The View from Here: No friends, but new friends on a pow day
This saying expands to include (or exclude) friends who don’t feel the same way. On Friday, I found myself in sans company of familar faces at the hill.
I take the first lift up with a man and woman who work at the resort. They’re suprised to find out I’m 21, not 18 as they originally thought. “You look like a baby!” said the woman, drawing out the “a” in baby. This turns the conversation in a different direction until we part ways off the lift. I rode away feeling more youthful and energized– and slightly worried I looked like a high school student.
I take the next chair by myself. There’s no line up, plus I don’t feel chatty.
After a few runs I make it down to the bottom again and head to the “singles” line. “You going up alone?” a snowboarder asks. I guesture him to join me and glance at his board– a Lib Tech Skate Banana, sick. We do the usual introduction and friendly chit chat. I tell him I’m in journalism and he jokingly asks if I have a blog. I laugh and say yes. Ian is from Perth, Australia and works at the resort. I find it comical that he doesn’t like other Aussies. “They’re everywhere in B.C.,” he said, “No one here even cares I’m from there, they’re like ‘Oh yeah.’”
He invites me to do a couple runs while his mates catch up. Since he has lived at Sun Peaks for two seasons, I agree, he must have an in on some sweet spots.
Well, they were spots. I don’t know if his memory was a tad fuzzy, there wasn’t enough snow, or both. One out of bounds run introduced us to stumps, logs and a creek. I cringed as my snowboard slid down the face of a boulder near the end.
“Don’t write about this in your blog,” Ian said.
The other runs fared better and some were rife with the pow I yearned for. Ian decided not board with his friends and spent the rest of the day showing me new spots and hitting up old, favourite runs. As much as I looked forward to boarding alone, the company was appreciated. There’s something to be said for sharing a shred day with someone who’s just as stoked to be the mountain as you are.
So, after this does the old adage sill stand for me? Sure, although I might revise it to say there are no friends, but new friends on a pow day.
