Sticks and stones

We have three ski mountains serving Park City. They're called Deer Valley, Park City and The Canyons. We've skied the three, but today I have my season pass at The Canyons and in Deer Valley and occasionally ski Park City. It was not always the same; we used to get our season passes at Park City, but like anything, this changed too. In the meantime, The Canyons would undergo several transformations that snobs call “re-invention.” When that mountain started in the early seventies it was called “Park West” and after that it became “Wolf Mountain.” It's only when the easterner Les Otten bought it in 1998 that it was rechristened “The Canyons.”

All along, that place was famous for rocks. I'm not specifically talking about rock concerts in the summer, and we saw quite a few of them, including Bob Dylan, Chicago, the Beach Boys and even John Denver sitting on the rocky grass, but I'm talking about the later, the mineral thing! The rocks at The Canyons are the little pesky things that pepper the mountain and find their way through the snow into the bases of your skis or snowboard. While it was called Park West, the place was often better known under the moniker “Rock West.” By starting to purchase our season pass there, we were in total denial about global warming (George Bush must have convinced us) and we could only imagine the place covered under the customary three to four feet of snow from November through April. We were warned by naysayers that “if there would be no snow, it'd be quite rocky...” but we choose to ignore that.

This season, we are finally seeing – not the writing on the wall – but the deep gouges streaking our bases from tip to tails. I'm not talking about the stump and the twigs that take the relay when ordinary rocks are not available; sometimes, I feel like a bush whacker and would love to have a machete in lieu of poles. Aside from lifting the foot when we see a rock, a stump or a growing tree what can we do? Perhaps stay on man-made snow, but then we need ice-skating or hockey skills and require more blind faith than technical skills to make it to the bottom. Sure, our boards have graduated to “rock skis” status, but the only alternative left is pray for snow. I think I'll light up a candle...