the grocerey store, or trying to extract face shots from a bare, dusty slope, stop, tell them they're not alone.

Together we'll get through this. Only 60 more days till opening. See you all up there.

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posted by extremelycanadian at 3:30 PM  

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