I had a QTR moment this past Friday. I had spent the week skiing with 40 friends from Santa Cruz, California in Whitefish, Montana and Fernie, Canada. I skied many days with my friend Tom McKoy. Tom is a passionate skier, but what is more remarkable is that Tom stays in excellent ski shape due to participating in CrossFit Longevity for the past 10 years. He is a 72 year old skier who aggressively skis into the trees and on the steep double black diamond slopes. None of us know how long we will be able to ski or how long we will be able to charge down the slopes, but Tom is still out there at 72, and it appears he has many more ski years in front of him. On Thursday, with 6 friends we traversed under Polar Peak, across the ridge of Currie Bowl and then eventually dropped into a chute into Lizard Bowl with a local skier. We passed several steep rocky chutes (one that you needed to use a rope to get into the chute), and ultimately to a fun steep chute with nice soft snow. Later that day Tom and I were at the end of the day and decided we should ski the chute again and thought we could find our way back to the same chute. After traversing across the bowl to skiers left, we realized we somehow missed the chute we were looking for. I wasn’t particularly interested in dropping into one of the chutes that we either needed to go over old rubber tires to miss the rocks or the rope into the other chute. Tom said, I think we can pick our way through these trees…so I followed him. Neither of us knew where we were. Suddenly I realized where we were and we dropped down from above where we had skied the previous chute. You have no idea how relieved I was. I don’t think ski patrol would have been looking for us up there. A side note, where we came out was a homemade memorial to a ski patrol who had passed away. It was made out of a pair of old skis and there was a box with a door. Skiers who go up and know about the memorial can take a nip out of one of the bottles left (and if it becomes empty you need to replace it) as a memory to their friend.
We were supposed to have fresh snow that night and Tom said he might like to take a powder lesson. I told him I had seen a flyer about “First Tracks”, where you can get out on the mountain 1 hour before the lifts open to the regular paying customers. After we skied down, he went in to find out about first tracks. Later he came up to me and said he had signed up for first tracks and it was for 3 skiers and “would I like to join him?” Following the QTR philosophy, I said of course I would. When asked to participate in something, the answer is YES, and then declare that it will be perfect.
So, Tom McKoy, Scott Pinheiro and I got up and out at 7:45 am in the dark and walked up the stairs to meet our guide Nels Sherman (we had a mountain tour from Nels two days prior, and already knew him to be a fun person with great stories and who is essentially the chamber of commerce for Fernie Canada). It was raining when we left the hotel and just started to snow when we arrived. He asked if the 3 of us were expert skiers…yes. He asked if we had ever been heliskiing or cat skiing…yes. Then he proceeded to tell us that the mountain was being worked by the snow cats. That we had to be aware and to watch out for potential cables (because the snow cats connect to cables to be able to groom the slopes that are too steep for normal grooming). Also, there was a Moose sighting and we would need to watch out for a moose. I asked what do we do if we see a moose? Apparently, give a very wide berth, if we are on a cat track, head into the woods because they don’t like tight places. And if they see you they will try to attack you with their antlers to attack you and their hooves to stomp you. Who knew? By the time our orientation was complete it had snowed around 1 inch. And the snow was coming down so fast that in one chairlift ride, it snowed 2 more inches. It kept snowing and we were enjoying following Nels down untracked runs that were groomed (or not) before the snow started. The runs were super smooth, and up to about 6 inches of powder. It was dark and slowly becoming light. We were the only skiers on the mountain. We were in fact getting first tracks over and over again. The best part was we didn’t need to think where to go, Nels led us to great runs over and over again.
Riding the chair, Tom told us that his mom had passed away a couple of years prior and her estate was finally getting completed. He said that he was receiving a distribution, and that he wanted to do something special in her name. So, the 3 of us were making turns in the fresh powder snow, in the memory of Tom’s mother, Mary. Thank you Mary, and thank you Tom for an amazing QTR morning. The morning was 100x better than my expectations at 7:45am when it was raining as we walked out of the hotel.
Just say yes…that is a way to increase the probability of amazing adventures, and do the things that bring you joy. Time is short, so don’t skip joy.
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