Facing My Mortality

[reevesr1]

I've spent quite a bit of time skiing with my son this weekend, and I have the bruises to prove it. My shoulder hurts, my hip really hurt, and my elbow hurts. I have also op tested my helmet twice. It seems to work, but if you guys notice me loosing my memory, let me know.

 

Here is what I learned:

I am 48, he is 15.

I know my limits, he doesn't know there should be limits

He is fearless, I am not.

He is athletic, I have vague memories of athleticism.

 

When he says:

Dad, I just skied Taynton bowl and found fresh powder. It was epic. You have to come. "Ben, are there a lot of trees?" "Yeah, but they're not that big and not really close together. You can ski it!"

 

A short aside: taynton bowl is all double black and you have to hike in. Also, it hasn't snowed here in three days. "Fresh powder" should have sent alarm bells ringing. How tough is the run that stilll has fresh powder?

 

Now I've only been back on skiis for a couple of years. I can ski some double blacks, but some are over my head. This run that you have to hike into is in the over my head category. Steep, chopped powder, and lots of trees. After my second fall, Ben started to sense my apprehension. Maybe it was when I said "what possibly led you to believe I could ski this?" That and the swearing. Unfortunately for me, even if I could have skied it, after I fell a couple of times I lost my nerve and was doomed. Ben suggested that we work to the right. I asked him to stop talking to me (ok it was immature but he was making it look so easy it was pissing me off!).

 

Anyway, I made it down, and was exhausted. I would say I had 4 or 5 turns that were fun everything else was survival.

After a long cat track, we found some nice looking powder toward the bottom of the hill. Unfortunately it was covering ice. Even more unfortunately, we ended up a little out of bounds and had to hike back. I'm now even more tired.

 

We finally come out into the middle of the silver platter run. Ben says sarcastically "race ya". We "race"to the bottom and as I am making my turn to stop, my right ski hooks an edge and I explode all over the snow. And hurt my hip, shoulder, and elbow. All kidding aside, it hurt (especially my pride) and scared my son a bit.

 

As I am lying on the snow quietly moaning, I hear the lifty say "you need to hurry up, this lift is closed but I can hold it for a minute of so." So I put my gear back on and sheepishly ski over to the platter tow. It was not lost on me that I had just skied one of the toughest runs on the hill, followed my son out of bounds, only to yard sale on the bunny hill.

 

I hate getting old.

[maxwell]

lmao classic buddy

[Weedy1]

Look at it this way, from 48 on almost everything in life is survival. You're just continuing on.

 

Oh the things we must torture ourselves with just for the kids. Isn't life wonderful? Sounds like you had fun.

[troutlover]

is it kinda like navigating your way along 300 yrds of sketchy 10' cliff by the river on 6 inch ledges with loose dirt and sliding rocks in wading boots and making it down to the river in one peice only to get the bank with three feet to go and diving into the river head first?.........just wondering .....Rick you make me lmao. Glad your having fun.

[dryfly]

rickr ... Loved you story. Mortality faces us everyday--or I think of it almost every day.

 

The problem with the younguns is they believe they are immortal. I'm guessing that "Go hard .. or go home" was not coined by someone (say) 48 years old. More like 22.

 

The bad part (maybe the good part) is that us guys (I dunno about the gals) always feel like we are 18 mentally. But our damn bodies know we ain't.

 

Mortality sucks. I am now older than my mother got to be and yesterday one of my "American cousins" died. He was one year younger than me. (Hadn't seen him for 45 years...but still.)

 

Read my signatures.

 

Clive

[openfly]

Speaking of losing one's memory. I figure if I leave the house everyday wearing pants I'm off to a good start.....

 

To coin a phrase from Billy Crystal, "It's not how you feel, it's how you look. And you look marvelous."

[SanJuanWorm]

Rick------------MAN UP!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yer from Texas for god's sake.

[dryfly]

Geez Dave, that's easy for a thirties-something guy to say. Rickr is like ... you know...getting old.

[adc]

I got some sage advice from a "senior" guy when I turned 50...........He said "You can do everything at 50 or even 60 that you did at 20......it just takes longer, hurts more, and ain't as pretty"..........You got down the run and so you bought it on the bunny hill---so what??....You got down the run!........Great story..........

[ham]

Rick------------MAN UP!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yer from Texas for god's sake.

 

ahahahaahaha nice

[reevesr1]

Dave,

Even with the bumps and bruises and old man bitching, I still get on one of the first chairs in the mornings and on one of the last in the afternoons. No breaks except for lunch. My in laws think I'm crazy because I never stop. They're about 5 years younger than me.

 

That's how Texans do it.

 

What this texan needs to do is get down south to fish with a couple of other grumpy older gentlemen. We can complain about all the things that hurt while we excercise those crowsnest rainbows.

[EdB]

that was a great story Rick. Even made the wife come down and read it. I hope you a least got Mrs Rickr to massage your hurt pride later.

[SanJuanWorm]

Actually i'm 34 and have arthritis so I pay for pretty much every activity I do. Well except 1...................she pays for that one heheh

[Castuserraticus]

I'm one year behind you Rick. This year seems to be a milestone. I'm the oldest regular on my league team and the second oldest of the shinny group. My skating is not getting better anymore but I am getting better at hooking and obstruction.

 

Age and treachery can beat youth and enthusiasim.

[reevesr1]

I was really feeling my age this morning after 2.5 days of hard skiing. Still managed to hit the lift at just after 9, with maybe 1 cm of new snow. Yawn. As we went up, so did the snow accumulation. By the time we hit the top, there was 10-15 cm of new snow, and I had lost 20 yrs. Amazing what fresh powder will do. Fresh tracks on the first 3 runs!! Yippeeeee!!!