Nine Weeks a Ski Bum
By Jim Kenney
November 27, 2015
Lowlights
On the drive from Kirkwood to Jackson Hole I stayed in a motel one night in the town of Jackpot in northeast Nevada, hard against the Idaho border. This is where poor people go to gamble; no glamour, no glitz, just dimly lit halls full of one-armed bandits, cigarette smoke, the odor of stale carpet, and folks (mostly elderly) mindlessly throwing their money away.
I guess I am not as “core” as I thought because my extremely austere accommodations in Minturn, CO and the attendant two weeks of microwave dinners and instant oatmeal breakfasts kind of got to me. Ironically, I was skiing some of the most upscale resorts in America during the day, but I was still building a cadre of local ski buddies and didn't have much of an après ski life. At night staying by myself in an 8’x10’ motel room reminded me of a jail cell with comparable amenities - nada.
I called my room at the Turntable Motel “the jail cell”, but it was probably the cheapest accommodations within 50 miles of Vail/Beaver Creek.
Also, I had only two ski days earlier in the season before beginning my big trip and I felt a great deal of muscle fatigue over the first couple of weeks of a fairly intense skiing schedule. I needed to take a rest day every third or fourth day and was slightly discouraged before I gained better fitness along with more understanding about the limits of my geezer body. The worst was those off days spent staring at the four walls of the “jail cell” night AND day.
Late in the trip I was feeling in much better shape, here in the Pali section of Arapaho Basin.
I met a young woman one night in a hot tub in California, but it’s definitely not what you are thinking. She had lost her boyfriend of nine years in a car accident less than 24 hours before. He died beside her in the wreckage. She walked away with only bruises. A relaxing soak turned into a sober consolation session and it was a very sad reminder about the dangers of mountain driving.
In some respects the subpar snow conditions everywhere west of Colorado put a damper on some of my powder dreams, but the upside was consistently good driving conditions on days when I relocated long distances through mountain areas normally known for potentially hazardous driving.
On the road near Reno, NV and Mt. Rose ski area.
The initial solo month of the trip represented the longest separation from my wife in our happy 35 year marriage and placed quite a burden on her back at home. This gave me significant feelings of guilt. Most fortunately I scheduled for her to join me for the month of March in Colorado and we had a great time that just about made up for everything.
Hanging out in Aspen.
On April Fool’s Day at Arapahoe Basin I came to the realization that all good things must come to an end. I planned to start driving home the next day and spent the morning sorting and packing much of my gear. I mistakenly thought it was a random Wednesday and I got to the A-Basin parking lot at 11:30AM. It was Gaper Day and the place was mobbed with an impressive tailgate scene of locals and nearby college kids in all manner of crazy costumes who’d been partying hard since oh-dark-thirty. Being a clueless tourist I didn’t know it was a SPECIAL day and I wore normal ski gear, therefore I was a gaper for not looking like one. I immediately turned my jacket inside out in a desperate attempt to fit in, but no luck. Already by that time I was at least three drinks and all kinds of other mind altering stuff behind the crowd. It didn't help that everyone was one-half to one-third my age. Normally I love any excuse to party on the slopes, but this time I felt old and out of it. Even though many in the crowd were only scantily dressed the weather was raw and chilly with intermittent wet snow. Time to go home I decided and after about 90 minutes I left.
Lessons Learned
Getting with the flow of this trip took patience. I not only had to get used to the demands of extended travel and rigorous skiing, but this was also occurring not long after the major life event of retirement. I had to detach from the weekend warrior mode of skiing bell to bell. I cut way back on caffeine and went to bed early. As a family guy with four grown children I was used to eating with a gang and I did not like going out to restaurants alone. I preferred eating in my motel room or doing fast food. Interestingly, lift lines were pretty much a non-factor everywhere I went. I just got out of the base areas quickly and things were great. I also utilized singles lines. This strategy worked even for Texas Spring Break Week in Summit County, CO. Jackson Hole may have been the busiest place I went. Perhaps it was catching extra visitors from the snow-starved West Coast?
The base of Peak 8 at Breck can get busy, but it's got great energy and a great view of the action in two huge nearby terrain parks.
It took me a long time to dress successfully for Western skiing. I had to go a little lighter than Eastern skiing, but keep layers handy just in case. I watched weather reports carefully. The mornings would often start cold, but go through a dramatic warm-up throughout the day. And I had many intensely sunny days. Getting into a routine with respect to ski clothing and “pocket management” helped me remember my lift pass, phone, keys, wallet, sun block, etc. Learning about bus routes and free parking took study, but it’s doable. I didn’t pay to park for a single ski day the entire trip. I found local newspapers to be a valuable resource about transportation, special events, and good deals. I also used online ski forums to gather intelligence data and connect with friends on the slopes.
I caught a free concert one night at Vail, this is the Barenaked Ladies.
Like a stereotypical thrifty senior, I brown bagged my lunch almost every ski day. This led to some memorable on-slope picnics including DIY chili dogs with friends at one of Vail’s free on-mountain BBQ grills, giggling through a peppermint schnapps laced lunch at The Canyons with two hilarious friends, and two beautiful solo lunches at or near the highest lift served points of Heavenly and Jackson Hole. The best restaurant lunch I had during a ski day was at the Alpinehof Bistro located in the heart of the Jackson Hole base area next to the tram. Their Austrian fare was delicious, reasonably priced, and most importantly this restaurant was virtually empty when it was hard to find a seat at other restaurants higher on the mountain.
Jackson Hole Grand Teton scenery.
Although I ski a lot of black diamond terrain, I usually take it reasonably slow and careful. I don’t do a lot of super high speed groomer skiing and I think that’s where a lot of recreational skiers have the most serious accidents. The worst “wipeout” I had on the trip came at Kirkwood when I was daydreaming on a chair ride by myself. I forgot to get off at the top of the lift. As the chair began to circle back downhill I panicked and threw up the safety bar and jumped off. The drop was about four feet and my skis did the splits. It was momentarily somewhat painful, but there were no lasting effects.
Scratching my way down a glade called Needles Eye at Breckenridge.
Conclusion
My prime directive on this trip was to stay healthy, pace myself, and to still be skiing on the last day before my scheduled return. Mission accomplished. This sort of undertaking is a marathon, not a sprint. And finally my last lesson: it’s not just about the snow, it’s also about the people. Invariably I found ski days shared with friends highly rewarding and those spent with my family the most rewarding of all.
My wifey has the patience of a saint, here at Beaver Creek.
List of ski days at different areas during the trip: 6 Beaver Creek, 5 Vail, 7 Breckenridge, 4 Kirkwood, 3 Jackson Hole, 2 The Canyons, 1 each Heavenly, and Park City, 9 Keystone, 5 Arapahoe Basin (I skied Keystone and A-Basin on the same day once). I also cross country skied one day on a prepared track at the Raven Golf Course in Silverthorne and one day at Beaver Creek.
All photos by Jim Kenney
THE END
By Jim Kenney
November 27, 2015
Lowlights
On the drive from Kirkwood to Jackson Hole I stayed in a motel one night in the town of Jackpot in northeast Nevada, hard against the Idaho border. This is where poor people go to gamble; no glamour, no glitz, just dimly lit halls full of one-armed bandits, cigarette smoke, the odor of stale carpet, and folks (mostly elderly) mindlessly throwing their money away.
I guess I am not as “core” as I thought because my extremely austere accommodations in Minturn, CO and the attendant two weeks of microwave dinners and instant oatmeal breakfasts kind of got to me. Ironically, I was skiing some of the most upscale resorts in America during the day, but I was still building a cadre of local ski buddies and didn't have much of an après ski life. At night staying by myself in an 8’x10’ motel room reminded me of a jail cell with comparable amenities - nada.
I called my room at the Turntable Motel “the jail cell”, but it was probably the cheapest accommodations within 50 miles of Vail/Beaver Creek.
Also, I had only two ski days earlier in the season before beginning my big trip and I felt a great deal of muscle fatigue over the first couple of weeks of a fairly intense skiing schedule. I needed to take a rest day every third or fourth day and was slightly discouraged before I gained better fitness along with more understanding about the limits of my geezer body. The worst was those off days spent staring at the four walls of the “jail cell” night AND day.
Late in the trip I was feeling in much better shape, here in the Pali section of Arapaho Basin.
I met a young woman one night in a hot tub in California, but it’s definitely not what you are thinking. She had lost her boyfriend of nine years in a car accident less than 24 hours before. He died beside her in the wreckage. She walked away with only bruises. A relaxing soak turned into a sober consolation session and it was a very sad reminder about the dangers of mountain driving.
In some respects the subpar snow conditions everywhere west of Colorado put a damper on some of my powder dreams, but the upside was consistently good driving conditions on days when I relocated long distances through mountain areas normally known for potentially hazardous driving.
On the road near Reno, NV and Mt. Rose ski area.
The initial solo month of the trip represented the longest separation from my wife in our happy 35 year marriage and placed quite a burden on her back at home. This gave me significant feelings of guilt. Most fortunately I scheduled for her to join me for the month of March in Colorado and we had a great time that just about made up for everything.
Hanging out in Aspen.
On April Fool’s Day at Arapahoe Basin I came to the realization that all good things must come to an end. I planned to start driving home the next day and spent the morning sorting and packing much of my gear. I mistakenly thought it was a random Wednesday and I got to the A-Basin parking lot at 11:30AM. It was Gaper Day and the place was mobbed with an impressive tailgate scene of locals and nearby college kids in all manner of crazy costumes who’d been partying hard since oh-dark-thirty. Being a clueless tourist I didn’t know it was a SPECIAL day and I wore normal ski gear, therefore I was a gaper for not looking like one. I immediately turned my jacket inside out in a desperate attempt to fit in, but no luck. Already by that time I was at least three drinks and all kinds of other mind altering stuff behind the crowd. It didn't help that everyone was one-half to one-third my age. Normally I love any excuse to party on the slopes, but this time I felt old and out of it. Even though many in the crowd were only scantily dressed the weather was raw and chilly with intermittent wet snow. Time to go home I decided and after about 90 minutes I left.
Lessons Learned
Getting with the flow of this trip took patience. I not only had to get used to the demands of extended travel and rigorous skiing, but this was also occurring not long after the major life event of retirement. I had to detach from the weekend warrior mode of skiing bell to bell. I cut way back on caffeine and went to bed early. As a family guy with four grown children I was used to eating with a gang and I did not like going out to restaurants alone. I preferred eating in my motel room or doing fast food. Interestingly, lift lines were pretty much a non-factor everywhere I went. I just got out of the base areas quickly and things were great. I also utilized singles lines. This strategy worked even for Texas Spring Break Week in Summit County, CO. Jackson Hole may have been the busiest place I went. Perhaps it was catching extra visitors from the snow-starved West Coast?
The base of Peak 8 at Breck can get busy, but it's got great energy and a great view of the action in two huge nearby terrain parks.
It took me a long time to dress successfully for Western skiing. I had to go a little lighter than Eastern skiing, but keep layers handy just in case. I watched weather reports carefully. The mornings would often start cold, but go through a dramatic warm-up throughout the day. And I had many intensely sunny days. Getting into a routine with respect to ski clothing and “pocket management” helped me remember my lift pass, phone, keys, wallet, sun block, etc. Learning about bus routes and free parking took study, but it’s doable. I didn’t pay to park for a single ski day the entire trip. I found local newspapers to be a valuable resource about transportation, special events, and good deals. I also used online ski forums to gather intelligence data and connect with friends on the slopes.
I caught a free concert one night at Vail, this is the Barenaked Ladies.
Like a stereotypical thrifty senior, I brown bagged my lunch almost every ski day. This led to some memorable on-slope picnics including DIY chili dogs with friends at one of Vail’s free on-mountain BBQ grills, giggling through a peppermint schnapps laced lunch at The Canyons with two hilarious friends, and two beautiful solo lunches at or near the highest lift served points of Heavenly and Jackson Hole. The best restaurant lunch I had during a ski day was at the Alpinehof Bistro located in the heart of the Jackson Hole base area next to the tram. Their Austrian fare was delicious, reasonably priced, and most importantly this restaurant was virtually empty when it was hard to find a seat at other restaurants higher on the mountain.
Jackson Hole Grand Teton scenery.
Although I ski a lot of black diamond terrain, I usually take it reasonably slow and careful. I don’t do a lot of super high speed groomer skiing and I think that’s where a lot of recreational skiers have the most serious accidents. The worst “wipeout” I had on the trip came at Kirkwood when I was daydreaming on a chair ride by myself. I forgot to get off at the top of the lift. As the chair began to circle back downhill I panicked and threw up the safety bar and jumped off. The drop was about four feet and my skis did the splits. It was momentarily somewhat painful, but there were no lasting effects.
Scratching my way down a glade called Needles Eye at Breckenridge.
Conclusion
My prime directive on this trip was to stay healthy, pace myself, and to still be skiing on the last day before my scheduled return. Mission accomplished. This sort of undertaking is a marathon, not a sprint. And finally my last lesson: it’s not just about the snow, it’s also about the people. Invariably I found ski days shared with friends highly rewarding and those spent with my family the most rewarding of all.
My wifey has the patience of a saint, here at Beaver Creek.
List of ski days at different areas during the trip: 6 Beaver Creek, 5 Vail, 7 Breckenridge, 4 Kirkwood, 3 Jackson Hole, 2 The Canyons, 1 each Heavenly, and Park City, 9 Keystone, 5 Arapahoe Basin (I skied Keystone and A-Basin on the same day once). I also cross country skied one day on a prepared track at the Raven Golf Course in Silverthorne and one day at Beaver Creek.
All photos by Jim Kenney
THE END
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