Ski Season 2012-13

Whitefish Mountain summit, Glacier in the background

It's been more than two months since I last wrote in this blog. In the mean time, between work and family during the week and skiing on the weekend, I've had no extra time. And more importantly, I've not felt that I've had anything to say that's worth writing down.

Alex trickin'

Ellie trickin'

Alpine skiing is what I find myself doing with my free time in the winter. It's something the whole family does well, and I've been doing it (or telemark skiing) a long time and so am reasonably good at it. It's true that I wish I had more time to pursue my passion for nordic skiing, and I'd love to get back into backcountry skiing, but this is what the family does. And I truly love practicing the skiing craft; I'm still learning and improving. And Snowbowl -- our home hill this and last season -- is a strict teacher, of tree skiing and long, ungroomed, endurance testing runs. I still have much to learn, I'm glad to say, and terrain to explore.

Wise people say that one of the constants of life is change. This really hits home when your kids are teenagers. Every year they, and our relationship with them, changes. This is true on the ski hill as well. These days at Snowbowl, the kids are out of the car and running to their friends almost before I even stop the car. The only time we get them one-on-one is when we take them away from Missoula. This year, we were lucky enough to get away for skiing at Panorama in BC in January and at Whitefish Mountain for Spring Break in April. Panorama has a good deal on four days of tickets if you buy before December, and Whitefish has deals as well if you follow liftopia.com.

Lake McDonald

Jen and I get a lot of skiing in together at Snowbowl. We both feel that having fun together is one of the things that makes our marriage strong. But I also love to ski alone, searching for powder in the trees. Many moments of Zen this year, finding new spots and untracked snow, and only a few run-ins with trees, which are surprisingly hard. My hope is that the more I ski each year, the less jolting will be any midlife crisis that I figure must be looming.

Only a few days left in this season. It looks like weather may be coming -- one last storm? I'm game.