I used to ski winterplace too. Even thought I’m in the charlotte area, I liked WP. Sugar is my favorite in the boone area…app is nice but so small, Beech is just more driving. I made the mistake of sking out west years ago…spoiled is not strong enough word. After years of sking out there…one buddy got married, so he quit and the other 2 lost intrest…i might give local another chance. If i had to compare to 4 wheels…it would be like going from Formula 1000 to rental karts…both are still fun. I tried boarding…man, that first day was a killer.
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I did too but with ownership change the place went downhill (pun not intended). Greek makes snow in November when possible and tries to give a good product, oddly enough they got better with ownership change.
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I’ve sort of decided that if you are truly insane you climb 20k peaks.
So many variables that can kill you.
I just watched Meru about Conrad Ankers ascent with his pals. The film has Krakauer narrating an he says something to the effect of
“She (the guys wife) has no idea what he’s actually doing out there.”
That has to be accurate. I cannot conceive of a married with children taking those levels of risk. It just seems so insanely selfish, but then again, so is racing, but we less likely to die if something goes sideways.
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We do and wake surf! Also heavily into martial arts ( my kids not me). I order kart parts while they practice. lol
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That is a bit brightening proposition.
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I’m a bit boring outside of a 4 wheel racing machine: the cost of chronic injury was drilled into my head a youth. I was taught to ski as a child yet have learned I prefer xc for various reasons: knee health but also the health and serene-landscape-exposure benefits of skiing on flat land override the need for a thrill. Paintball is fun and not expensive if you play pump-style. Throughought life, the “thrill” of surviving economically tends to be the main one though albeit involuntary.
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My father in law was a mounting guide for over 40 years, climbed around the world, and is a little insane. Though it’s fun to have a person like him around to take you climbing and skiing. While he and my son back country skied on Mount Washington this year, the rest of us hiked a ways up and road sleds down the trail. It was wild, fun, and hilarious.
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That’s basically the end of the road I think. My knees got farked from board sports and I got older and fatter.
Oh, here’s a climbing survival story that was really amazing (and harrowing).
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Interesting. Reader comments worth checking out.
It is interesting seeing how some moths are drawn to the flame, how some justify it, and how some cannot comprehend it.
Taking this a bit further, there was an OP in the NYT re: Sierras Avalanche that killed 8 skiers in the Backcountry near Tahoe.
Says his bit about what I was babbling about in the previous post, about sidling up to the bar/taking your shot, and why.
It’s unsurprising to me that those who try to articulate why seem to end up talking of the zone/connection/handing the wheel over to the Stig. It’s the underlying thing this quasi spiritual seeking behaviour, I think. This is a yearning for something and it has nothing to do with being an adrenaline junkie, which is what it’s usually blamed on, that character flaw.
It’s quite a bit more subtle and dangerous than that, imo.
Want to share your story about why and why no more or why you persist?
Here’s some fun from someone who was able to acheive true mastery…
Context:
Things have gotten weird since I was young. Nowadays the crazy stuff often involves technical climbing as well. I guess when the best were all able to be dropped off by helicopter many peaks got ridden and combining the disciplines seems like a way to chase purity.
Here, however, is where I fall off the bus and join the normies scratching their heads…
There is a documentary I cannot find that spent time with a bunch of these folks and explained the progression. It’s bizarre to me, in that, the participants include some very high IQ folks. PHD mathematician, Surgeon, etc. What began as BASE jumping turned into trying to connect targets and clear gaps, using terrain (couloirs) etc. This is a zero sum pursuit, however.
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I look up the statistics of risk at one point… chance of wingsuit death – 1 for every 20 hrs. EVERYTHING else was substantially lower, even the high-risk stuff.
But I love Yves Rossy and I’d wingsuit in a second… I’ve only done 1 jump from 10,500’ and it was a tandem. Nothing like it in the world…
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I’m such a wimp. I hate heights. Dropping in need something under me.
Accidental Xtreme
I would like to take a moment and congratulate the UKs Gus Kenworthy for being a great big badass and successfully competing in big pipe freestyle skiing thing at the Olympics. He’s 34. As a side note, the young guys all have mustaches that can only hope to someday be as magnificent as Gus’s.
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If I am not mistaken, Baumgartner died recently.
Austrian skydiver and daredevil Felix Baumgartner, famous for breaking the sound barrier in a 2012 freefall from the stratosphere, died at age 56 on July 17, 2025, in a motorized paragliding accident in Italy. He crashed in Porto Sant’Elpidio, with investigations concluding the incident was caused by human error, not equipment malfunction.
Oof, he was my age. What an incredible series of adventures, however. Go Well, Felix. 
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W.T.F.
Put it all in a blender…
This is insane. But, oh fox me, that’s alluring. There’s a scene where he transitions from flight to ski as the planes effectively shift and trade places.
It struck me powerfully how his flight trajectory, rotating on an axis, settled his tires into the earthly? plane, which, coincidentally, happened to be banked like a superspeedway.
Anyways, it resonated, and cracks open the door a bit, to understand why, if conditions are right, you might find yourself going down this path.
How he describes having to manage speed to stay within that window where the car is up on its toes….too slow and he spins out, parafoil collapsing.
I am constantly amazed by progression. I’ve gotten to witness, in my lifetime, important parts of certain sports growth, and it’s nuts how far we have come. What’s even crazier is how it comes in leaps, ala Laird Hamilton eyeballing a windsurfer or Mark Gonzales on a handrail.
What’s even cooler is how these leaps instantly propel us to places we did not consider before. And off we go…
It was really weird hearing numbers like 1540 in the Olympic halfpipe, and, 18’. I feel a bit like Rip Van Winkle, lol. I have not been paying attention.
So, to the lunatics who made that film above, 
.
I have got to get some sleep cos I have a race in the am (and a blizzard)…. But there’s a bit where one fella speaks of seat time and basically becoming one with the wing, such that you are able to intuitively, let it all happen. I mean cmon, @speedcraft, doesn’t this sound familiar?
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Finally made it to the slopes on Sunday… Happy to report no ACL injuries in my advancing age. And also, THAW electric handwarmers are the bomb! (GenZ, go look up GenXer slang.)
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Indeed! I am a fanboy of “it’s the bomb”. I suppose a relic from our “Duck & Cover” days?
Did ya point it?
I mostly picked up fallen kiddos, though I managed some slight air. First time on my new skis, so I didn’t get too wild.
Hehe. I remeber one morning that was special. I used to go out mostly to Kirkwood in South Lake. One of my pals had a sponsor who had the top floor suite at the on-site hotel for the season. It was one of the very big years for snow, and we raced up there before the storm hit. (80 closes because avalanche danger, so you have to get there before CalTrans pulls the plug, day before).
anyways we got there before the storm hit and woke to the a avalanche cannons.
It was one of the only times I ever got first tracks on the main head-wall. Imagine a cornice dropping onto a steep bowl. I basically pointed it. I remeber laying down a bottom turn that loaded the board so hard I snapped mid turn and rebounded explosively, airborne. It was one hell of a powder day.
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Nothing like first tracks in fresh pow
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Hehehe… look at that. Snow ontop of a frozen layer or something. The guy hops once, well right of cornice, and causes a slide. Presumably he sent cracks through the layer with that hop and they radiated until the whole “front fell off”
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I guarantee if I skied off-piste that I’d have one of those inflatable vests for sure!!