ski & board with caution.

Whitefish has had a bit of some sorrow lately. Working on the mountain, you tend to know what's happening and when it's happening. All the behind the scenes sort of things. We all know that boarding and skiing is a fun exciting winter activity. There are risks though like there always are when you are being active and then add in speed. Injuries are bound to happen and death can be likely. Its sad but its true. When so many people gather in one place and are being active as well as going at high speed things will happen sooner or later. In the course of my time here the only season where the town and the mountain were hit hard was the first season I was here. When an avalanche occurred on Fiberglass Hill and flowed into the Canyon, it took the lives of two. Though it didn't happen on the mountain - its a popular back country snow-hiking access point from Big Mountain that allows a quick back into the resort. Since then we have been well blessed. Sure many broken noses and such but wounds were healed. Then fast forward to this season. There was and still is much excitement about La Nina and the snow it will bring. Thus far it has granted us many amazing powder days and a settle base of 147 inches of snow and its only January.

We love our mountain here, we think its something and only something you will only find just here. With a view that takes your breath away, snowghosts and heaps of snow... you will be in winter paradise. Most of us love to find un-touched lines and make our tracks. We tend to stay off the groomed slopes and venture into the trees, where the powder is soft. In the past it never even came across my mind that skiing and riding in such a place has a risk. I tend to always have a ski partner but sometimes I don't. I think I ski with care but sometimes things just happen. Its a risk that comes with the winter activity/sport. At the end of December a young teen was found in a tree well off a groom run. He later passed away. It was an awakening to all of us. To have fun but ski with care. With our wounds still fresh tragedy struck again, yesterday. A day that we all dream about having ten inches over night and 30 inches in the past few days to play in. The locals live for days like these. There will be a line at chair one by 7:30am on such days. You can feel the excitment in the air. You see the smiles under the facemasks and goggles. What was an epic day soon went to blue when we found that ski patrol was assisting an older man at the bottom of a run. The news only grew worse when we found he didn't make it. Then later that night the body of a 20's something male was found not too far away from the sight the teen's body(in yet another tree well) was found two weeks prior (off the groomed runs by t-bar 2). So of course we are all reading the internet news. Wanting to know what happened and why. We are grasping for answers.

But the truth is no answers can be found only the stinging realization that death is a part of life. When we put on those boots and facemasks the last thing we think of are such things like death or injury. We are thinking in terms of how much fun awaits us on the mountain. For thats what brings us all here... fun in the snow. So we don't pay attention to the risk we are taking as we venture out to simply have fun.. We don't think in the terms of this could be my last day, this ride to the summit to could lead to my end on this earth. We don't think in such a way nor should we. Skiing has awlays been an escape for me. A way to just be at peace and ease surrounded by nature. And I feel that those who's lives were lost on the mountain share that in common with me. Though their lives end in tragedy I would hope before those moments there was a smile on their face because they were doing something that brought them happiness and peace. I would hope that they were filling their lungs to the max with the crisp cold air as they took in the sights around them. I pray that the families of those we have lost from our winter community are able to have some peace that they were out having fun. And sometimes bad things just happen. For the rest of us, we ski with a little more caution, we board with a partner - and we wait for that partner and we make sure we can see that partner at all times. For the rest of us we learn lessons - hard lessons that came at a great price from the lives of those taken. So I hope the next time you hit the slopes you aren't flying down the hill at an extreme speed. I hope the next time you are skiing in the trees you are keeping your distance from the tree wells(or at the very least paying attention to them). I hope the next time you venture in powder you go out with a partner - stay within eye distance to that partner and return with that partner. For the time on the mountain is meant to be filled with fun and happy memories yet we need to also be aware of the risks we are taking to have such a time.