Parts of this essay were originally published in The Standard the first year I worked for the Town of Silverton, Parks-n-Rec. department in 2019. This past Saturday night we had our first night skiing session of 2023. The event provided me with all sorts of fodder for this latest essay. Enjoy!!                                                                                                                                Word Count: 606

Not Exactly a

Typical Evening in Winter

I’ve been lucky enough to hold onto my job working at Kendall Mountain Ski Area as one of the lifties. Besides allowing me to satisfy my “Jones” for skiing on a fairly regular basis, it’s been a great experience. Even though Kendall isn’t a gigantic ski area with unlimited terrain to explore, how many jobs can you think of where you get to go skiing during some of your work breaks?

This go-round we had an assortment of soups to warm people up whenever they’d take a break from skiing at breakneck speeds in total darkness. Good thing too since temperatures were colder than being locked inside a walk-in freezer. I’m convinced that part of the reason people are shushing so fast when they’re doing this night skiing thing is because they’re trying to stay warm while barreling down the mountain. This happens to be an exercise in futility though. Body movement when you’re alpine skiing doesn’t exactly lend itself to generating much warmth.

Just as festivities were getting underway, a brief break gave me a chance to grab a quick bowl of warmth, and it’s a good thing I walked inside the lodge when I did. A lot of the food was already gone, and getting samples from all those pots containing their contents of goodness was an exercise in scrapping the dregs out of the bottom in order to fill your bowl. Thankless task, but I’m willing to make these sorts of sacrifices for the good of my taste buds. Plus, it’s an opportunity to get some FREE food. That’s something I’ll never pass up.

Whenever I had to do my shift down in “The Pit” (Chair-lift lingo for the loading area) and at the top, every person doing the Night Skiing thing had smiles on their faces and looked to be totally enjoying themselves. This despite the fact that all of them were wearing multiple layers of clothing that covered them head to toe. Complete strangers if you run into them on the street, but the perfect attire for making yourself incognito I might add.

The local radio station had set up a pop-up tent in the base area, and tunes were blasting away. Previously, we’d also set up extra lighting and that, plus all those additional souls in attendance just added to the carnival atmosphere. All this, despite the frigid temperatures that have given this valley its “Siberia-West” moniker my little sister likes to call it.

Someone once told me that for the sake of my career as a writer, I probably should’ve moved to New York City. More opportunities to advance things in my particular creative pursuit, and a move such as this probably would’ve been a better decision on my part.

On the other hand, the existence and evolution of The Internet has made the world a much smaller place in terms of social media and establishing contacts with entities in your chosen creative field. Allowing people like myself to live in a totally isolated rural mountain community like this.

Plus, I wish I could’ve told them about the feelings I came away with from my experience this past Saturday evening. Moving back to Silverton has been one of the best things I ever could’ve done for my psyche.