A Weekend at Ski Brule

By: In: The Last Ride

A Weekend at Ski Brule

Getting ready to ski down Spillway

A college buddy of mine would often depart my company by wishing me stories, well, not all stories are happy but many times they are worth living and of course form the memories we all treasure. Last weekend, we went UpNorth to ski at Ski Brule.

The Weekend Starts

With our plans having to change, early Friday morning my wife The Wisconsin Snowbunny informed me a contingent of the Northwoods Angels decided to come down and visit. Well, that settled it for Lorie, she was going to stay home. So I was able to leave after work instead of midnight. So, after work I did some shopping for groceries, packed up, and left.

After an uneventful drive I arrived at the cabin to find the fireplace cranking out heat, the pizza just out of the oven, and the place lit up and ready for the weekend. Oh yeah, except for some water lines frozen solid, still some of the lines were fine, namely bathroom sink’s line. So we have our pizza and visit with my brother and his girlfriend and then go to bed.

The Weekend and A Brief Thought of First Chairs

At about 4:30 am I stir and hear water running, I would like to say I thought it was my brother being fired up to get to Brule early for first chairs but I recognized quickly the running water was not the shower, I was only certain I did not like it one bit. I popped out of bed, hustled down the spiral staircase, and stepped into the wading pool that was currently the main level of our cabin. The water was probably 2″-3″ (5-7.5 cm) deep. I sang a song of joy while scrambling to find the leak and I reached for the shutoff valves under the kitchen sink but I could not get my hands on them so I quickly ran downstairs to shut off the main valve. The water downstairs was a bit deeper, probably about 3″-4″ (7.5 to 10 cm) deep. I got to the main valve turned that off and then returned upstairs to shut off the kitchen sink valves. By this time my brother and his girlfriend were awake and wading with me.

Well, we then sprung into action and got our wet-dry vacuum out and started vacuuming up water on the main level. Before too much longer we had done about all we were going to do and went back to bed. When we woke up quite a bit of both the main level and the basement were dry. We did some more vacuuming removed wet carpeting from their usual locations and went skiing.
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The 2011-2012 Snow Season in Review

By: In: The Last Ride

Hot (76 ° F) Days at Brule

Good bye! I am never glad to see a snow season end, but this is about as close as I can get with the end of this season.

So, how was the 2011-2012 ski season?
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Love the Season You Are With

By: In: The Last Ride

Being an avid skier be sure I am completely okay with Winter and all it brings.

I can not say winter is all peaches but I do not mind it so much, in fact, that is one of the reasons I took up skiing. I do not like the reduced sunshine, I do not like driving on snow and ice, and I do not like shoveling and blowing our driveway and walkways.

However, obviously I like skiing, I like having “Up North” to ourselves, and I like the idea of being a contrarian.

However, I detest the gripes and whines others have about Winter. Look, if you detest the wintry climate then move! There are many states that have milder or even no winters, as the song goes: If you can not be with the one you love, love the one you are with. So too with the seasons.


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Putting a Hit on Life!

By: In: The Last Ride

English teachers try to teach their students the difference between passive and active voices. What voice is that?

Our English teachers tried to teach us the difference between passive and active voices. How about that one, what voice?

This is not a writing lesson though, this is an attempt to try to encourage you to do to life, instead of having life do to you! Do not worry about life doing to us, life will get its licks in, how about you, will you get your licks on life in?
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Be Not Afraid!

By: In: The Last Ride

 
 
 
Lately, the words have been flowing like a gusher of fine olive oil. Not only, have the ideas of topics to write about been coming fast and furiously, but I have been making the time and taking the effort to get them out! I know there are probably at least a half dozen ideas I have forgotten about in this creative spurt I am undergoing.

The writing is like so much else, you have to let go of the fear. What fear is involved in writing, you think that a silly statement? Fear of going on the record, fear of getting something wrong, fear of not winning the Pulitzer prize, fear of stuffing up the grammar and punctuation, fear of….

Yeah, nothing like the physical fear that seizes us when trying to pitch ourselves down that headwall the first time, but it is fear none-the-less. Again, a constant theme in a lot of my writing of late is the need to leave the fear at the brink of the headwall and attack. Get over the center of your skis and drive those boards on the way down the headwall, write that “silly” little article, or ask that stranger to buy something from you. In fact, does not The Holy Bible counsel us to be not afraid?


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Mind Games

By: In: Skiing, The Last Ride

 
 
 
Lately, I have been near obsessive about viewing YouTube POV videos of skiers going down ski trails of nasty repute, e.g. Birds of Prey at Beaver Creek, the HahnenKamm at Kitzbühel, and the downhill race course at Lake Louise. I watch the videos and the combination of translating a 3D world onto a 2D medium and the excellence of the skiers taking the video makes the runs appear to be fairly, well, simple.

However, I have skied enough to know the runs these people are skiing down are not “simple”, but major portions of each run earn black diamond or double black diamond ratings and these are mountain ratings too. So, I do know they do present serious difficulties to the skier.

However, I wonder how much of the difficulty is more mind game than actual difficulty? I often find myself at the top of a challenging trail having to psych myself up for it and then when I do go, find myself holding back. Not so much because I can not manage the run, but because sometimes I fear letting go. I can manage speed, I have hit 60mph and put the breaks on and stopped in a fairly short distance. I know how to work a hill to keep speed under wraps and if the runs are wide and sparsely populate I can traverse the hill without a problem.

How can I possibly take on challenging terrain? I need to get myself into shape, but once that is done then what? How does one get their mind into shape for such challenges?

Forget about skiing now and think of the daily grind. We can do a lot more than we do, but only if we let ourselves, only if we brush aside our fears and push off of the edge onto that headwall.


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Why Stay Here?

By: In: The Last Ride

 
 
Why do we stay in Wisconsin? Obviously you all know I am die-hard ski fan, and Wisconsin is in no way a place for skiers to thrive. Why not move to Colorado, Utah, or out to the Eastern ski locations, so mountain skiing is a regular event and not a ever few years event?

Why?

It isn’t career or professional, that is for sure. In fact, I bet moving to Colorado would be a great career move too. Not that my professional situation is bad, it isn’t, but it can be improved upon.

I suppose having built a new house may have something to do with it. We are working on completing year #4 in this house and most financial advisers will counsel you should be in a purchased house for five years, plus the current real estate markets may have made that span longer.

Wisconsin? You know, I like Wisconsin’s northern region, we have a place we can go to UpNort in the woods on the water. Apart from that, there is not a whole lot special about WI. I hesitate to go any further down this line as it is an edge catch and veer off into territory I don’t want to talk about in this venue. However, those same factors probably will come bigger to the fore in the states I have in mind.

Family? Yes, that is it. I am fortunate in that I have a tight family and for many of my friends and colleagues I know how rare and precious that is. I do not want to be too far away from my family and the friends I have made.

I have spent six years of my life resident in a nation other than the USA and I know the world has a lot on offer, but my family is here in WI.


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Happy Thanksgiving

By: In: The Last Ride

 
 

What am I thankful for?

  • The love of God
  • The love of Lorie
  • The love of my family

    • The love of my friends (this includes all of you Onlinistan friends too)

  • Skiing (you didn’t think I would skip that did you?)
  • The Four Seasons
  • The four astronomical & meteorological seasons
  • UpNort

This list could go on and on. I have been literally around this world and seen some very dire circumstances and those of us celebrating this holiday have much to be thankful for.

From The Wisconsin Skier:

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

to you and yours!


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Lots of Ski Resorts Out There

By: In: Resorts, Skiing, The Last Ride

I see local ski clubs typically plan trips to resorts to places such as Breckenridge, Snowmass, Alta, Aspen, etc. All big name resort and all destination resorts. I guess that helps with marketing and most people know of those resorts. After all, they feature in the news on a regular basis especially when we see stories of celebrities or other public figures skiing or snowboarding at these resorts.

There is no doubt, the resorts feature world class skiing, but it is more than just skiing that makes many resorts world class and that is why I suggest when planning a getaway ski trip to consider other resorts that may not be as well known but offer skiing just as good as the world class locations.
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Wishing Your Life Away

By: In: The Last Ride

All too often in our lives we wish some future event would hurry up and be the present. All the while we ignore the wondrous beauty and worth of the current moment. Well, maybe the current moment is not all that special (maybe it is a decidedly negative situation), still I wonder how many people realize they are wishing their lives away?

Remember, every moment that passes us by is one less moment until we find ourselves in the grave. I wonder how many people in their final years regret the wishes How I wish Christmas were here! How I wish summer would come! How I wish I could be 21 to go to the bars! How I wish I were 16 years old so I could drive! How I wish I was ten years old so I could ride that ride! One common wish is the wish to be younger, but why, did you not just wish your youth away?

If the present state ever really that bad or the future state so desirable?
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