Stories from the road

Stories from the Road
January 22, 2017
Snowmass Village, CO.

New light snow, cold temperatures, and some good light make for a great ski day. Bruce Wallace and the Moon brothers, Kirby and Carl, arrived yesterday from Illinois and Iowa.  We started off with a group of seven at the top of Campground, but it was hard to keep that size group together. Within a short time I was skiing with Bruce, Kirby, and Carl, who couldn’t get enough of the 5 inches of new powder.

Soon we were on the Burn running through the powder which was light and plentiful. The guys looked so good that I accused them of having spent the previous month in Vail skiing powder. Kirby had new skis and boots and floated over the snow. It was great fun skiing with them.

In the afternoon I skied with Marle, Maria, Lucas, and Vicki. Lucas skis faster than anyone I have skied with. He is very solid over his skis. We ran Bear Bottom on Elk Mountain, when I took my third spill of the trip. I felt somewhat disoriented, and Vicki and I skied to our hotel.  Tonight we’ll go to Venga Venga for Mexican food and football watching.

The home team won last night and Tom Brady looked good.  Having felt maligned by the NFL, the team has something to prove. My friend Steve Valle was at the game in Foxboro.

Tonight we’ll eat dinner with Barbara Futran from Squaw Valley.  We trekked with Barb in Pakistan and Nepal, and have visited her and her husband Leon in California. Barb excels at all the sports she does. She is an expert skier, former marathoner, and strong hiker. Later in the week we’ll also get together with Mike Fetters from Boston, whom we met on a river trip in Idaho in the late 90’s.  A Professor at Babson, Mike like Barb is a terrific skier, at some point we’ll make some runs with him, before he heads to double black territory.