There's No Day Like A Snow Day.
On a Saturday morning, the base of the Sugar Bowl ski resort is crowded with people dressed head to toe in winter wear. The bright sunlight reflects off the helmets and polarized ski goggles of the skiers and snowboarders awaiting their ride to the peak of the mountain. The lines for the chair lifts are crowded with people who have lined up far beyond the guide ropes set out by ski patrol. In order to speed up the trips up the mountain, ski patrol members are directing people to the chairs, making sure each trip to the top is filled to its maximum of four.
The line for the chair lift is abuzz with several different conversations. All kinds of people are discussing everything from the weather to the drive up to family drama. As they catch the chair, two men discuss their houses in Texas, their cabins in Tahoe, their apartments in New York, and the difficulty of selling in this housing market. Later in the day, another man taking the same lift will complain about his job in the service industry, and how a knee injury would keep him from working. A third person will talk about how he hasn’t skied in fifteen years, and is excited to take it up again.
As the lift crests a low peak and more of the surrounding mountain range comes into view, the conversation dies off while the two men look out over the majestic scenery. Below them, they can see the spread of the three peaks that make up the ski resort. The snow covers the mountains and skiers and snowboarders dot slopes illuminated by the sunny morning. Patches of trees are scattered across the slopes. As the green pines get higher on the mountain and less protected from the wind, they get slowly grayer and more wind blown.
Above the peak of the mountain, the sky stretches on in every direction. Puffy white clouds criss-cross its cerulean blue surface. It looks as if someone has painted a cereal bowl blue and placed it upside down over the mountains. Despite the polarized goggles worn by the skiers and snowboarders, the sun is bright. It glitters on the crystalline snow, illuminating every line carved into the powder by the skiers and snowboarders gliding down the mountain.
Now that the chair is almost fully at the top of the lift, it is out of the protection on the peaks and is being buffeted by the wind. The chair sways slowly and one of the men shivers, saying to the other, “It’s windy up here, isn’t it?” “Yeah,” the other says, ”but the view is gorgeous. I feel like I can see for miles. And the snow feels great. It’s nice and powdery, good to ski in.”
When the chair is about 30 feet from the top of the lift, one of the men raises the safety bar, signaling that the ride will soon be over. The lift riders retrieve their poles and angle the tips of their skis up prepping to dismount. At the end of the ride, the skiers push off the lift and glide down the shallow dismount slope, ready to enjoy the ride down the mountain.
