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My only regret about my first season living in a ski town, living the ski bum lifestyle, is that I did not get a photograph
of falling snow. I wish there was a way to not only capture the image of large loonie sized flakes dumping down from above,
illuminated by a street light for a moment before plummeting and detonating on the streets. But also to capture the energy
of the surroundings, the anticipation of turns, the acknowledgement that IT is here. Smiles grow from ear to ear, but there
is something more. It is the knowledge that tomorrow, everyone will be at the hill for the exact same reason as you. Nobody
paid money at the start of the season to ride the packed and groomed corduroy, they are here to ride the bottomless.
The following morning you wake up without need of an alarm. Music is played not because you need the inspiration, but
because the same music may inspire you on a day you need it. The snow phone is called not because you doubt, but because you
know and you want affirmation. It is better than you had expected, you set about eating and preparing for the day.
The streets are alive. Fellow snow worshippers walk by with skis and poles, or snowboard in hand. Children drag their
toboggans up to the fields; they too know that IT is here.
Once at the hill, the energy is everywhere. The lifts
will not be open for another half an hour, and already the lines are full. Nobody talks. Behind goggles, hoods, dreads, beards
and toques, smiles can be seen. These will only get bigger as the day goes on. The snow doesn't make a sound as it coats everything
in a thick fluffy blanket. The only sound that is made is of the rickety chair going through it's motions, like it has for
years, and hopefully for many more to come. Plans are devised in everyone's heads; which run to do first, second...as long
as the legs can take it.
Someone in the crowd lets out a large yelp. The silence is broken, everyone cheers because
they know, IT is here.
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So, I wrote that this past winter
while I was stuck in the house with a twisted ankle. When you have nothing else to do, and you have read all the books in
the house, your creative side (or what I think is my creative side) comes out. I completly wrecked my sleep pattern and would
stay up to 3-4 in the morning, writing and reading. Then I would sleep until 3-4 in the afternoon!!! Hopefully I don't hurt
anything this winter but still keep writing.
Some of my favourite quotes and such...
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"Be modest, a lot was accomplished before you were born."
-Unknown
"The mountains are the means; the man is the end. The idea is to improve the man, not to reach the top of the
mountains."
-Walter Bonatti
"I
may be a redneck, but I care."
-student in one of my ODPS courses telling us that he was a logger...but he
still cared about the environment!!!
"Twenty years from now you will be more dissapointed with the things you
didn't do...than the ones you did do."
-Mark Twain
"Like most of
the others, I was a seeker, a mover, a malcontent, and at times a stupid hell-raiser. I was never idle long enough to do much
thinking, but I felt somehow that my instincts were right. I shared a vagrant optimism that some of us were making real progress,
that we had taken an honest road, and that the best of us would inevitably make it over the top.
At the same time, I shared
a dark suspicion that the life we were leading was a lost cause, that we were all actors, kidding ourselves along a senseless
odyssey. It was the tension between these two poles - a restless idealism on one hand and a sense of impending doom on the
other - that kept me going."
-excerpt from Hunter S. Thompson's "The Rum Diary"
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This one of favourite essays about life / mountain culture.
It is taken from the April 1999 issue of "The Kitai."
(Newsletter of the Outdoor Pursuits Students' Society
at the University of Calgary)
Get a Life, Not a Job
By Chic Scott
So many people confuse who they are with what they do. They say "I'm
a Lawyer" or "I am a Carpenter" or "I am a Mountain Guide". Their identity is wrapped up in what
they do for a living. In my opinion this is a terrible mistake and leads to frustrating and unfulfilling lives.
Of
course we must all do some sort of work. We must all constitute to the common good in order to receive our food, shelter and
clothing. But over a lifetime a person may do many kinds of work. My first job after graduating from UofC in 1969 with a B.Sc.
was a dishwasher at Sunshine Village Ski Resort. I did not bother me that I was doing a so-called menial job for I knew deep
inside who I really was -a pilgrim soul on the path to enlightenment.
In my life I have been a ditch digger, salesman,
bus boy, ski lift operator, garbage man, mountain guide, school teacher and university instructor. But I have never confused
who I was with what I was doing to earn my daily bread. Today I am a writer and a mountain historian. I also give lectures
on mountain history and my own personal life adventures. Tomorrow it is likely that I will be involved in setting up a mountain
related website. And after that what next? More books? Politics? Environmental advocacy?
In life, with a little luck,
most of us get what we want; we hit what we aim for. I wanted three things in life: experience, knowledge, and perhaps a little
wisdom. There is no doubt that I have rich experiences. I have have also been exposed to immense knowledge and perhaps have
absorbed some of it. Finally I hope I have begun to acquire some wisdom.
My advice to you is "Don't sell yourself
short!" Life is a precious experience and can be a wonderful adventure. With the wealth and freedom we experience here
in Canada, we can make almost anything we chose of our lives. As a friend of mine said,
"I believe in dreaming wide
awake. Not putting barriers to your dreams. Making it as beautiful or romantic as you like. Dream it in detail."
So dare to climb that Himalayan peak, dare to write a book, dare to take beautiful photographs, paint pictures or write
poetry. If you have a little talent and a lot of perseverance, society may end up paying you just to be yourself.
Along
the way you will have to do some unrewarding jobs. But you will own them and not the other way around. Life will be difficult
and cruel at times. Mountain climbers do fall to their deaths. Seemingly unworthy people may be recognized long before you.
But if you enjoy the process, if you live for the joy of the experience and you truly follow your heart you will succeed.
And what is success? I think it is knowing at the end of the day that you have been true to yourself. That you have
not turned aside but have climbed the rising path towards truth and self knowledge."
-I met Chic Scott at the
Wheeler Hut at Rogers Pass a couple years ago. I would say that he has a little wisdom. He was recently awarded the "Summit
of Excellence Award" at the 25th Annual Banff Mountain Film Festival. One person gets honoured every year for their
role in the climbing community.
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