THE TROUBLE WITH.....

Now being eligible for AARP while at the same time trying to ski with the young bucks like Jake Wells, Alex Coleman, Curt Nash, Jono Ridler (who is catching up) and Patrick Hernia Boy is that I now pay a SEVERE price for just occassionally skiing, and only skiing when it's DEEP, and skiing for 4-6 hours without stopping. The things you do not see when the video ends...well, I was home Sunday night with ice on both knees for an hour trying to get my body back to a tolerable state, heat pad on the lower back, this of course is now protocol after a big day on the Mountain...it's just too damn fun not to put up with the pain for a few hours...there is nothin better than RIPPIN with a keeeeeewl possie on a poooowder day. Anyway, the day left me reflecting on what it was like to ski when I was still in my 20,s and had me digging through old faded photos to remember how it was when I could actually ski all day, huck some modest air EVERY RUN (once in a while go John Spriggs Big), and wake up the next day feeling no pain and ready to CRUSH again..I found this pic in a box, circa 1985 and one of my favs. Pic was taken by Joey Kline, old school A-Basin ski patroller and Montezuma's Revenge Mountain Bike race champion who now travels the world designing MTB courses for international fields. This was from a road trip to Taos in 1985. Taos had been getting KILLED with snow early season so we drove through a nightmare nine hour drive in a blizzard from Summit County and arrived in the parking lot of Taos Ski Valley an hour before first chair. 90 inch base with 33 new the first day and 16 the second. This was the first run on day one. Coyote RD GS wood core skis (man I miss those beauts) in a 205....like butta in deep snow. Funny how the yellow goggles have blossomed into those GOD AWFUL yellow Rudy Project glasses I wear while cycling...anyway, the rest of the pics (and negatives, remember negatives?) from that day are probably buried in a box somewhere in Joey's belongings gathering mold...we had some GIANT air shots from that day which have probably dissappeared due to house fires (no shit), mouse nests in old Summit County houses, and simply misplacing things from self induced "weed" comas which that crew was infamous for twenty some odd years ago. This one being some "baby" air...yeah, I know, it's hard to believe that I actually hucked this battered body in my youth...but I indeed had my "Scott Schmidt" moments...touche!

Engines full throttle, prepare to launch......

I landed somewhere down here