Keepin' it real or escaped from loony-bin?
Half the fun of skiing a solo day at a resort is “people watching”… I like to conduct my own little cultural anthropological studies – observing and formulating hypotheses of the gaper in its natural habitat. You know, like picking out in the lift-line which schmoe is going to panic when it’s his turn for the chair and do something unpredictably stupid… something most rational minds wouldn’t even consider legitimate possibilities… But, occasionally you run across a jewel (in a good way) – that ambiguous character which you can’t determine whether he’s nuts or pure to the bone.
The following is such an account: So I'm getting on the T-bar on a windy, cold-as-a-mofo day last year at Breck, entering from the uphill side and dude is coming in from the other side - nobody else in line - we meet at the loading point at the same time and give each other "the nod." We hop on our respective sides of the bar and when he reaches for it, I see one of the damned-finest duct tape jobs on his mittens that I have ever seen... my eyes move up the body and see that he is wearing an old “oil change” flannel and lumberjack beanie with old school headphones – over the head style – on the outside of his hat and circa late 80s Smith goggles – all white. My gaze then follows the cord down to his belt (holding up his blue jeans) and I swear to Ullr that this is the first edition of the cassette Walkman.
I couldn’t really hear any music coming from the phones, so I thought I would offer a friendly, “how’s it goin?”… Silence…. So, I mind my own business scoping out promising lines. About halfway up, I hear a decent vibrato attempt at a shouting level, “Starlight!...” My response is a glance over to see what’s going on knowing that he is singing along with the tunes. More silence as he stares forward... About 30 seconds later, I witness the best air drumming extravaganza I’ve ever seen - probably a 20 second fill with verbal sound effects – let’s just say that this dude had one big trap set in his mind and no gaper would have ever pulled this one off without falling off the lift. I look over at him and he looks at me and then points to his headphones… “its the Who!” I can’t help but crack a smile and he temporarily removes the phones.
“Where ya from?” he asks.
”Near Woodland Park,” says I.
”Oh, man… have you ever 4-wheeled Rabbit Ears Pass? Its awesome.” he responds.
(For the non-CO folks – there is no geographic proximity here.) So, I am trying to figure out whether he thinks there is a connection or he just changed topics. I can’t figure it out and don’t want to give geography lessons, so I do the same thing.
”Finding any good deposits from the wind?” I ask.
Nonchalantly he makes a lazy circle to his left pointing to approximately 200+ acres of terrain… “Over here…” then he switches to his right hand… “and over there.” He gets another smile out of me… while he remains straight faced.
At the top of the lift, we both head for the Horseshoe and I watch him link some really nice turns and head off towards the Contest area. I am then left in wonderment… damn, that guy was keeping it real.
