Snow days

My brother and I started skiing in the early '80s. Our friend Brian Brown had a cabin in Big Bear right at the base of Snow Summit, and his family would invite us to go with them.

I was thinking about this today at the very top of Mammoth.


Our dad picked up skiing soon after, and pretty soon he was hooked, too. He bought us our first skis (150 cm rental K2s) and taught us how to file, P-tex, and wax (which we do to snowboards now). When we were in junior high and high school, he'd take us to Big Bear and Wrightwood about 10 times a season, with a couple trips to Mammoth. Now we only go to Mammoth, and he, Wendy, and I have season passes.

After I bought my first snowboard with my first "real" post-college paycheck in 1990, my brother and sister switched from skiing to snowboarding pretty quickly. My dad saw how much fun we were having, and switched, too. Today he skied in the morning when the snow was hard and then snowboarded in the afternoon when conditions softened up.

This picture was taken on the top of Chair 25.


My sister Angelyn is in the foreground. She became a pretty good skier and now snowboarder because it's in her blood. Also, she was a ballerina when she was a kid, so that might help. Check out her first-generation Giant Robot hoody. You might have seen her in some of the taste tests from early issues.

In the background is Wendy. The last time I was single, I had certain criteria for the next person I dated. She had to be older than Angelyn and be a decent snowboarder. (Her designing GR was a bonus.) I like to think I had something to do with her being able to go down any level slope in any condition with good form these days.

This photo was taken going from the top of Chair 23 to Cornice.


Here's Frank, who hitched a ride with my parents, Angelyn, and her daughter Lucia. Frank is my mom's cousin, and he has a cabin in Mammoth so we come up with him pretty often. (He's another season-ticket holder.) He likes to haul ass, and has a posse of buddies who have been hot-dogging since back in the day.

This is the top of Chair 5, and I don't know who the lady in yellow is!