Prior to the last Gathering at Aspen, now several years ago, I was a regular attendee, starting with the spring week at Summit County. One of my small jokes is that I've spent more nights in a motel room with
@Gary Stolt than anyone other than my wife. Knee arthritis, that started the year of the last Aspen, shut down my skiing. It was both good and bad to watch the past several years Gathering TR's, great memories seeing my friends, bummed that I could not longer ski. In March of this year, I had a total knee replacement, in large part motivated by returning to Aspen, which is the first Rocky Man area I visited many years ago. Aspen is a most special place.
While my knee surgery has been very successful, the dream of rejoining a Gathering is on hold pending development of a vaccine for the virus. A Gathering remains 6 months away, nothing we know now can prepare me for what reality will look like then, especially life at a ski area. Reality is a very cold destroyer of dreams.