Hitting the slopes

 

"Skiing is a dance, and the mountain always leads." 

                                                                 Author Unknown

AUBURN, Maine — He's tried his hand at baseball, kicked around a soccer ball, ran track one summer, swam miles in an Olympic-size pool without drowning, but when my son slipped on a pair of skis and raced down white powdery slopes, he found another passion in the dead of winter on a wind-swept, snow-covered mountain.

Where did I go wrong!

Who would have figured my lanky 14 year old would rather barrel down the side of a frigid mountain than play catch or toss around the old pigskin with his dear-old dad.

Just what the heck happened here, anyway? He is about to become a ski bum. Fellow skiers will start calling him DUDE! I will continue to address him as Anthony even though he is joining the high-flyin' clan at Dude World.

He had to go and choose one of the most expensive outdoor sports, where snow, wind and cold wreak havoc on a soul. Paying for swimming lessons is like a drop in the bucket compared to buying a season pass and skis. I am a cash-strapped dad who will need to apply for a second mortgage on my house to pay for his need for speed on winter-whipped days. Track and swimming require shorts, sneakers and goggles. All you need for baseball is a glove, ball and bat. Soccer is easy on the wallet, too.

Most sane people remain indoors when Old Man Winter gets his dander up, but my son ignores Arctic blasts from Canada and heads up the mountain despite bone-chilling cold and falling snow. He is like "Jeremiah Johnson" and "Grizzly Adams" all rolled into one when it comes to the Great Outdoors - and I love him for his tenacity when it comes to his love of nature.

I watch from the huge windows at Lost Valley as he waves from the lift. My heart is my mouth when he takes that slow ride to the top. We both understand there is a great deal of risk that comes with gliding through the snow on a pair of skis. There is danger in this sport, and people have been injured on the slopes around the world.

I worry, but I am so damn proud of him. I believe it takes a certain amount of courage and insanity to speed down a mountain on two narrow skis. 


Just standing on skis without crashing to the ground is an accomplishment for me.

But how can I say no to an honor student who prefers books to video games and the vast wasteland of television. I would rather see him doing laps in a warm pool. Watching him whizzing around snow-packed slopes on cold winter days gives me the chills.

I know he still enjoys swimming, but skiing is now a part of his life, and I would rather see him criss-cross the slopes than have a joy stick in his lap and eyes trained on a video game. There is also a risk when a precious child spends hours in front of a computer monitor and ignores his parents and the outdoors.

I am betting the entire family will become nomads in the winter, spending a lot of time at lodges around Maine next season. But while he skis, I will be traipsing around the base of the mountain on snowshoes.

I can't let him have all the fun - and snowshoeing will help me keep my mind off my son as he traverses the snowy slopes.