Make It A Good One.

The last turn of the last run on any ski day is a bittersweet moment.  If it’s the last day of the trip, it is sad if not melancholic.  On one hand, I’ve spent the day or days enjoying my favorite sport and on the other, there’s no more skiing until the next trip that could be days, weeks, or months in the future.

As I come down the mountain on what will be my last run of the day, I go through the same routine.  Partly because I am tired, partly because the beginner runs are easy skiing and take me to the bottom, and partly because I want to be able to remember perfect turns I made to carry me over to the next trip.

Feet close together, tap the pole, unweight, and roll your knees.

It is also about muscle memory.  I want my body to remember how it felt to have the skis carve through the snow in a perfect turn.

As the skis come through the fall line, press the knees forward and into the hill to get the skis on edge.

It is also about knowing that life is short and we never know what tomorrow brings.  As a senior skier, I am closer to the end of my skiing life than the beginning.  Its depressing but true that makes the desire to carve the perfect turn even more intense.

Feel the edges bite into the snow and keep the turn coming across the fall line to control your speed.

At the end of every ski day, I want my mind and body to remember the turns, not just one, but a series of linked, perfect round ones.

Body square over the skis, or maybe angled down the fall line and hold the turn long enough to control your speed.

It has to be close to perfect so that even an instructor examiner would smile in approval.

Hands out in front held mid-chest high, feet less than shoulder width apart, ready for the turn.

The last turn was nice and round with the skis on edge that left a little tossed snow.  Now time for the next turn, hopefully as good as if not better than he last one to add to the string.

Stay in rhythm and reach out, tap the snow, unweight, and roll the knees.

The process goes on until I reach the bottom, trying to make each turn better than the one before it in an attempt to end a day on the snow with a perfect turn.  It may be a never-ending search, but the quest is a reason to head back to the slopes as soon as I can.  Why?  Because at age 73, this could be my last day on the slopes, and I want to remember that I did all I could do to make the perfect turn.