The bike stays home -- back on skis

It's been a really long time since I've been skiing -- nearly two years, to be precise. In January, 2009, I visited my brother and Tom and we shreded Aspen.

Then, without plans to travel out west, and disinclined to subject myself to the crowds and wanting conditions of the east coast without the westward draw dangling like a carrot in front of me, I opted to hang my boards up for a while.

I'm not sure I ever really thought "a while" would stretch so dangerously close to 104 weeks, but so it goes.

A few weeks ago a new friend here in Pennsylvania invited me to join a few people going to nearby Blue Mountain. Having realized sometime ago that focusing on riding my bike with such singular abandon for the past year resulted not only in a shitty season, but also in me being less happy, I decided that this was as good a time as any to get back on the slopes.

I think I made a good decision.

Not only was it a very fun evening, but the snow was surprisingly good and the company, as always, was good for more than a few laughs. I divided my time between trying to coach some of the newer skiers (for which I felt particularly unprepared) and carving some of the mountain's diverse terrain. Although some slopes had been skied off, I found a few "stashes" of "powder." Quotation marks in use for obvious reasons. I even talked my hostess into riding a black-diamond "death drop." I think we're all better for it.

Being that it was my first day back on skis, I refrained from riding the half pipe, but I did launch a backside 540 McTwist over a 100-foot tabletop -- to the amazement of the assembled high school kids. Yeah, I'm a real hero.

Best of all, everyone in our group remained bodily intact, and would consider another outing to the slopes. A successful evening indeed.