Finding Perfection
Ok, ok, I know I said I was done with skiing. But a ridge scramble to party shred sounded perfect. And it was perfect out.
That’s been my motto for the last two months: “It’s perfect out.” It’s mostly factual. Springtime in the West is an incredible season, especially for a born-and-bred Vermonter who grew up with mud and cold, dreary, rain-soaked days through April and May.
Instead, a blazing sun shone through the few wispy clouds that dragged and twisted above us. The rock-strewn apron at the bottom of Mount Superior looked navigable enough, and the snow was more white than brown. I’d call that a win.
We applied glitter and donned party apparel. Dresses, a pink denim vest, Hawaiian shirts. With the necessities sorted, three friends and I scampered up the ever-thinning ridgeline to the south of the main face, trying our hardest to stick to the ridgeline proper. It’s an exciting, albeit somewhat scary, game. Made trickier (and therefore more fun in my books) by the skis hanging off our packs that acted like sails in the wind.
At the top, we clinked beer cans and ate candy as the sun sank to our west, laughing and giggling at the perfection of the day the whole time. I navigated my way into an entirely unnecessary bonus line with two very necessary hop turns. My friend and roommate decided the universe required a naked lap. Which, given we were summer corn skiing, made a lot of sense. And so we made necessary hop turns with the necessary amount of clothing down a summertime classic, jibbing and searching for airplane turns the whole way down.
Powder skiing and mid-winter are fun and all, but I don’t think it can even come close to rivalling lighthearted shenanigans with close friends. And the late springtime sun doesn’t hurt, either.
—Liam
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