Life Is A Daring Adventure Or Nothing

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure.” – Helen Keller

Skiing and riding on the snow is the adventure that many of us seek, even though it sometimes ends in results that we  do not like. You may have already heard that Scott Lapp, a Palisades Big Mountain team member and local high school student, lost his life this Sunday after a collision with another skier near the bottom of Yellow chair. It’s a terrible loss for his family, friends, coaches, teammates and the entire Palisades and Alpine ski community. While I did not know Scott personally, you could not miss his big personality in lift lines, waiting at Treats or walking through the parking lot. His love for every part of the ski experience was obvious and will be missed by all. Our hearts are heavy thinking of all of you.

Skiing is an inherently dangerous sport. It probably says that someplace in that long waiver form we all have to sign before the RFID gates will open for us at the beginning of the season. Yet we all choose to go skiing and riding, knowing that risk.

My first significant injury during skiing happened 21 years ago right at Alpine Meadows. My son Drew, then 11 years old, and I ditched school to go skiing with friends. We caught the first chair on Roundhouse and literally flew down the corduroy in Rock Garden and onto Red Ridge, dodging each other around trees. It was on the last tree that we did not see each other and collided at a very high rate of speed on the far side. Fortunately, I came out of it only with a broken ankle. By some miracle, Drew was uninjured and skied the rest of the day while I iced and elevated in the Mezzanine. It could have been so much worse. I still thank my lucky stars for that outcome. It changed how I ski that run forever.

I’ve gone on since then, continuing to ski literally thousands of runs at Alpine Meadows. In that time, I have separated my shoulder, tweaked knees and fractured my proximal humerus, twice. Nonetheless, I keep strapping boards to my feet and sliding down the mountains, even though I can barely lift a 25# bag of dog food with my left arm.

Skiing is not the only sport that provides that rush. In a former lifetime, I spent 18 years as a volunteer EMT in Sierra City. I patched, packaged and prepped for transport all sorts of mountain bike riders, hunters, horseback riders and motorcyclists. It’s not easy. This reminds me to thank the Alpine Meadows Ski Patrol, both the professionals and the nationals, that keep coming back every day. It must have been so hard to come back to work on Monday after that difficult Sunday.

Snow brought back hope for the season today. It wasn’t all that much, ranging from 2-5 inches in the parts of the mountain I skied. Still it was enough to bring out those whoops of joy that we have not heard for seven weeks. That’s why we go skiing, even though the temperature was 45° yesterday and only 18° this morning. I know I forgot how to do winter.

The skiing was great in places and not as good in others. As a general rule, if you stayed in areas that were groomed overnight, then covered by new snow, it was better. Yellow, Ladies Slalom, Bobby’s and Ridge all offered nice powder turns. There were exceptions. On Red Ridge, the east wind redistributed the snow so you had areas of glare ice alternating with 10 inch drifts. We found the same conditions on Chicken Leg. That said, things seemed to drift in a bit deeper consistently on the western side of Sympathy and Rolls and Knolls. Summit did not open today.

Temperatures will gradually warm over the next few days until the next inside slider rolls in around Sunday. Long range, the weather offers nothing but inside sliders for the foreseeable future. I will choose to keep skiing.

Olympic Alert

I’ve been having a ton of fun watching more Winter Olympics than ever this year. A one month subscription to the Peacock app makes it possible to watch exactly the events you want to see, without the inane side stories and interviews of primetime coverage.

Brita Sigourney: Womens Skier Halfpipe – Wed at 5:30pm for qualifiers and Thurs at 5:30pm for finals. Brita qualified in 8th position with two solid runs, the highest scoring USA athlete

David Wise: Mens Skier Halfpipe – Wed at 8:30 for qualifiers and Fri at 5:30 for finals. David Wise qualified in 4th position.