Skiing

When I got out of the Marines, the second thing I did was buy some skis (of course, the first was get a car!). My sisters were familiar with Snoqualmie Summit and that's where we went. An all day lift ticket was $5 and a gallon of gas costs 30 cents. I bought skiing magazines and read them instead of taking lessons (after 4 years in the Marine Corps, I was tired of being told what to do) and found an article about making 'hockey stops' with skis. You jump in the air, turn and roll your uphill edges into the mountain. So at the bottom of the bunny hill (after snow plowing all the way down), that's what I did - and it worked. I no longer ran into people standing in the lift line! And I began to think that I might began to turn like all those others that skiied under the chairlifts (you need to be awlfully proud to ski under the chairs where all the riders could see you).

But even on a good year, I'd only manage a little over a half dozen trips up to the summit. Finally, after about 10 years of slow progress, my wife and I took a ski vacation to Sun Valley, Idaho. My skiing ability improved by quite a bit because of the daily repetitions, but I got a little snobby about the snow - Sun Valley really spoiled us.



Luckily, working for an airline had other perks - the North American Airline Ski Federation (NAASF) held organized races almost every month during the winter. And Crystal Mountain was one of the venues that we attended. Running gates improved my skiing even more. By 1982, I was ready to 'make the jump to light speed' and I took a week vacation to attend a ski race in New Zealand at Queenstown, on the south island. That year, I skiied 20 days all total, and was very proud of myself. But riding up on the chairlift with a very good racer from Europe, I asked him how many days he skiied. He said he used to ski 100 days a year, but lately skiied less that 80. Shocked, I slowly began to realize my shortcommings as a racer would not be overcome skiing 20 days a year. But still, I developed into a decent skiier.

This last photo was taken at Crystal Mountain, and I'm wearing a wool cap, with a snowflake on it, that I bought in New Zealand. My skis are 204 cm K2 slalom skis - a matched pair that I got from the factory on Vashon Island. They had soft shovels (forgiving if you hit a bump) and stiff tails (for jetting out of a turn). I finally got a really good pair of 204 cm Super Slaloms with balanced flex (shovels and tails) and that were made by PRE and I loved those skis the most - in fact I still have them, and if I ever get back up to the mountains, I'll wear 'em. Although I've heard good things about the new 'shaped skis', I haven't tried a pair out yet. But I'll tell ya, if I can learn to ski, anyone can!