My son and I were skiing past Dead Tree the other day. It is our favorite run. It was closed but we both stopped despite knowing when you kill your speed and it isn’t open you have to skate uphill about thirty yards for your next downhill access. The dead tree was more than dead. It was gone. We both just said “it’s gone.” The dead tree that marks the run called Dead Tree was gone. It had finally succumb to weather and old age.
The flashbacks began and went on for days. Dead Tree is an exposed entry above and around rocks with an entrance that tends to change daily. Growing up in Florida I didn’t exactly get a lot of training for this kind of entry. It took me five, alright maybe more, years to get the gumption to just sideslip my way in there. Pony taught me how to enter the way a real skier does and also the way a Florida boy does, which was nice of him as I still enter like a Florida boy most days. There were countless laps through there with many generations of Tahoe buddies. There was hooting and hollering with Burdie and Bones. There was philosophizing and evaluating the meaning of life with Bortie during laps. There were jaw dropping moments of watching Pony air into it and be at the bottom before my jaw was done closing. There was a time watching Alzi make the smoothest of entry I have ever seen, or knew possible, as he hopped between two rocks landing softly twenty feet below. Watching Alzi ski is like watching Ernie Els hit 5-irons, so crazy smooth and effortless, except when Alzi is dropping into Dead Tree a slight misstep could result in a broken limb. Have you noticed that nobody has a real name on the mountain. There was PC eternally and patiently teaching me how normal people entered. There was JB wondering if I was alright, which I was, after I fell over the middle rock one day dropping fifteen feet onto my head while just standing there. Woops. We went right back to make sure a mental block didn’t have time to materialize, for either of us. Not sure who was more scared at the moment. Mostly there were many, many a solo trip for me through Dead Tree. You see I am a solo skier. I enjoy a posse as much as the next guy but I have always been prone to getting delayed, as I like to call it, on the way to the mountain. So making plans to ski and meet up isn’t my forte. I have come to realize I really value that time. There have been many a great moment spent on my own entering my favorite run next to the dead tree.
Then there was the time my friend took his son and mine, Ethan, into Dead Tree. This was cool except for one thing. I wasn’t there. The significance of the event escaped my friend, who will be left nameless. He just didn’t have the same appreciation of the moment. He goes by a common first name moniker which probably explains his lack of appreciation. E didn’t understand the significance either but since he was only 9 he received a pass. Since then E and I have made up for it with many an awesome lap. His mom skis right by most of the time leaving it just to us, very cool. There is another kind of redemption coming. My daughter is 10 now and she is ready. You can bet I am taking her in there first.
Skiing is just such an amazing sport. A bad turn is quickly redeemed and you move on to the next moment. Laughing on chairlifts, philosophizing, forgetting about responsibilities for a time, being in the moment even if only for a run, time for yourself, and time with all the nicknames of the past are among my favorite reasons for skiing. The dead tree was a symbol of all of that for me. I hope everyone has a symbol like that. I bet most do who are passionate about skiing and lucky enough to be a skier.
Since the run was closed E and I started to skate away. He turned to me and said “it looks good to ski Dad.” Brilliant observation by the kid since in the moment I was feeling that the entire run had disappeared from existence to never be skied again, after all, the dead tree was gone. We will be able to ski it again though.
It is time now for the next 15 years of memories skiing Dead Tree. I just hope without the dead tree I can still find Dead Tree. I hope everyone can find their Dead Tree.
This started out as a quick blog about a dead tree.
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