Random fact you might not know about me if you haven’t met me in real life. I am an avid skier and have been since I was about 8 years old. I learned to ski on the hills in southeastern Minnesota. Every year my parents took us on ski trips to places like Lutsen Mountain, Spirit Mountain, Big Sky Montana and Utah.
When I had to choose a college I ended up at the University of Utah for two primary reasons. One, they offered me a full scholarship. Two, there were 8 ski resorts within 90 minutes of campus. Luckily they have a highly respected business school and I got a solid education out of my time there. I also skied just over 100 days a year for the three years I was there.
Moving to Washington was a bit of a shock. While there are four major ski areas within 2 hours of Seattle, they don’t call the snow around here Cascade concrete for no reason. After 3 years of skiing in sunshine and light as air powder in Utah, the heavy snow and tendency towards rain here took some adjustment.
But now, I proudly say things like “if you can ski in Washington you can ski anywhere” and “as long as it’s not raining I’m up for skiing tomorrow” and “the snow was so heavy and thick that my skis were pointed straight downhill and I still couldn’t move”. I don’t love the conditions here, but I’ve learned to appreciate them for what they are, and to take advantage of the good days when they show up.
This week is one of those times. After a couple years of unimpressive snow this is the first year I’ve lived here that we haven’t had a seasons pass to Stevens Pass. And of course now it looks like it might be a banner year.
So tonight straight after work I’m headed up to Stevens Pass with a friend for some night skiing. Not a bad way to celebrate the winter solstice if I do say so myself.
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Laura, I love your new holiday banner up top. Very cute. I hate to break this to you, but I watched the weather tonight, and being here in Northern Utah they’re predicting something in the neighborhood of 5 ft of snow for the mountains through the next week and I can see the back of Snowbasin’s mountain from my back yard. I hope you have fun on the slopes. I may take the kids up for some sledding this week, so maybe some pics in the future.
P~