I get it now, ski nerds

Hello Everyone, 

I am at the top of Whistler mountain, alone, skiing down ridiculous knee-deep powder. The kind of snow people travel across the world and hike up mountains to ride. And it's here, as much as I can handle, all around me.

I'm enjoying it, but I'm not giddy. I am hesitant. 

Why? Because I don't know which trail I'm on. Presumably, they all lead to the bottom, sure. But there are different ways of getting there.

There are ski tracks around me indicating I'm still inbounds, so that’s good at least. But, and this is where my hesitation comes from, 20 minutes previously I witnessed a dude pull a back-flip off a cliff in full view of the chairlift I was boarding to get to these trails. It was one of the raddest things I'd ever seen. But it also meant that one of these tracks around me leads to a cliff that is high enough that one has time to pull a backflip before hitting the ground. I couldn't be sure that the tracks I was following wouldn't lead me to that same cliff.

To give you a sense of what kind of place Whistler is, it's not just a place where you can see someone casually pull a backie without it being filmed by Warren Miller, it's also the kind of place where the locals chat with an Olympic champion, while both in line for the chairlift, about how they love it when the wind is howling and visibility is nonexistent on the toughest runs on the mountain.

Why would anyone prefer these kinds of conditions? Because it means tourists like me won't go up on those runs, leaving more snow for them.

But my brother is a local, and he did chat with an Olympic champion while in a chairlift line, and he did take me up to the top of the mountain while the wind was howling and visibility was nonexistent. But I get it now. The snow was awesome and that run was rad as hell.

At my recencently updated age of 44, do I still got at as a skier? No. I never had it. But can I still get off the mountain in one piece? Yep, still got that.

So, I get it now, ski nerds. Powder is worth (at least a bit) of risk in chasing it.

Wes

Photos

Me, in the deep snow. Shortly after this was taken, I got a ski tip impaled in a snow drift at an awkward angle. It was a full-on 20 minute Mr. Bean sketch for me to try to get it out.

My brother in the same patch of snow. No such issues with his ski tips.