Twig wars

Early season skiers all around Park City that venture out of the designated runs will tell you that twigs are always a challenge as they fight the mounting snow cover by seemingly sticking their necks even higher up in an effort to see what's going on, scare off skiers and live their twig lives. Most of the bushes that populate our open slopes are elderberry, but sometimes they are young aspen or gamble oak shoots.

Up to a certain diameter, twigs are more impressive than they are harmful, but beyond one inch in diameter they can become tricky, dangerous and constitute direction-altering obstacles. Edging on them can be difficult, especially if they are too many against one single edge and skiers with skis that always tend to think on their own are more likely to be torn between their two boards by divisive, thick tree shoots, than snowboarders!

As the season progresses, the snow thickens and the smaller vegetal get progressively cut off by sharp edges, they seem to vanish and no longer pose the same threat, but it appears to me that ski resort operators are not taking the problem as seriously as they should. In the Northern Alps were I come from, it used to be that the entire ski-school staff would have a special day in the late summer or early fall, that would be devoted to cutting these pesky plants, even though the one they would clear were the invasive, larger, green alder bushes.

I've heard that some ski areas are now experiencing with special mowers to cut twigs, but I would suggest that ski instructors be put to task in the Fall to get rid of these pesky creature on a yearly basis. Only then, are we going to win the twig war that is being waged against skiers all over the Rocky Mountains!