Same old, same old, but never bored!

This is me at the Outback having their famous loaded potato. I can't even begin to describe how good these things are! The only way to get one of these is to ski down to the back basin. Totally worth it!

Ok so I am having one of those weird reflective moments. You know the kind that is in your subconcious or right at the tip of your tongue and right when you're not expecting it, it comes to the forefront of your mind?! Well as I was researching Jay Peak Ski Resort in Vermont just to get inspired for some media we are working on over here at Schweitzer and I came across a picture of a skier taking on a powder day (do we really have those on the East Coast;)?) The skier was catching an edge and doing a great spray, which eluded to the fact that this was probably a seasoned skier. One who watches the forecast, bought their season pass the second it went on sale, schedules in regular skiing runs, regardless of what it interferes with and loves to throw back a beer with the cronies after a hard day of skiing.

As I was making this judgement it dawned on me that the people I'm surrounded by out here and to some degree, myself are not that much different than this Jay Peak skier, yet we are 3 timezones away from each other. To anyone who watches "The Office," - just imagine a classic Micheal move of taking a deep breath with his hands on his knees, when he is trying to keep a secret and envision that as my reaction to this realization.

Yes, yes, yes we all understand this concept on a global scale. When it comes to race or gender or sexual orientation it all funnels back to "well we are all united by the commonality of being human." But I'll, if you will, dumb this idea down to the smaller scale of skiing. (Although skiing is no small thing!) So I was amazed by the idea of people in Vermont or Canada and even my hometown who love skiing as much as the average person in Idaho, but pushing that aside, it comes back down to the fact that we are all humans first. We may have different conditions and different ability levels and different weather patterns, but we are all just humans who love to ski and are connected by it. In fact I probably follow the same patterns of waking up, checking the weather, gearing up, driving to the mountain, tearing it up a little bit and then ending it with a beer, I am just doing it three hours behind the east coaster doing the same thing! It's nice to know there is a network out there that will catch you and provide a home. (Literally, join a ski club and there will always be a home for you.) And it's nice to know that even across 3 different time zones there are people you share similarities with. With that notion, are we ever really alone?

One wonderful thing about snowboarding is how it slaps you down every now and then just to keep you humble. Right when you think you're getting pretty good you take a digger so hard and usually in front of a lot of people that makes the red creep up all the way from your toes to your face. Those that are skiing with you, usually won't admit it, but they wonder what you're doing out on the slopes with skills as bad as the ones you just displayed. It's almost enough to make you retire your board and boots forever. I had a day like this a week ago.

I work with two Shawns in the Marketing dept. and they absolutely dominate when it comes to skiing. The older Shawn has seen and done everything when it comes to snow, skiing and resorts. So when you're on the mountain with him you can't help, but hold him back. Well through trickery he had me snowboard down a Black Diamond, claiming it was a blue. There was no way this trail was a blue. Plus I had powder up to my shins and was overwhelmed by that fact alone. I have never had snow even cover my board back home. Well I faceplanted it. If I could have sunk into the snow and stayed there forever I would have. Later that day, I decided to go out with the other intern and we had some awesome runs. We took on new trails and tried new techniques and I was right where I was before getting slammed in the face by the snow gods. I guess it's good that I have snowboarding to teach me some humility. At the very least it keeps me grounded.

Speaking of which, I took the craziest fall the other day. One of those tumblers where you do three rounds of flips before you come to a complete stop and where other skiers actually stop to see if you're ok. It was pretty humorous. I took a snowboarding lesson the other day just for kicks b/c employees get free lessons and it was definitely beneficial. I shaved time off of my turns and I am much more tight and controlled, which will help when I go down black diamonds and I learned how to manually turn, which is the starting point to doing helicopters down the mountain. My next lesson will be the terrain park!