Skiing

The Genesis of the 2016 ski trip.

In 2016 I registered this domain to host a new blog which I planned to build around the documentation of an epic 3-week, 4000-mile skiing road trip. A random conversation lead me to learn about the Mountain Collective combo ski pass, which covered six of the seven mountains that I planned to visit. I was taking the trip solo (with my pup Hunter) in a hastily-built camper arrangement in the canopy of my full-sized truck. I wanted to “rough it”.



Less than a year prior, my wife of almost 8 years and I decided that we had grown apart and filed for a mutual divorce. We parted amicably and quickly. But what I’d not realized at the time was just how drastic the change would be in my day-to-day life! My “couples friends” – people I used to see almost every day, vanished literally overnight. I went from hosting big BBQs, groups events and annual 12-20 person Thanksgiving dinners, to spending Thanksgiving 2015 alone with my father – my only relation on this continent. And by the time this trip was coming together, my dad was well under way to selling his house and with plans to retire 12 time zones away. “The Single Life” was new to me and I wanted to do something different. The trip sounded like one of those things I’d missed out on in my earlier years – so here was the chance to do it!!

The trip didn’t go exactly as planned. But it is one of those epic things I look back on with delight! I gathered hours upon hours of skiing footage, interviews, short essays and other material with which I planned to make a 10-13 episode series. In the end, 5 episodes got made. The process is quite time-consuming! In 2017, I had focused on a remodel project with my new house, work projects and my other big interest – sailing. Oddly enough, much of the good Puget Sound sail racing, is done in the winter, as the winds are stiffer and more consistent. That said, I repeated the trip (with some modifications and not much filming) in 2018. As I type this, I am in Salt Lake City on my third Mountain Collective Epic Road Trip!

As I chat with fellow skiers and tell them about my exploits, many ask: “What is your favorite mountain and why?” The answer is somewhat complicated and I thought to myself that almost as a side-effect of this series and other ski trips future and past, I have accumulated a fair bit of experience, learned some hard lessons and could share my knowledge with the world in the form of this blog. I’ve been floating some ideas on how I could comparatively rate different ski hills and maybe make for an interesting read. I can now answer many of the questions that I initially struggled to answer. So I guess that’s where it’s going now!

“A smart man learns from his own experiences. A wise man, learns from the experiences of others.”

– Russian Proverb.