More with less?

With limited snow this early season, skiers and snowboarders have to do more with less. For instance, this means going to places one never goes because skiing is like low hanging fruit picking; we usually do what are the easiest and the most ingratiating runs. For my part I have explored new paths, found new alternatives to runs in order to avoid rocky areas, discovered secret passages and have generally be content with much less. The bumps are growing to be monstrous and I never thought I would enjoy the challenges they gave me, both in terms of deciphering a path through them and being quicker and nimbler than usual.

Then there are the twigs; if we've got less snow, we sure have many more of these “giant's whiskers” that are always intimidating and seem to get purposefully in the way, making question marks out of normally innocuous turns. Sometime, they even have a way of slapping you in the face. Finally there are the pesky rocks, which like World War II German submarines, are always lurking underneath the thin, immaculate surface and ready to take a bite of P-tex out of your boards! With all this suffering, do we get more fun with less snow? That's possible, but I sure get more tired everyday I go out to ski. This, I don't want to put on the account of old age!