the    sides

So I have a couple of unused lift tickets left for this ski season. I have Friday off. I have no one to go skiing with me. So I call Evan G.

Actually, I call his parents. Since he’s a junior in high school, I ask permission to yank him out of school to go skiing with me. I’ve yet to meet a parent that won’t allow their kid to miss a day of school to hang with the youth pastor. It’s one of the unwritten benefits of being a youth pastor.

I do stuff like this fairly often. If I’m taking an extended errand, road trip, or going to do something cool I always try to take a student with me. I did a wedding last year in Emporia and had a couple of students hang with me for the weekend. Any way I can get face time with students - especially leader or potential leader students - it’s a great thing.

But yesterday was beyond great. It was a slice of heaven. Define your perfect day on the mountains, and we had it. Upper 40’s, lower 50’s. Bright sun, clear skies, no wind, 4 inches of fresh powder from the night before. No one else on the mountain.

Evan and I tore it up. He wore me out on the morning runs. The bagel and Coke Zero didn’t last long but cutting fresh tracks on the back blacks of Copper Mountain was an awesome thing.

TMI WARNING!!!
One particular run (Far East for those who care), we were bumping through some moguls where I went from fresh powder to slick as glass ice. Needless to say, skis went up in air, butt went down hard on ice. It was the first time I’d fallen that hard in a long time. In the middle of the fall I hear this ….RIIIIIIIIIIIIPPPPPP.

My first thought was “Oh my gosh, I’ve fallen so hard I’ve ripped my ski pants.” Which is next to impossible to do. After some investigating, I had NOT ripped my pants but that did not explain the RIIIIIPPPP sound. We skied the rest of the morning but my ski pants kept sagging. Yet nothing was ripped. I bought some suspenders in the ski shop and the rest of the day went awesome.

I get home, change out of my clothes when I realized what had happened. Over my long johns I normally wear boxers. The pair I was wearing this day were torn to shreds from the band to the bottom. Apparently they were folded weird and when I fell, ripped all the way down and that also contributed to the saggy butt condition of my ski pants.

Another day in my life…

Some pics of the day. Unfortunately, they are with my phone so they aren’t as crisp as I like. Great day skiing, better day with Evan.