Sometimes you’re the windshield
Sometimes you’re the bug

I sing songs to myself while I’m skiing.  Coming down Born Free this morning this song by Mary Chapin Carpenter went through my brain.  Oh, Mark Knopfler wrote it, but she had the "hit".

Actually, the song of the day was "Ride Captain Ride".

Seventy three men sailed up from the San Francisco Bay

I came downstairs from donning my ski clothes and I heard
Felice singing along with the ancient Blues Image hit.  It had come over my iPod.  Contrary to what Tony Brummel thinks, iPods are keeping the old music ALIVE!  Hell, I wouldn’t even OWN "Ride Captain Ride" if it weren’t for P2P services.  It’s not even worth a buck to me.  But for a low price…  Oh, I would have spent a buck.  But, then that would mean I’d have to have spent ninety nine cents for the OTHER 9,000 or so songs I downloaded, shit like Kiss’ "Lick It Up" and Argent’s "Liar".  I say let the musical past come to the public.  But the major labels want to keep the music from the people.

Then there’s "Flying High Again".

Even though Ozzy is a next door neighbor at the beach, I don’t think Felice has EVER heard any of his music.  But when this, my favorite Ozzy song of all time, came over my iPod last night, suddenly Felice’s head started to bob.  I thought maybe I was making a mistake.  But when the verse started again, there it was, the head movement.  I asked her.  She said the song had a good BEAT!

But, once I hit the hill, the song I was singing to myself was "The Bug".

You see it’s hard to get yourself up and out.  Even with seven inches of new powder.  When it’s so FUCKING COLD!

Really, today reminded me of my formative years in Vermont.  We got off the Vista Bahn at Mid-Vail and the thermometer read FOUR DEGREES!  I’ve got no problem with the teens.  But when it starts to approach zero, bad memories creep into my brain.  Like the frostbite I endured.  I’m not talking about the wimpy tingling the average punter talks about.  No, I’m talking about BLISTERS and then SCABS!  And then the skin is forever ruined.  Sensitive to NORMAL cold.  Shit, I’ve got a toe I froze at Alta back in the seventies that has never been the same since.  But that was in December.  Usually, by time you get to February in the Rockies, you’ve got a steady twentysomething reading, oftentimes creeping into the THIRTIES!

But not today.  Today it was COLD!

So cold the snow squeaked.  So cold and windy that the Eagle Bahn Gondola didn’t open till almost noon.  So cold that there were empty chairs on the Mountain Top Express, a sight I’ve NEVER seen.  And, until just before two, it was snowing.  Not enough to add any powder, just enough to sting your face and make visibility crappy.

Still, we had some amazing runs.  Like lower Minnie’s.  Serious powder bumps.  Only one problem, the bumps were FROZEN!  So, you’d be in the trough, in over a foot of fluff, and then you’d hit this rock hard mogul and your skis would start to FLY!

Lower Ledges was a bit more skied out.  But by this time we were a bit wiped, from blasting through the crud on the upper mountain.  You see, once the gondola opened we did laps.  It was the only way to survive.  Then, the gondola broke, and we had to ride the chair.  Which brought us in for a bite to eat, going up sans enclosure was just too much to handle.  And it was then that the sun came out.  And the whole day changed.  We made a run down Giant Steps in the kind of packed powder that’s the best day you EVER get on the east coast.  And then took another gondola ride and didn’t make it down till almost four.  Which is kind of amazing considering the temp.  Then again, my fingers are still tingling.

After blowing two hours in Gorsuch waiting for Billy to deal with a problem customer we got insoles for Felice’s new boots, just FedExed from Kittredge in Mammoth, and then we headed for the jacuzzi.  Where our hair froze as we were sitting in the hundred degree water.

Then, we borrowed a Volvo for the trip to the Minturn Country Club.

You see at the Lodge they’ve got this deal with the Ford-owned Swedish car company.  We got an XC90.  All I can say is the bun warmers worked fantastically.  As we slowly wound our way into Minturn and watched the temperature drop to zero.

The slogan for the Minturn Country Club is "Where the only thing missing is the Golf Course."  You see it’s a restaurant.  A steak house.  Wherein you cook your own steak.  I went there with the Lewis and Rob Gordon back in ’96 and had an hysterical time.  Believe me, there’s nothing funnier than cooking your own food.  How long do you leave your steak on the grill?  Do you throw on salt, pepper, TERIYAKI SAUCE?  And the funny thing is you figure you’ve completely fucked it up, but then it turns out you’ve cooked it PERFECTLY!  Ever cook and eat fish you’ve caught?  Same deal.  NOTHING tastes better.

And after catching up on the demise of our fathers, how the Big C beat them, and discussing "thirtysomething", it was time to exit into the atmosphere, for the ride home.

I hesitated.  I know the drill.  You can run to the car.  But then, even though you’re inside, until the engine warms up, you’re FREEZING!

I held the beeper in my hand as I ran towards the car.  I didn’t want to risk finding a locked door when I finally reached it.  And after cranking the key I immediately turned on the bun warmers.  But they didn’t do much good.  Because although the temp started off at one degree, it quickly worked its way down to minus three.  I started wondering if the Volvo had a heated steering wheel, it had everything else, but I wasn’t about to slow down and break out the manual, I just wanted to drive fast and long enough for the heat to kick in, which finally happened just shy of Vail.

But now we’re back in the Lodge.  Cozy.  The concierge said it was going to be twenty six tomorrow, but I don’t believe it.  Hell, I just went to the ski area’s Website and although it DOES say it’s going to go up into the twenties, they say with a west wind of fifteen to twenty five miles an hour, and forty mile an hour gusts, it’s going to feel like minus ten to minus twenty.  Shit, it was so cold today I could feel it to my core.  Even the chili I ate at lunch didn’t warm me up.  Only when I poured down some hot chocolate did my insides come back alive.

Still, we’ll be out there.

Because that’s what you do.

It makes you feel like you’ve accomplished something.

It makes you feel alive.

And then, despite the frozen digits you have this one run, at Vail, usually two or three, that make it all worth it.