We do things because they feel good.<\/p>\n
Think about it, that’s why we have sex.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, it expresses our love for the other person, but it’s the SENSATION that keeps us coming back for more.\u00c2\u00a0 Life is about sensations.<\/p>\n
How can I explain skiing to you?\u00c2\u00a0 You know when you bite into that dark chocolate, and your eyes form slits and you involuntarily smile?\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what the skiing’s been like the last two days.\u00c2\u00a0 Like a gourmet meal, made up of unexpected delights, with a hot shower and then a bit of sex thereafter.<\/p>\n
Yesterday dawned just a little bit too cold.\u00c2\u00a0 It started out at 23 degrees.\u00c2\u00a0 It LOOKED warm, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, but the snow…it was rock hard on the north side, on the main face, the one that leads down into town.\u00c2\u00a0 But in the Back Bowls??\u00c2\u00a0 It was like being at the BEACH!<\/p>\n
Do you know that scene in "The Heartbreak Kid", wherein Charles Grodin is lying on the beach, looking into the hot Florida sun, blinded by the light, just before Cybil Shepherd shows up to block the rays and say he’s lying in her spot?\u00c2\u00a0 THAT’S what the rays were like in Vail’s Back Bowls Thursday.<\/p>\n
After a run on the rock hard Swingsville, we dropped into the Slot in Sun Up Bowl and it was like dropping into a hot fudge sundae.\u00c2\u00a0 Each turn scooping up a bit of vanilla, the hot fudge being the sensation of HAPPINESS inside.\u00c2\u00a0 Like we’d waited our whole lives for this.\u00c2\u00a0 It was SO good, we had to do it AGAIN!<\/p>\n
And then over to the Poppyfields in Siberia Bowl.\u00c2\u00a0 It was groomed as smooth as Scarlett Johansson’s skin.\u00c2\u00a0 And there wasn’t another soul ON IT!\u00c2\u00a0 Imagine going to a Yankee game and being the only person in the stadium.\u00c2\u00a0 Or the lone attendee at Disneyland.\u00c2\u00a0 It was something unique, never experienced, normally the Poppyfields are a MINEFIELD!\u00c2\u00a0 But on Thursday, we danced down through the corn alone.<\/p>\n
But the piece de resistance was Emperor’s Choice in Tea Cup Bowl.<\/p>\n
Maybe someday you’ll go skiing in Europe.\u00c2\u00a0 Or maybe you have.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the VASTNESS that blows your mind.\u00c2\u00a0 The ENDLESS slopes.\u00c2\u00a0 Open for navigation.\u00c2\u00a0 The choice OVERWHELMING!\u00c2\u00a0 Emperor’s Choice is wider than a football field is long.\u00c2\u00a0 And it had been sitting in the sun just long enough.\u00c2\u00a0 To be PERFECT!\u00c2\u00a0 When Felice arrived at the catwalk at the bottom, she wore a shiteating grin on her face.<\/p>\n
Then there was the end of the day.\u00c2\u00a0 Endless runs on Avanti.\u00c2\u00a0 The namesake run.\u00c2\u00a0 Pickeroon.\u00c2\u00a0 Pickeroon is like skiing a roller coaster.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re zipping along and all of a sudden, there’s a WAVE!\u00c2\u00a0 Bigger than the ones in Malibu.\u00c2\u00a0 And after cresting the first, there’s another, and one further down, at a different angle.\u00c2\u00a0 The texture appeals to you like a chocolate brownie.\u00c2\u00a0 You just swirl it around in your mind, loving it, willing it NOT TO END!<\/p>\n
Now Thursday was one of those days from the postcards.\u00c2\u00a0 Cobalt blue sky without a cloud in evidence.\u00c2\u00a0 One could see Mt. Holy Cross.\u00c2\u00a0 Standing on top of the mountain, better yet, sliding down from the Mountain Top Express to Avanti, looking at the scenery, one felt that one wanted to bring EVERYBODY he knew there.\u00c2\u00a0 To experience the exquisite beauty, the feeling of being ALIVE!<\/p>\n
It wasn’t quite as sunny today.\u00c2\u00a0 In the morning there were a few clouds in the sky.\u00c2\u00a0 And then those white jet trail-formations in the afternoon.\u00c2\u00a0 But it was WARMER!\u00c2\u00a0 No jacket was necessary.\u00c2\u00a0 It was as if you were skiing in JULY!<\/p>\n
Today everything melted, everything slushed up.\u00c2\u00a0 We started in the Back Bowls.\u00c2\u00a0 The Headwall was groomed to perfection.\u00c2\u00a0 The Poppyfields were great again.\u00c2\u00a0 But the stuff in Tea Cup…we were too late.\u00c2\u00a0 It was too soft, too many people had been there.\u00c2\u00a0 So we went to Blue Sky Basin.<\/p>\n
Those were the runs of the day.\u00c2\u00a0 In the back country.\u00c2\u00a0 On top of the world.\u00c2\u00a0 Skiing amongst the trees on Grand Review and the Star was like being locked up in a marshmallow factory.\u00c2\u00a0 Surrounded by fluff.\u00c2\u00a0 With the trees representing chocolate swizzle sticks, stirring the goodness.<\/p>\n
But these runs were finally exceeded by a zip down Blue Ox.<\/p>\n
Blue Ox is a double black.\u00c2\u00a0 Groomed once a week.\u00c2\u00a0 And yesterday, they groomed it, even though the chair servicing it is CLOSED!\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, we started at Two Elk Lodge, cut over on an almost flat cat track, and found ourselves at a beach with a lifeguard station, the Chair 11 off-ramp, but no guards and no bathers.\u00c2\u00a0 It was like a private beach in the Hamptons.\u00c2\u00a0 A slope JUST FOR US!<\/p>\n
It was good yesterday.\u00c2\u00a0 But the top was a bit firm.\u00c2\u00a0 But today Blue Ox was SPECTACULAR!<\/p>\n
Oh, it starts off gently rolling.\u00c2\u00a0 But halfway down, Blue Ox FALLS OFF!\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, there’s steeper terrain, like Climax at Mammoth, where they had the avalanche on Monday, but other than a couple of slopes at Stowe, nothing on the east coast can touch Blue Ox.\u00c2\u00a0 And today it was a carpet of corn snow.\u00c2\u00a0 Time to test the limits.\u00c2\u00a0 Like opening up the Ferrari, the BMW, the TOYOTA on a desert freeway, we let her RIP!\u00c2\u00a0 Nobody was watching.\u00c2\u00a0 It was just us.\u00c2\u00a0 It was the kind of sensation you live for.\u00c2\u00a0 On the edge.\u00c2\u00a0 Pushing it.\u00c2\u00a0 Knowing that maybe you should slow down, but you can’t, because it feels SO GOOD!<\/p>\n
The last two days we closed the lifts.\u00c2\u00a0 Made it down to the bottom close to 4:30.\u00c2\u00a0 And believe me, that last thousand vertical feet was like water skiing.\u00c2\u00a0 But when we walked into the Lodge Thursday, Felice said "We’re in heaven."\u00c2\u00a0 And today, as we slogged through the sixty degree heat of Vail Village in our ski boots, she started singing "Summer Breeze".<\/p>\n
Summer breeze, makes me feel fine That’s how we felt.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only yesterday and today, but Wednesday too, skiing the pow amongst the trees on Over Yonder.\u00c2\u00a0 That feeling that everything is all right in the world.\u00c2\u00a0 That what’s going on in D.C. doesn’t matter.\u00c2\u00a0 That life is too short, you should just let go, and follow your heart, do what feels right, spend your days in the mountains.<\/p>\n Oh, it sounds stupid.\u00c2\u00a0 Strapping two planks to your feet.\u00c2\u00a0 And sliding down mountains again and again.\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s not what it’s about.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about those moments, those feelings of elation, just like that stinging electric guitar in "Summer Breeze".<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We do things because they feel good. Think about it, that’s why we have sex.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, it expresses our love for the other person, but it’s the SENSATION that keeps us coming back for more.\u00c2\u00a0 Life is about sensations. How can I explain skiing to you?\u00c2\u00a0 You know when you bite into that dark chocolate, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-6n","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Blowing through the jasmine in my mind<\/em><\/p>\n