While riding up ski lifts…

When we ski, we spend an awful lot of time riding lifts. For proficient skiers this means between 80 and 60 percent of the total time out. Skiing is barely the balance of that, depending on the grade of the slope and the speed of the lift. 

In America, when strangers are sitting on a chair or inside a gondola, they often engage in small talk as long as someone initiates the conversation. Varying state of mind and timidity might affect that interaction, but still it's mostly a conscious effort of socializing that triggers it. 

Within an 8 minute ride and depending on a person’s verbosity, it’s possible to learn everything about a fellow skier. Talk about an alternative to the shorter “Elevator Pitch!” In recent years, many riders and particularly the youngest ones, pull out their phones and get immersed into them for a large part and oftentimes the integral duration. 

When riding with family or friends, the subjects discussed generally revolve around the skiing we’re doing, what we observe from the lift or the way we feel (cold, hot, tired or painful feet). Deeper subjects aren’t usually discussed. 

This leaves us with what happens when we don’t talk to others or are riding alone (a more common occurrence on lifts serving expert slopes where lifts are significantly less crowded). I personally observe and think in a totally free form. 

Call it a form of mindfulness if you want. Contemplation of the snow, the trees, a few animal tracks and the surrounding landscape and the views. I also decide which part of the slope unfolding under my seat that I will explore, which my next run will be, which lines should I or would I take on it, how will I end my ski day. 

Tactical stuff, as you can see, nothing esoteric and profound. I also observe the other skiers and keep on learning from what I see them doing, also watching instructors and the way they handle their classes, becoming forgetful of the students left far behind them or struggling with their own technique. 

True, I often glance at my watch to gauge my pace, and – I’ll admit it - pull out my phone, albeit briefly to check my vertical when I can’t figure it from memory. 

All this to say that when I’m sitting I never get bored, and instead soak into my thoughts and my observation, except on some notoriously slow fixed-grip chairlifts that often test my patience...