The End Of An Era!

Well finally after 20 wonderful seasons of skiing, the end of an era is upon me. I have been meaning to write this now for the past few weeks, but have failed to because I just can’t believe that it is happening. I had always figured that I would be much older and other milestones would have been reached before this ever happened, but no such luck.

So after keeping you all in suspense as to what I am talking about, here is the deal. I have been skiing every season regularly with my father for the past 20 years, from what we figure. I have gone skiing with other friends and family, but the one constant factor was the every Saturday morning, my dad knocked on my door to wake me up and we went up and hit the slopes. I learned and progressively got better with each day on the slope. He pushed me to go on runs which I would never have thought of, but this is what made me the skier that I am today. We always had the goal in mind that we ski together when he could ski for free. Well no such luck. My dad has informed me that this will be his last season skiing. We have 4 days left, 2 at Copper Mountain and 2 at Winter Park. With the trip that my parents have planned for in the end of March, I am thinking that the last day for the Schunck father/son ski trips will officially come to an end on March 8.

Yes folks in 4 weeks, what has the norm for me will no longer be. Like I said before I knew that this day was going to come, but not now. I am not sure how I will deal with this. Those of you that know me, skiing is what I have live for. I stay home on Friday nights, so that I can enjoy skiing the next day, I don’t go out on Saturday cause of how hard we skied that day. I don’t know what I will do next season. I know that I will continue to go skiing, but after going with someone for the past 20 years, skiing by yourself just doesn’t seem to be any fun for me.

I have gone with friends and family, but all of my friends that I have gone with just don’t have the same drive that I do. Some think that drinking the night before and waking up at 8, dealing with traffic, getting to the slopes by 11 and quitting by 2 is the way to go. Others wouldn’t get up on time, or stick to plans made the night before and days were missed out on. Others have broken my equipment because of their inability to snow ride safely. I don’t know what I am going to do. My sisters and brother-in-laws are trying or starting families, so I know that they will not be able to go as much either.

So with that said, based on the fact that March 8 is the expected ending date for the tradition that was, I am extending an invitation to anyone that reads this that would love to go snow riding and think that you can keep up with me. I will be having tryouts every Saturday and Sunday in March and April at either Copper Mountain or Winter Park till the end of the season. I will even entertain extending the adventure to Loveland and Arapahoe Basin because of all the snow that the mountains have been getting.

So the requirements are simple and are as follows. 1. Must be willing to get up early and leave Denver by 6:30 to miss traffic. 2. Be willing to ski all over the mountain. 3. Leave by 3:30 to miss traffic on the return unless staying overnight or staying late for dinner.

These 3 simple requirements are all I got. Let me know if you are interested.

Tim