I have thoroughly read “The Skier” by Nancy Dorey and have come to the opinion that the essay can be considered to be one of those formula stories about a classic ski bum. It speaks of the recklessness of youth and the daring that each young person seems to carry when he is familiar with a place or, the Canadian Rockies, which has some of the roughest slopes in the world, that this essay is set in. Personally, I consider skiing to be a most exhilarating outdoor activity experience that any person can ever experience. Maybe because the beauty of skiing lies in the fact that one need not kill himself physically and push oneself to the limits of pain and danger in order to enjoy it.
I will agree that the air high above on a ski slope is different. It tastes “hard” and pinches your nose, causing the nose hairs to freeze on certain occasions. The sun at the top of the slope changes the way a person sees the sky. The colors up there are brighter than one can ever imagine and the sky is an impossible to describe shade of blue.
The sound of snow under the skis is crunching and you can see it sliding and flowing from under you. I believe that the best kind of snow for skiing is the kind called “ice cream snow”, even though some skiers say it is not cool to ski in the powder type snow because it is slow and drags at your speed. But this kind of snow hides in the trails, rocks, and cliffs anyway so one does not need to be in that area of the ski slope.
The truth is that skiing is not just about being alone and playing king of the mountain. If you want to be alone, you can be. But skiing is most fun when done with a friend or a large group. A day of skiing is a “hurry up and then wait” experience, you can meet new people in the lines waiting to go up the hill again or while just sitting on the deck of a lodge while drinking things like hot cocoa for the kids or hot wine and cocoa with brandy for the adults.
