{"id":2442765,"date":"2019-04-09T21:44:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-10T03:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/sean-beckwith-short-stories-from-a-long-winter\/"},"modified":"2019-04-09T21:44:00","modified_gmt":"2019-04-10T03:44:00","slug":"sean-beckwith-short-stories-from-a-long-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/sean-beckwith-short-stories-from-a-long-winter\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean Beckwith: Short stories from a long winter"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If you ski 100 days and don\u2019t Instagram your pin, did you actually ski 100 days? With an incredible ski season wrapping up, it\u2019s fair to ask another 100-day-related question: If everyone else reached the century mark, how impressive is the feat?<\/p>\n

People who don\u2019t live in a ski town are impressed. People who have Ikon or Epic passes are impressed \u2014 especially the two middle-aged gentlemen from the Front Range who hazed up the gondola and later that same week almost hit me.<\/p>\n

But how about locals? I\u2019m not sure they care about your accomplishments. It\u2019s like the Crossfit guy who tells you how many burpies he did this morning. First, I have no idea what a burpie is, though I\u2019m sure they\u2019d be happy to not only tell me but to demonstrate one. Second, why is it called a burpie? I\u2019m not sure the gym needs an exercise that sounds like a parents describing a gassy baby.<\/p>\n

So in an effort to not sound like the guy who keeps you updated on his deadlift capabilities, I\u2019ll save the 100-day minutiae to awe relatives and flatland friends. Instead, here are some anecdotes from a few months in snowpants.<\/p>\n

Chipmunk plays chicken<\/p>\n

I had a few close calls with skiers this year, including the aforementioned blazed 40-something who never met a jump he didn\u2019t like \u2014 or veer across the run to hit. This, though, was a different kind of on-mountain encounter.<\/p>\n

I was transitioning from Spar Gulch to Kleenex Corner, just past the slow skiing zone signs, when a chipmunk ran out in the middle of the run. I assumed the animal would continue its dash from the left side of the trail to the right but instead stopped and stared at me, wondering which way I was going to go. Being close to a catwalk and amid a group of skiers, I didn\u2019t want to rip the emergency brake, so I made my decision \u2014 GO LEFT! I transferred to my toe edge, raised my heals and came within a hair or two of decapitating or de-tailing the varmint. I whipped my head back to thankfully see the little guy sprinting toward the right side of the trail. Chipmunk avoided, crisis averted.<\/p>\n

Fallen, frozen trees<\/p>\n

During the blizzard that was March, there was so much snow that trees were literally freezing and falling. On the way up Exhibition at Highlands, a Ben Welch and I noticed pine trees fallen into runs. As we shared a lift and a beer later with some guys from Denver, we were amazed at the huge trees draped in snow and swaying in the breeze.<\/p>\n

Ben, being the morbid person that he is, brought up the possibility of a tree crashing onto a lift cable, severing it and sending us plunging to a painful death. So, yeah, when we ripped through Sherwood Forest later and Ben lagged behind, my thoughts immediately went to the worst possible outcome as I blew his phone up. No, a well-timed tree didn\u2019t strike Ben; he just got stuck traversing because he\u2019s a second-rate snowboarder.<\/p>\n

Tiehack discovery<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t usually snowboard at Buttermilk but when I do, I snowboard at Tiehack. I thought the area was reserved for uphilling and people who can\u2019t find stashes at the other three resorts. After an agonizing dentist appointment, I made my way to the most accessible ski area from Glenwood, which happened to be Buttermilk. None of the mountains reported an extraordinary amount of snow over the prior two weekdays, so I didn\u2019t expect much more than a few runs to clock a day on the mountain. What I found \u2014 at 2 p.m. no less \u2014 was about 6 inches of mostly untouched snow and empty slopes.<\/p>\n

It was so convenient and stress-free that I\u2019ve added Tiehack to my rotation. I\u2019m not sprinting over there for actual powder days or anything like that but the convenience of the parking lot is perfect for spring or groomer skiing. It\u2019s like a gateway drug, though I\u2019m not injecting that skinning culture into my veins just yet \u2014 or ever, really.<\/p>\n

Also, I wouldn\u2019t recommend the Tiehack lot before 9 a.m. because the uphilling crew fills the spaces like old people fill lap lanes during morning dips.<\/p>\n

Friend on a powder day<\/p>\n

I may be an a\u2013hole but I\u2019m not 100% a d\u2014. A friend of mine\u2019s visit was bookended by sunny days with featured powder day in between. He\u2019s been out a few consecutive winters now and is picking up the sport at a pace befitting someone who snowboards once a year. Well, apparently that\u2019s still not enough to endure 18 inches of fresh snow at Snowmass. After three runs, two of which I couldn\u2019t help but plow into the fresh stuff as Bert followed my lead, we called it a day. I believe it ended with him yelling, \u201cThere\u2019s too much f\u2014ing snow! I can\u2019t do anything when it\u2019s this deep! I\u2019m done!\u201d<\/p>\n

After some apres beers to discuss the next day\u2019s plan of attack, he calmed down and we opted for Buttermilk, which, again, is my last pick for a powder day but we forged ahead anyway. Even though my windburnt cheeks could attest to the temperature, we had a blast. \u201cTree\u201d runs off West Buttermilk aren\u2019t ideal but they weren\u2019t touched either, and there\u2019s enough pitch on skier\u2019s left before the run out to the West Buttermilk lift that one could feel like they weren\u2019t missing great turns elsewhere. I mean it was only one day (of 100 and counting).<\/p>\n

Sean Beckwith is a copy editor at The Aspen Times. Reach him at sbeckwith@aspentimes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you ski 100 days and don\u2019t Instagram your pin, did you actually ski 100 days? With an incredible ski season wrapping up, it\u2019s fair to ask another 100-day-related question: If everyone else reached the century mark, how impressive is the feat? People who don\u2019t live in a ski town are impressed. People who have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2442765","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-16 12:47:45","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2442765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442765\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2442765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2442765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2442765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}