Winter 1976 – Snowmass Ski Area

Paul Wirth and I both spotted them from a distance.  We were on the prowl and looking for dates to go listen to Twerp Anderson and his band at the Stonebridge that evening.  My plan was to impress the blond one while Paul had his sights on the brunette.  They were definitely “out of towners” which was important for our plan to work as the local girls knew us and in most cases already had dates.  Besides, they were our friends and it was more fun to go meet the tourist girls.    Paul Wirth and I used to ski together a lot and we tried all kinds of ways to impress the girls.  We had resorted to acting like we could not ski, tried fake foreign accents and even pretended to be from out of town ourselves.  Sometimes these antics worked and sometimes not.  But on this day we could actually show off our real abilities and “get the girls.”

We both headed down the run named, “Moonshine” in pursuit of our prey.  We were already impressed that the girls skied well enough to go down the blue runs as it would be much harder to show off on the green trails.  As we headed down, we were looking good and carving perfect turns.  We made sure we passed in front of them close enough to get noticed.  We knew we were good enough to impress them and felt sure our evening dates were all but assured.  Nearing the bottom of the run, with our future dates trailing behind, it happened.

Paul went left and I went right, with big carving turns and a high rate of speed we collided at a closing rate of 30 plus miles per hour.  I am sure once the powder settled back to earth it looked like a train wreck had just occurred.  Skis and poles were strewn all over the bottom of the run.  I came to rest about 30 feet from Paul and we were both dazed from the impact.  As we laid there collecting our thoughts the two girls skied up and asked us if we were ok.  Seconds later they skied off, thoroughly impressed I am sure.   

Later that night we ran into the young ladies at the Stonebridge.  By then they had found dates, worse than that, their dates were “out of towners” as well.  This kind of activity is normal in any sort of resort community where the local boys try to “pick up” the female visitors and then wonder why the female classmates won’t have anything to do with them the rest of the year.  I guess this is how it has always been and always will be.

Good luck boys, and don’t do anything stupid!