Reality check

**mtbakerskier** · 08-28-2005, 11:46 PM

After the tropical monsoon that hit the PNW last year, and the months of drought and 70 degree weather that followed, I was so depressed that I was actually not stoked on skiing. In fact it was so bad that for the first time ever, going skiing actually felt like a dreaded chore, and not the euphoria that it should be. When the ski area finally closed for the 5th time last year (the earliest that I can remember) I was actually stoked to not have to ski anymore.

Summer has all but gone away, and for the first time since I was old enough to drive, and despite getting up every morning and staring at my ski boots sitting in the bedroom corner, I haven’t once felt the urge to strap my skis on my back, go for a hike and ski all summer long.

Thankfully that all changed today. I dun no if it was the dark gray storm clouds, reading the first 7 ski and snowboard mags of the year cover to cover, back to back in the car, or realizing that the bone spurs that I have worn with pride for the last fifteen years have all but disappeared. For some reason, I have never been more stoked for an up coming season, nor has the next step in my life been so clear.

Screw using that overpriced degree that I have spent the last seven years working on. Screw getting a good paying engineering job. Forget worrying about paying back expensive student loans in January; forget about the bank account that currently reads $7.05 and the two maxed out credit cards. I have decided to do the one thing that I have always wanted to do in my heart, but have never let my self-do, due to silly reasons such as school or finances. I am going to do what ever it takes to ski bum my way threw this season. It doesn’t matter if I have to eat only top-ramen, or quit drinking beer I am going to do what I have always dreamt of; ski and shoot full time this winter, only working on days when it is raining instead of snowing.

So here is to more credit card debt, throwing my life away (according to my dad) and skiing as much powder, and shooting as much film as humanly possible. Hopefully Ullr will be kind.

P.S.
Why is there no snowflake emoticons on this message board?

**fiddler** · 08-28-2005, 11:49 PM

Go for it Grant.

**MOHSHSIHd** · 08-28-2005, 11:55 PM

"throwing my life away"

more like LIVING your life....

if you dont do what you really want to your whole life will be full of regret....this is something I am still trying to really master

go for it dude...have a blast

**Alkasquawlik** · 08-29-2005, 12:01 AM

Get it after it! (the dream that is)

**midget** · 08-29-2005, 12:27 AM

Here's to continually throwing your life away. I threw it away again for the 5th time when I moved to NZ this Summer. Glad you made the right decision Gwant.

**Arty50** · 08-29-2005, 12:29 AM

Originally Posted by mtbakerskier

or quit drinking beer

I'll believe it when I see it.

Also, how are you supposed to shoot film when it's puking 1000 inches outside?

Good luck this winter!

**Samwich** · 08-29-2005, 02:18 AM

fuckin a.

**ulty_guy** · 08-29-2005, 03:50 AM

a good omen for fantastic eye candy!

**snowsprite** · 08-29-2005, 06:03 AM

Do it! I wish I could!

Sprite

**Mcwop** · 08-29-2005, 06:41 AM

Go for it, and don't listen to your parents either. In 1991 I left to work at Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC). I paddled for 220 days straight, and it was the best experience/decision that I ever made. 14 years later I am still wondering why I did not stick with it.

**weibo** · 08-29-2005, 07:15 AM

P.S.
Why is there no snowflake emoticons on this message board?

Because that would be gay.

GEt after it, all I can add is. Just Give'r

**meatdrink9** · 08-29-2005, 07:20 AM

Grant finally found out what those little red lines in Microsoft word were for.

Nice post. I'm sure you'll do just fine with direction you're already headed. Hell, it's been awhile since I saw a ski mag without one of your pics in it.

**mtbakerskier** · 08-30-2005, 01:03 AM

Thanks guys, for the first time ever, I am actualy certian about what I actualy wnat to do and not what others want me to.

**shera** · 08-30-2005, 06:04 AM

Originally Posted by mtbakerskier

Hopefully Ullr will be kind.

You are making the ultimate sacrifice. You will be rewarded.

I'm scared and excited for you. Two roads diverged in a wood and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that made all the difference. Or something like that.

Hell, Robert Frost deserves better than that. Here you go:

The Road not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
and sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
and looked down one as far as I could
to where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
and having perhaps the better claim
because it was grassy and wanted wear;
though as for that, the passing there
had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
in leaves no feet had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less travelled by,
and that has made all the difference

**Tippster** · 08-30-2005, 07:26 AM

Slacker.... get some.

**teamdirt** · 08-30-2005, 07:38 AM

where did you learn this shit?

Roadtrips to the interior..here we come. He bud i live in Vancouver now, so it's that much easier to persuad you to come with me.

-TD

**Tippster** · 08-30-2005, 08:25 AM

By the way, Gunder: Nice shot of Wendy Fisher. She still rocks.

**mtbakerskier** · 08-30-2005, 09:23 AM

Originally Posted by Tippster

By the way, Gunder: Nice shot of Wendy Fisher. She still rocks.

LOL I wasnt too stoked on the shots that I got on that trip. Trying to ski with the flu, and having to keep up with her and the other 3 ripping chicks was not that easy, especially since we where trying to shoot in the BC and it was 70 degrees by 10 am.

**Buzzworthy** · 08-30-2005, 11:01 AM

Grant, open offer on spare bedroom for any travels to Utah. (close to Beaver Mtn) but 2 hours north of Alta/Bird/Solitude.

Live the dream many of us want to.

**grrrr** · 08-30-2005, 11:42 AM

I was up this weekend exploring the country around high pass/larabee. So many mountains, so little time.

If I regret anything I've done, it was that I failed to ski more when I was an irresponsible college dropout. Git some for me.

**grizzle6** · 08-30-2005, 12:04 PM

Go get em' tiger.

**Clack** · 08-30-2005, 12:45 PM

I got a 7 page letter from my grandfather the first time I moved to a ski town asking me "Where do you see yourself in 10 years? A leader of industry, or selling hashish from behind a bar?" I guess I'm somewhere in the middle. Have fun throwing your life away.