As the sun rises over Denver and the eastern plains signaling another beautiful Sunday, four DU students pile into an SUV, hop onto I-70 and speed to the mountains for what will surely be a gorgeous ski day.
During the winter months, the DU campus often resembles a ghost town on weekends as students flee the shackles of the city and homework to a more surreal world.
But what attracts people to a sport that Jackie Mason refers to as “crazy?”
In his comedy routine, Mason explains, “[Who would want to participate in such a sport where one goes out in the freezing cold and goes up a hill, then goes down a hill and repeats the process.]”
There must be more to skiing than what Mason says. After all, skiing is a prime reason cited by many students for choosing DU.
“It is incredibly fun and you feel like you are in a different world,” said skier Julia Allen. “[You] can feel like it’s your own private mountain. You are out there by yourself.”
Allen also enjoys the challenge of testing her limits on the mountain. She described that there is only one way to go, down, and obstacles will be encountered and hopefully overcome.
For Jamie Skog, a native of Nebraska, it is a unique opportunity to try something new and different.
Drew Bonder, who is from Austin, Texas, concurred.
“I was attracted to the mountains and the snow,” Bonder said, who also described them as “peaceful.”
But for Richard Steadman, who has been skiing and snowboarding since the age of 2 or for as long as he can remember, there is more to the sport than an opportunity. “Cruising down a mountain just because I can is a feeling that is hard to explain. It’s kind of like floating,” said Steadman who visits his grandparents in Vail frequently.
“I meet people who make excuses such as it is too cold, but I just want to keep going up [to the mountains] and continue to lay fresh tracks.” Skiing is a total relief. You don’t have to care about anything. You can just cruise.”
That’s how I feel, too. On many occasions, I find myself sitting on the snow, looking up at the crystal blue ski with the sun shining down thinking that I am the luckiest person alive and that there is nowhere I would rather be than skiing.
There is something magical and overwhelming about the Rocky Mountains that have inspired great photographs, works of art, literature and, of course, skiers.
For some skiing and snowboarding are simply a new opportunity, but for some these mountain escapes are a way of life.
In a recent edition of Powder magazine, a reader, in a letter to the editor, expressed his views that the magazine didn’t emphasise enough safety issues while showing many skiers on difficult terrain that could be potentially dangerous.
The reader explained that skiing isn’t life, but has the possibility of ending a life. The editor of the magazine replied saying that he disagreed with the reader on many points, first of all, that skiing definitely is life.
Warren Miller, who has made many ski videos, explains that it is the thrill of making new tracks down a powder-covered slope.
One can feel that he is going where no one has gone before, a trailblazer. Skiing also offers that sense of freedom not found in other parts of life.
So next time you are wondering why the lobby of Halls is empty on a Saturday afternoon, remember that this is ski season and sometimes schoolwork can take a back seat to the wonders and magic of skiing and snowboarding.
