Sports commentary: Winter: It's all down hill fun from here
It was 5:45 a.m. Dec. 4 and I had just
woken up pre-alarm.
I waited a few minutes, then grabbed my
phone to call my friend who asked me to call when I woke up, at
what I hoped would be around 6 a.m. when my alarm went off. He
answered in shock, unsure how it was possible that I was up, and
chipper, at such a time.
The older I get the better I am at
getting up early, but when I tell people that I believe that there
are only three reasons to wake up before the sun is out, I’m am far
from joking. If I’m not heading to the airport, going fishing or on
my way to go snowboarding, I am virtually incapable of motivating
in the morning — with the slight exception of production days here
at the Eagle.
However, that fact didn’t stop my
friend from being taken aback by my morning call, so I reminded him
of my rule of three.
“Good to see you have your priorities
straight,” he said.
I merely thanked him and jumped out of
bed to get dressed, for it was opening day at Big Mountain and the
powder had been building up for weeks.
On my way up to the mountain, my friend
who is a skier called and we shared our excitement with each other
about the big day ahead. She was already in Whitefish getting ready
to head up with her husband and brother-in-law from his house.
Their energy was palpable even over the phone.
“Opening day is like Christmas day for
grown ups,” she said.
I was a little nervous about the lines
that could be about to get in the way of my magical holiday,
though. I needed to pick up my season pass from the lodge, and I
was sure that I wasn’t the only person with too chaotic of a
schedule to get up there the past few months. However, as I entered
the base lodge, I was pleasantly surprised to see a fairly short
line and I was even more happy to find most of the people in that
line far more pleasant than those one would find in the line at a
toy store or even waiting for Santa Claus.
“Don’t worry. It’s not as good as it
looks,” said a Whitefish Resort employee from the back of the line
as he walked by to check on things. “Wait, I haven’t had enough
coffee this morning. I mean it’s not as bad as it looks.”
And, it wasn’t. Despite a few
inconsiderate teenagers deciding to push their way in with their
friends, the line moved swiftly and I was able to meet the masses
at the bottom of Chair 1 before it opened.
The line was definitely long, and wide,
but I guess there’s something about the anticipation of a rare
powder opening day that just chills everyone out to a point where
waiting is less of a burden.
Then it happened.
9:30 a.m.
The first group of skiers and boarders
sat down on the first chair from Chair 1 and began their ascent to
the top of Big Mountain.
The crowd went wild. Literally.
“Why are they cheering,” said a young
boy who was about 8 or 9 years old.
“For first chair,” his dad
answered.
It was a scene right of “The Polar
Express.” I could just see Santa Claus standing up and shouting:
“The first toy of Christmas.”
From there the lines moved swiftly as
children of all ages made their way to the top of the mountain. It
was my first opening day morning trip in over a decade, and, as I
made my way up on the lift, I realized how happy I was to be a part
of this particular one.
“Look at that inversion,” a teenage boy
sitting on the chair next to me said. “Oh and there’s a rainbow.
It’s a snow rainbow in the middle of the inversion on opening day.
How sweet is that?”
It was pretty sweet indeed, and so was
the vibe of excitement that encircled every aspect of the mountain
and made even the little things something to smile about.
“We got the 95th chair,” said a friend
of the other teenage boy on our chair. “That’s almost as good as
first chair. I can’t wait to tell our friends.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell him
that they likely didn’t start with the chair numbered one and so
the fact that our chair had a sticker that said 95 didn’t
necessarily mean we were the 95th ones to go up. It was not my
place to ruin anyone else’s holiday, especially when mine was going
so well.
As I cut through the light-powdery snow
on my first run down the mountain, it was apparent that Christmas
had indeed arrived early. When I got to the bottom of the chair
lift, I saw that I was not alone in this revelation as adults
sported smiles bigger than a child who had just received his or her
first bicycle, or maybe even a pony.
“Everyone should go home and write down
in their journals what an epic opening day it was Dec. 4, 2010,” a
lady said on my first chair ride back up. “This is definitely one
to remember.”
The best part was that we were just
getting started — with the season and with the openings. The
following day brought more great weather and still solid
conditions.
Then on Friday, Dec. 10, it was time to
do it all over again. A massive dump of snow had fallen on Big
Mountain of 15 plus inches, and Blacktail Ski Area in Lakeside was
opening for its first day with more than 5 inches of new snow on
top of their untouched accumulation.
I headed to the West Shore to cover the
event. As I climbed out of my car, I looked around to see a sea of
smiles first in the parking lot, then the lodge and finally on the
hill. Crowds were smaller as it was a work/school day for those
that couldn’t finagle their way out of such responsibilities. But,
for those who could, it was a powder play day worth whatever makeup
duties awaited them in the days to come.
Although this week has brought us warm
temperatures that have led to rain and melting of the snow, I trust
that there is more to come and that we still have reason to go to
bed early on the weekends and get up before our alarms go off. What
a wonderful gift Mother Nature has given us. We must have been very
good this year, or perhaps she feels bad for taking our summer
away.
Either way, I plan to enjoy it while it
lasts and just not ask questions.