Ski touring

years. But he started out on downhill skis. "I got to a point where I wanted to go where it was really good (downhill) skiing, so I moved to Colorado in '74 or '75," Gross said. "I was single, and I just picked up and left." He planned to get a job in Boulder, Colo. But then a friend of a friend invited him to visit Telluride.…

back began to stick to my tight fitted coat. I looked up at the rest of the ski carts which were moving in sync, following each other into oblivion. My eyes then wondered down as I slowly searched the winter wonderland, it was exquisite. The snow gently sprinkled the scattered mountains which were becoming smaller and smaller as our cart followed the rest of the lifts into the puffy clouds. One by one we wriggled off the ski lift and like penguins, we waddled in the snow. I watched my friends…

As I floated to the top of the hill on the ski lift, my stomach dropped and I grew hot despite the freezing temperatures outside. I was attempting to prepare myself for the sizable slope that I thought to be my impending doom. When I departed from the lift I turned my skis to position myself at the brink of slope. Then I tipped my skis over the edge of the hill with much initial regret. Throughout my years of skiing I had sprained joints, bruised limbs, and nearly broken bones. Despite my…

I’m a sponsored snowboarder who boards at Massanutten Mountain. I claim it as my home mountain. One day, up at Mass, I was with my boy Carl Leake. We’re both amatuer professional snowboarders. We were boarding all day, a 13 hour boarding day. The accident happened when we were about to leave the wintery wonderland. Carl and I just came off of MakkAttack which is a slope going down to the terrain park on Pacesetter which is another, smaller slope. They only put this sick terrain park up at the…

Suddenly, I was airborne. Everything went black, and I mean BLACK. That was the start of an experience that taught me to try new things. It happened to be my first year skiing. I flew around like a drunken man when we started, falling every time I stood up. To be honest, I was embarrassed but also determined. Slowly, day by day I improved. It was grueling but I did it. By the final day of skiing I was the best in the group. That same day, sometime in the beginning of January, I was at lessons.…

What do you do with a face full of snow and a trail of ski equipment marking your every mishap? Some may turn red with embarrassment, some may cry, and some may swear to never go down that wretched mountain again. Trust me, I have done each one. As a fourteen-year-old freshman, I suddenly found myself in a strange new land. Colorado had me knocking more snow off my boots after a walk across the street than I had seen throughout my entire life living in Texas. Early the first morning I bundled…

my boots and headed to the ski lift as I looked at the snow glow in the cold February sun. As I waited in the line, John was grabbing ice balls the size of my hand, while attempting to throw them at my back. As Jack left his station, the smell of weed stenched across the entire ski area. Not even caring about looking at my lift ticket,I easily got on the lift. I tried to pick up a snow ball as the lift came up and pushed me on its cold, rusty seats. Getting off the ski lift, I never thought…

socks. Could I have been more prepared? In my head I couldn’t have, but hitting the slopes would tell me something completely different. My best friend at the time and I made our way into our bulky ski gear. We talked each other up and we felt confident. The next thing on our agenda was to ride the ski lift right up to the most challenging slope, black diamond. Once we arrived at the top, I took a deep breath in, and a long cry out. This slope haunted me just by looking down. That wasn’t going…

got even colder than the outside temperature made me. Soon after that we made a morning stop to get breakfast the place we could count on mcdonald's. After we finished eating we headed to rent out skis the line had about five groups of people in it which went by surprisingly fast. Once we got our skis and snow gear on we went outside. Surprisingly the weather was refreshing and not cold from the warm stuffy lodge we had previously been…

ISP Snowboarding trumps skiing Over the past few decades ski areas have been split between skiers and snowboarders. People who are looking to hit the slopes for the first time have a big decision to make: buy/rent skies or a snowboard? Given these two options, I believe that first timers should take up snowboarding instead of skiing. Snowboarding has a cooler and more interesting culture, snowboarding is more practical, and snowboarding has better style than skiing. For these reasons it would…