Brent dropping into Tres Hombres
There are few things in life more satisfying for parents than to spend quality time participating in their children’s activities. It’s easy to do when the children are young and we get involved in their sports or dance or music or whatever piques their interest.
It gets more difficult when they’re adults, when they have their own lives and families and their focus is on participating in their own children’s activities. So it was a treat last weekend when I skied Marmot Basin as part of the Jasper in January media event, and my adult son, Brent joined in.
He learned to ski as a child, was involved in some racing programs and consequently is a much better skier than I, who didn’t learn to ski until much later in life. Needless to say, when I ski with Brent he pushes me, takes me into areas I may not venture to on my own, and keeps us out on the slopes as long as he can.
Many Christmases ago, and a few weeks after we had skied some extreme terrain at Fernie, he gave me a ski helmet with the note: if you’re to ski with me Dad, you better start wearing this.
Now, at 71 years of age and not being able to play hockey the last two winters, it’s more than fair to say my physical conditioning is far, far from good. But watching Brent effortlessly carve his way down any runs, from groomed to powder to extreme terrain, well, let’s just say it gets the adrenalin pumping a bit more in this old body.
The challenge is there and while the body is showing its age and screaming ‘No, you can’t do that,’ the mind still thinks (mistakenly it seems) we can respond. Two examples on the weekend.
We joined the tour with Colin Borrow, Marmot’s ski school director, plus sales and marketing executive Erin Reade into Marmot’s newest terrain, Tres Hombres. It’s steep, advanced/expert terrain and as I stood at the top, looking down the slope I had my doubts about dropping into the area from the top. Why not join those who took the track off to the side for a lower, much easier entry?
Then Brent slid up the edge of the little entry cliff, looked down through his ski tips and dropped in. Two or three tight turns and he was gone. Well, said the mind, he’s gone now so you have no option but to follow. I did, except I slid in from the side, from where I was taking pictures, make a few sketchy turns, felt the skis slip then the edges catch, and I was into Tres Hombres.
It is as advertised – steep, difficult and long. But it is also wide and treeless so one can manoeuvre one’s way slowly down if need be. Of course, Brent was waiting near the bottom for me, so I didn’t have that option. I managed to ski it without any real problems.
Perhaps that’s why Erin told me what she did later that evening. Seems some others on the tour, standing at the top wondering what to do, formed the option that if the old fart can ski down from the top, well it can’t be that difficult. And it would be embarrassing to bail and take the easy way.
Maybe I should be insulted about the age thing, but hey, if anything I do encourages others to challenge themselves on the slopes, then so be it.
Turns out the toughest part of Tres Hombres isn’t skiing the bowl, it’s getting out of the area. The ski out, thankfully not too long, is narrow, fast, has the occasional rock or tree root thrown in for added challenge, and is, I’m guessing, terrifying the first time through it. Fortunately, it also has numerous escape spots that help control speed and enable one to stop when needed. But that’s for another story.
Brent normally likes to end his day with a “last run” from the top of the mountain to the bottom so when we were staying at the top of the Canadian Rockies Express Quad and I said, well, now what, I was sure he would say, “To the bottom.”
Instead, he smiled and said, “Well Dad, you mentioned The Knob earlier and we haven’t been there yet.”
Crap, that’s right. The tour took the Knob chair, but we traversed across and went down Charlie’s Bowl. And since Knob Hill is my favourite spot on Marmot, and always has the best snow, I couldn’t say no, exhausted, rubbery legs or not.
Fortunately, the Knob double chair is old and slow, installed in 1976, so my legs had time to rest. As we are riding the chair I told Brent of Marmot’s possible future plans to take out the ancient chair and replace it with a new high-speed quad that might run to the top of Marmot Peak.
I got to thinking if that day happens, I hope I’m still around and skiing and get to take the final run. The Knob chair is a relic (kind of like me, my wife Lynne would say), every third chair must be left empty (for safety reasons I suppose) and one day it will likely just stop. Its gears and belts having finally given out. But that chair has provided me with so many wonderful experiences I would love to be on it when it does die. In my vision it dies just as my chair is arriving at the top. I’m about two feet above the landing ramp when the staffer in the upper cabin comes out and says, I’m sorry, sir but the lift has died.
I’ll jump to the ramp, turn around, kiss the chair, says thanks for the memories and ski off. But I digress. Back to our “last run” of the day. Naturally the snow on Knob Hill, all sides, was the best on the hill. As we were making our bounce turns down Knob Hill I was surprised – shocked actually – to find my legs suddenly had a lot of oomph. Gone were the sore thighs and the rubbery feeling.
When we got to the bottom I couldn’t wait to say, well heck, that snow is too much fun to not take another run. So we did. And the next day we did it all over again, this time making sure we hit McCreary’s Choice, Party Slope and Dupres Bowl, along with enough cruises down the groomed slopes.
By the time we finally called it quits Sunday, we had experienced everything Marmot has to offer except Eagle East, an area I avoid because I’ve never been able to find my way out and end up poling through trees and up hills. But from Thunder Bowl off the Eagle Ridge Quad and McCreary’s Choice, through Charlie’s Bowl to Tres Hombres, and throw in numerous cruises down the usual runs like Surfer’s, Paradise, Highway 16, Jenn’s Run, Dromedary and Spillway, it was two of the best, most satisfying days of skiing I’ve had a long, long time.
And I got to do it with one of my sons.
