Stories from the Road
Snowmass, CO
January 19, 2016
Yesterday was sunny with packed power. We all were having fun
and headed over to the gondola to go up to Elk Camp. As soon as he got on the
lift, I noticed that something was different. The man wore a Bogner ski jacket with a fur collar and
matching Bogner ski pants. His goggles were expensive looking but were odd.
Serious skiers don’t look like this.
From the moment he sat down he tried to bait us into a
political discussion. He was condescending, arrogant, and hostile. I tried to
change the subject a couple of times to golf talk, as apparently he belonged to
“three golf clubs”. He would have none of it as he challenged Marle, who
attempted to have a reasonable conversation with him. He hated Hillary and called other democrats crooks. At one point his friend, who seemed to
be a more solid person, opened windows in the gondola. I assumed he was letting
out some hot air.
After leaving the gondola and skiing to the lift line,
apparently these guys were behind us. I didn’t hear them, but learned on the
lift that the blowhard was making demeaning comments about our group. When we
reached the top, I saw the Bogner guy and his friend ski to the same trail we
were going to take. I smiled, when I saw that in spite of all his expensive ski
clothing, Bogner was a marginal skier as was his friend. I let them go and then
skied past them a couple of times. Like golf, in ski country what counts is
ability on the snow.
The Bogner guy was transparently narcissistic and nasty. A
bully, who fed on power, he was doomed to emptiness. Like a snobby customer who
leaves every restaurant because it is beneath him, he is forever hungry. I also
thought he reflected the current atmosphere in the country, where one group is
touting intolerance, scapegoating, and exclusion. In fifty years of riding ski
lifts I have never encountered any situation like this.
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