Some of you may be wondering what's up with me being so quiet lately. Or maybe not.. in any case, you're about to find out. The skiing described below took place 3/6 - 3/7. If you are sickened by gushes of pure joy, this will give you a hangover....


hap·py (hp)
 adj. hap·pi·er, hap·pi·est.

         1.Characterized by good luck; fortunate.
         2.Enjoying, showing, or marked by pleasure, satisfaction, or joy.
         3.Being especially well-adapted; felicitous: a happy turn of phrase.
         4.Cheerful; willing: happy to help.
         5.
              a.Characterized by a spontaneous or obsessive inclination to use something. Often used in
                combination: trigger-happy.
              b.Enthusiastic about or involved with to a disproportionate degree. Often used in combination:
                money-happy; clothes-happy.



     It's a childlike state that we live in. We're getting younger by the minute. I cannot grasp it fully, but am just starting to comprehend what I feel inside. I am high. So many wonderful things fall into place all around us that we get swept up and swirled around like those magical snowflakes on a whisping, gentle breeze in fairyland. I can hear the whispers, but have no idea where they originate. Maybe they've always been there, maybe they can only be heard while in this perfect state. The words they speak have no consequence. They may not even be words. Pastel tones of soft, colorful voices carry a message through the soul. I absorb it all. I savor each euphoric turn we make. Storing it for future reflection. Too much to spend time pondering in the moment. Just too many moments.  It is so satisfying, so peaceful, so perfect. This is love.

    Love for life. Skiing. Walking, running & jumping. Experiencing. Experimenting new adventure. Playing and smiling and laughing with someone like me. Conjuring up images & ideas with her and finding out I've found everything. I never knew I was waiting for something that has finally arrived. Here & now. Staring back at me is a beautiful, living, breathing answer. I never knew the question. Sweetness. When Whitney looks at me I see the same expression that I must be wearing. It's an amazing realization. Life is like that. It's just a long highlight reel. One event after another, evolving into another - blending into the next.

     Like I've said before, no planning ever beat luck.

    The luck of a snowstorm that dumps 28 inches of powder on the local mountain. Seeing snow falling the day before and having the freedom to say "let's go skiing tomorrow. And the next day too". Yeah. Stayed up late and were both captivated by the mystical world of James Bond. Love that ski chase scene! Tomorrow would be another gift in this infinite string of days, but First Things First `:> The World is Not Enough. Watched it twice now, & still don't know how that movie ends :)

      Waking up early, energized, I peeled apart the blinds to get a look. Got a lot younger. Oh my god, the cars in the driveway are completely buried! Excitement is contagious. As every day starts,  Whit & I shared the glee of waking up on Christmas morning to find that Santa gave us everything we wanted. Again.

     We fed ourselves a double dose of apple-cinnamon oatmeal just after sunrise, smiling & giggling all the while. I went out to dig up my vehicle, but hardly made it out the door before breaking into another giddy fit of laughter. I was standing atop what used to be a flight of stairs; looking down a smooth, white ramp on which someone went crazy & emptied  a giant can of whipped cream insanity. Snow was still coming down like mad too. Such was the case all day long. Heehee!
      Haha!

     Skiing was beyond the bounds of incredible. Whooshing around like a couple of playful baby seals on holiday, we fed each other with magical glowing energy, like when kids run around with sparklers on the 4th of July. I did my usual happy go lucky powder renegade thing and Whitney would yell & scream and shower me with the kind of sounds & words that fuel the fires of gluttonous playtime. It's funny, what happens inside when your name is yelled out in just the right way, by just the right person. Matt has a better definition when Whitney says it. She laughs with glee when I smash through walls of brush & leave shards of sticks scattered behind me. I can partake in the goofiest, off the wall, fun skiing antics I know how and it's welcomed with laughing good cheer. I'm so understood. She encourages me to be me and she loves it. I love it. Oh wow.

     We did all kinds of things. We skied the poofing, spraying wider confines wall to wall powder trails. We made big scores in woods of the most awesome condition possible, dashing through the snow, smiling all the way. Bells on b.... oops, uh sorry, teehee...  ;) And I know I've always talked up the benefits of old, slow lifts... but now I have a completely new appreciation for them :) !!

      For someone who initially talked herself down, Whit has a skiing style so much more pleasing to watch than mine. It's smooth fluidity. Pretty. She makes steep, graceful arcs & doesn't need her arm twisted to ski out of her comfort zone.  I think sometimes you need to get out of that zone to find a better one. Like in the Back Bowls. I took great pleasure in watching Whitney do things that she wasn't sure she could do. It was outstanding. An entirely different world of trees, snow, trees, seclusion, snow, silence, & unintruded privacy. Ours were the only two souls anywhere on the face of the earth for some length of time.

     So beautiful.

     The day after that occurred under a gorgeous blue sky and I don't remember hearing them, but I'm sure that birds were singing. These were two phenomenal days, but I consider them one and the same. Just one long, joyful day in the big white romper-room. We took a break in the middle when the sun prompted us to do so.

     When we were pickling ourselves in the hot tub, people asked us if were on our honeymoon "cuz ya look so damned happy". We went back to my place & drank wine & celebrated & gushed with smiley banter, capping off the night time by getting all alive in our own private play time.

     After a good long nap and waking up refreshed, we went back up to the sparkling white romper room that lies just a few miles above my apartment. What's the elevation up at Smuggs? The topo map would suggest something like 3,650', but you know, I think it's closer to one hundred million miles high. It protrudes through the atmosphere and way up into the outer reaches of space. To a place where everyone is happy to see us being happy and nothing, not even gravity, can get us down.

     Waiting in line for our first lift ride, we met up with a couple friends of mine. Stafford and Brodie. The 4 of us stuck together for most of this calendar day and had a searing blast cutting into the perfectly soft, buttery powder with hot knives strapped to our feet. Silly antics included extended tight tree slaloming, knocking each other over at the top & picking up the poles of the fallen one - then throwing them as far as we could. Laughing the whole time, we made others laugh as well. Then there was jumping off the roof of one of those little snow making shack thingies. That was one of those little moments that take a fraction of a second to pass, but stay with you as a live-frozen image that lasts forever. No crazy tricks or gargantuan air or anything, but the simple fact that the snow is high enough to allow for skiing onto a roof and flying away... that certainly is crazy. There's SO MUCH SNOW!!!!!

    The end of the ski day was coming soon, but the fun doesn't stop there. The world is our playground. On the last run, Whit & I were standing at the top of a pretty steep black trail when a lone skier came pulling up above us for a breather. This was our opportunity to continue to be clowns. We had discussed our strategy earlier, now it was time to put the plan into action.

    Whit improvised as soon as the guy stopped near us with "Ok Matt, what you want to do is just go straight down, make some turns and you'll be fine." I say "But what if I fall?? I don't wanna fall all the way down THAT!" She says "You won't fall, don't worry... just go & you'll be fine." Me: "Uh, Ok"

     So I continued the show for this guy by getting in the most awkward looking, big wide snowplow stance I could muster. Then I leaned way too far forward as I started plunging down the steep mogully trail. I made scared, frantic noises while I gained speed before "losing balance", winding up on one ski, with the other completely off the snow. I waved  and flailed my arms and free leg as I screamed out a terrified "AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I disappeared over the horizon this way, and the poor guy at the top was really freaked out & surely thought I was going to die.

     Out of sight, I jumped into a more normal style, made some turns, then stopped & laid down. Whitney came skiing down to me, flopped on top of me and we laughed about it for an eternity. When the guy skied by, I told Whit about the "horrific wipeout" I just had. When he was gone, we laughed a whole lot more. It was great.

      As I said, our day was far from over after that last run, but some things, I am choosing to keep for myself.

    The highlight reel continues.....


 - Crazy Hair Guy

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