Snowmass Stories

Stories from the Road
February 1, 2017
Snowmass, CO.

At breakfast the tall man with the melodious voice told me hew as an artist from Santa Fe. He was an interesting guy, and we talked photography for a while before his wife sat down. She had dropped out of high school after the tenth grade and come to Aspen to ski bum. Later she went to the University of Chicago, graduated and then went on to get a PHD in animal physiology. I felt like I had walked into a David Lean movie.

At the Mountain Chalet the Peg Vernon Syndrome seems to be in operation. Peg, a retired psychologist from San Diego, is a natural therapist. Whenever I see her, I want to tell her everything. Here people are feeling good about things and share a lot in a short time. It makes meeting people fun.

Today we skied hard all morning. The snow was good, and the sun was out, and we ran a couple of runs on upper and lower slot, where we saw the dog sleds. Later we ran a number of runs on the Burn, before skiing to lunch. I accused Vicki of taking a couple of ski lessons behind my back, when I took two days off to heal my leg.

We rode up with a man whose stepson, a physician’s assistant was embedded with the Navy Seals in Iraq. Another man was a retired head and neck surgeon, who had skied Tuckerman’s Ravine in New Hampshire three times. I skied there around 1970 or rather rolled down the ravine, when I fell at the top of the run coming over the headwall.

Last night Vicki and I had a drink at the Westin, before ordering take out submarine sandwiches and going back to our room. Later I watched a couple of episodes of a show about Maine Game Wardens before turning in.