I didn’t want to go . I’m writing this now , feeling like shit with a sore arse and a body that needs to sleep 20 hours a day . But thanks to Emma I did go and I don’t regret it . It’s just when you’re 52 , with 2 kids to follow around and admittedly far from a natural on the slopes the body isn’t what it used to be .
Ski week has come around again . I still cringe that we live in a place that has a week off school so as the kids can go on holidays in the ski fields . Remember we live on the ocean 20 miles south of LA and really are no where near the mountains . The privilege ; I’ll always struggle with it . The place we live , the talent , the highly educated and even the beauty of the people . It’s the entitlement . Let’s face it , normal folk and normal places don’t set aside a week in the calendar specifically to go skiing .
I hold firm . I declare I won’t go . My roots , the ingrained working class background and my loathing of the wealthy . I still see myself firmly in the court of the blue collar . Skiing is for rich wankers and I can’t allow myself to be apart of it . Emma insists . Leroy is desperate to go snowboarding again . Tex none too subtly says “You are taking us there !” I concede . I secretly love being on the mountain but still struggle with the stuff that comes with it .
It’s not cheap .Let’s get that out of the way straight up . You could go to Hawaii or Mexico or some other tropical island paradise for the same price . It’s not relaxing either ,but gee when you finally let go and start to slice and carve down the slopes it’s pretty exhilarating. It’s a unique experience you can’t replicate or really translate unless you’ve been their yourself .
It’s a squeeze but we are off on the 5 hour drive north to Mammoth Mountain . Just Leroy ,Tex and myself . Emma has organised everything . She’s happy to be home alone . We take a rental car with all wheel drive and snow tyres . The drive up to Mammoth isn’t dissimilar to driving out in Utah . The roads are long and straight with speed limits that are hardly enforced . Most traffic hovers at 80 (128kms ) miles per hour . Once you pass by LA and slide by Bakersfield the ascent is subtle . The familiar red barren rocks and alien landscape of the West coast interior come to the fore . There’s no trees out here , it’s desert . The Death Valley turn off slides by . The red rocks and slopes become more jagged . Snow appears on the craggy peaks . Signs tell us we are at 3000 feet and then 5000 feet but there’s barely an undulation or turn in the road . It seems too easy . Surely we’ll start to wind up some mountain , with hairpin corners , exposed edges and heavily snow covered woods . No , it’s not like driving in Australia’s alpine region , it’s way easier . We drive into town , turn up a steep road ( Canyon Lodge road ) and as simple as that we are at our lodge in Mammoth .
The weather forecast a storm approaching . It was just a matter of wether we’d be in its direct path . When I woke at 334am I knew we were . It felt like the roof may come off . I would wake at this time each night during our stay . The altitude and the rising heat in our upstairs sleeping area would suffocate you into a panicking gasp for air . Morning came each night after a fitful 5 hours sleep at best . A headache would nag me for the first 2 days . The first morning came a howling whistling wind . When I peaked out the blinds the place was blanketed in snow . I wouldn’t call it inviting , the snow was coming down sideways and from all directions . It was minus 11 Celsius with a wind chill factor closer to minus 15 . We had breakfast in quiet . It’s gonna be freezing out there . We knew what was coming . Several visits to the toilet and then dressing in multiple layers , interrupted by checks and double checks that lift tickets , key cards , goggles , phone and whatever other essentials were all adorned . . It would get trickier with 20 of 25 lifts on the mountain closed to high winds . Tex storms off early to meet up with friends . He’s been here before . He treks a mile down the road in all his snowboard gear , no cash , just bluff and bluster . He would come back that night without taking in a drop of water or a morsel of food and 7 hours on the slopes . He bitched and moaned like we knew he would . Leroy and I aren’t in a hurry . It pays off . We run into a guy staying in our same set of lodgings who shows us a shortcut . It’s less than 400 m to the main lift . Here we go !
It was grey , painfully cold , so much so that at one stage going up the lift I had a ice cream headache . When you hit the slopes you gotta make the most of it . Leroy and I would trek back to our cabin have a hot lunch and return .The first day was worth it . It was a day of coiling up , keeping the chin on the chest and the hands under the armpits . Powder was the reward .
By the 3rd day the writing is on the wall . All 3 of us are pretty sore . We catchup with other friends . They would take us to the summit of Mammoth . Getting down was a battle , actually it was brutal . Poor Leroy was buggered , I was holding on bravely . I kept on pumping his tyres up whilst at the same time I was praying for a helicopter out of here . An hour plus of traversing challenging blues and some blacks we get back to base . My ass is black and blue . A week later I still can’t sit down properly . Still it was the icing on the cake ; we boarded down the highest summit in the Californian ski fields at just over 11000 feet .
Well dawgs , change is still afoot . We are still in the States and there’s another place or thing that we’ve done that I’d never thought I’d do in my lifetime . Yeah it wasn’t easy and I can’t claim that I wanted to do it but I’m glad my wife pushed me to do it . When it comes to adventure I’m pretty good at it when I get out there . We’ve now snowboarded the highest ski fields in California to add to last years trip to Park City ,Utah . Privileged…… yes we are
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