A Simple Twist of Fate

[highpeaksdrifter]

When I start a thread I usually don’t like to write much about myself, but listening to an old Bob Dylan song the other day made me think about how a ski trip taken 7 years ago changed my life for the better and I decided to write it down and post it here.

Since I was 6 years old I’d always had a season pass at Hunter Mt. My Dad was a ski instructor there for a long time. After he and my mother moved to Florida Orville Slutsky still comped my son and me a season pass every year. An act of generosity I’ll always remember.

Where I live I didn’t have many friends/acquaintances that skied. Those that did always wanted to go to Vermont instead of going down to Hunter. I use to go to Hunter with my son a lot or by myself. Once he went away to college I either went to Hunter by myself or skied someplace with a couple of guys from work.. I also skied one nite a week with my school ski club.

My wife was never interested too much, but as my daughter and youngest son got old enough I took them with me and we had a great time. So anyways I was getting out probably 30+ times a year, either with my kids, myself, school trip and the occasional friend.

All was good, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing, I felt unfulfilled. When I was a kid we had a house at Hunter that we shared with my uncles family who was also a ski instructor. There was always friends and family, loads of people to ski with, après parities and we felt very much connected to the Hunter ski community especially with those involved in the ski school. It was more then just skiing it was a lifestyle. I missed that lifestyle and it didn’t look like I was going to be a part of it again anytime soon.

Seven years ago my oldest son, who was out of college and skiing a lot again, got a couple of comps from a friend of his that where good at either Whiteface or Gore. Neither of us had ever been to Whiteface so we decided to give it a try.

The 2 of us had been kickin around the idea of trying to hook up somewhere as a host/safety/ambassador or maybe snowsports, but we had no definite plans.

It was very late in the season, a sunny spring day. We both liked WF a lot, it seemed to have everything we where looking for in a mountain and it was a very doable 2 hour drive from home.

At the end of the day we went to customer service to see how one went about applying to be a volunteer employee. We where told to call the Operations Supervisor. I called that Monday and left a message. It was April, and I didn’t really expect a return call and figured I’d call back in October. Two days later I got a call as soon as I got home from work. The Operations Supervisor called me, asked some questions, told me he had 2 openings in the Mountain Host program and said my son and I could have the positions. Sight unseen, just like that.

We took it and it was the best ski related thing to ever happen to me. We made a bunch of friends to ski and party with, we love the mountain and the job, my affiliation with WF led to a part-time position with a ski company and this summer we bought a house 4 miles from WF. I guess I’m a simple guy with simple dreams cause now I have everything I ever wanted and couldn’t be happier, all because of a decision to ski a day at WF. It turned out to be a life altering choice.

Now if we had been in a car accident on the way to WF and I could never ski again as a result, that would have been a twist of fate the other way. It is just amazing to me how what at the time seems like a meaningless choice can have such a profound effect on our lives, the ramifications of which may last the rest of out lives.

Anyways these twist of fate happen in all aspects of life, like where you met your wife, the job you have, where you live, etc. Since this is a ski forum we won’t get into those, but has anyone else made a decision that affected your ski life in ways you never expected.

 

[bvibert]

Great story HPD, thanks for posting! Sorry, I don't have any similar stories to share.

 

[ajl50]

Nice story...twists are funny like that.

I don't really have a ski related twist of fate...

 

[campgottagopee]

Here's mine:
I grew up skiing, went to college that had it's own ski slopes (3) w/ a rope tow, so skiing has been part of my life for more than 40 years.(real quick background)

The winter after I graduated college I was making snow at my local hill just so I could ski for free because obviously I was broke and hadn't found a "real" job yet. In fact, like any good ski bum, was living back w/ my parents. One day (made snow at night) while napping around the house an old college housemate of mine called me up asking me if I wanted to go to Smuggs for 3 days of FREE skiing. Somehow he scored some free passes so we were off to Smuggs. We were very familiar w/ Smuggs because that's where our ski club went for the infamous "college weeks", and another one of our house mates did his internship there plus he still worked and lived there.

We jump in the car wed night heading to smuggs. We don't tell our buddy because we're going to surprise him. We roll in about 2ish a.m., drunk, full of hell, and totally stoked to ski a really cool mtn and spend time w/ our pal. Our plan was to ski thurs, fri, sat, then head home sunday a.m. While skiing saturday we bumped into an instuctor who remebered us from the previous year because he had givin us some lessons. He was on break so took a few runs with us. I rode up the chair with him and he mentioned to me that they needed another adult instructor and he thought I should try out. I jumped right on that chance. I mean hell, I was already broke so how bad could it really be, rught??? Anyway, he hooked my up w/ the ski school director for a quick clinic to see if I was what they were looking for. Turns out that I was, and I needed to start monday a.m. at 8. (mind you this is saturday) I thought, how cool is this!!!! Then I realized I needed to drive home (5hrs), quit my job (easy), tell my parents what i was doing w/ all their tuition money(not so easy), pack my crap and drive back up (easy).

Anyway, did all that. Lived w/ 7 other ski instuctors all in the same little house which was just sooooooo much fun I can't begin to describe. Every day was a saturday and every night was a friday night. We were all broke,but kings of living off 15k/year!!!!

For 4 years I did this. Did it right up until one "milk run" morning I bit it hard and couldn't walk due to a back injury. Turns out it was just temporary nerve/blown out disc damage. Doc said I would be fine after some time, but that my skiing every day, all day, day's were over due to the nature of my injury. You talk about bummed!!! I mean I was living the life of Riley lvin every second of every day.

Twist of fate??? Yup--I moved back home all friggin depressed because of what had happened to me. But that injury is why I moved back home. And I love being home because of my wife, my family and all the activities we do together. Would trade any of my time at Smuggs, but also wouldn't want to back to those times either. My liver couldn't take it.:beer:

 

[Marc]

The first time I went skiing had a profound effect on my ski life. I don't even know why I wanted to try. I just decided one day that it looked like fun and I wanted to give it a shot. No one else in my family skied.

Funny, how some things you do, you just know will be right before you do them.

Take music for instance... while I'm no virtuoso or anything, I have probably higher than average instrumental ability (at one time in HS played four instruments regularly, went to all the major music festivals), and I knew I wanted to before I could even hold an instrument. I never started playing an instrument until I was 11, but up until that time, I always told anyone who asked I wanted to grow up to be a musician. Weird... but good in a way. I feel like I'm doing the things I should be that make me happy.

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

Here's mine:
I grew up skiing, went to college that had it's own ski slopes (3) w/ a rope tow, so skiing has been part of my life for more than 40 years.(real quick background)

The winter after I graduated college I was making snow at my local hill just so I could ski for free because obviously I was broke and hadn't found a "real" job yet. In fact, like any good ski bum, was living back w/ my parents. One day (made snow at night) while napping around the house an old college housemate of mine called me up asking me if I wanted to go to Smuggs for 3 days of FREE skiing. Somehow he scored some free passes so we were off to Smuggs. We were very familiar w/ Smuggs because that's where our ski club went for the infamous "college weeks", and another one of our house mates did his internship there plus he still worked and lived there.

We jump in the car wed night heading to smuggs. We don't tell our buddy because we're going to surprise him. We roll in about 2ish a.m., drunk, full of hell, and totally stoked to ski a really cool mtn and spend time w/ our pal. Our plan was to ski thurs, fri, sat, then head home sunday a.m. While skiing saturday we bumped into an instuctor who remebered us from the previous year because he had givin us some lessons. He was on break so took a few runs with us. I rode up the chair with him and he mentioned to me that they needed another adult instructor and he thought I should try out. I jumped right on that chance. I mean hell, I was already broke so how bad could it really be, rught??? Anyway, he hooked my up w/ the ski school director for a quick clinic to see if I was what they were looking for. Turns out that I was, and I needed to start monday a.m. at 8. (mind you this is saturday) I thought, how cool is this!!!! Then I realized I needed to drive home (5hrs), quit my job (easy), tell my parents what i was doing w/ all their tuition money(not so easy), pack my crap and drive back up (easy).

Anyway, did all that. Lived w/ 7 other ski instuctors all in the same little house which was just sooooooo much fun I can't begin to describe. Every day was a saturday and every night was a friday night. We were all broke,but kings of living off 15k/year!!!!

For 4 years I did this. Did it right up until one "milk run" morning I bit it hard and couldn't walk due to a back injury. Turns out it was just temporary nerve/blown out disc damage. Doc said I would be fine after some time, but that my skiing every day, all day, day's were over due to the nature of my injury. You talk about bummed!!! I mean I was living the life of Riley lvin every second of every day.

Twist of fate??? Yup--I moved back home all friggin depressed because of what had happened to me. But that injury is why I moved back home. And I love being home because of my wife, my family and all the activities we do together. Would trade any of my time at Smuggs, but also wouldn't want to back to those times either. My liver couldn't take it.:beer:

Great story. That type of thing always boggles my mind. We humans believe we have so much control over our lives and yet we really are leaves blowing in the wind, anything can happen to change our course. If that series of coincidences hadn’t happened to put you in that chairlift with that guy at that time your whole life would have been different. For some reason that sort of thing amazes me.

 

[Greg]

I guess you could say that December 13, 1998 has had the greatest impact on my skiing life. That was the day I registered the AlpineZone.com domain name. It's hard to believe this site is approaching 9 years old. In any event, AZ has afforded me a countless number of skiing opportunities that I likely would not have had otherwise, including meeting and befriending many of you.

 

[campgottagopee]

Great story. That type of thing always boggles my mind. We humans believe we have so much control over our lives and yet we really are leaves blowing in the wind, anything can happen to change our course. If that series of coincidences hadn’t happened to put you in that chairlift with that guy at that time your whole life would have been different. For some reason that sort of thing amazes me.

Amazes me too!!!! It's so truley, amazingly, insane how little control we actually have over what happens in our lives.

 

[campgottagopee]

I guess you could say that December 13, 1998 has had the greatest impact on my skiing life. That was the day I registered the AlpineZone.com domain name. It's hard to believe this site is approaching 9 years old. In any event, AZ has afforded me a countless number of skiing opportunities that I likely would not have had otherwise, including meeting and befriending many of you.

Now that's cool. I honestly didn't know you're the one who created this site. Nice job, and kuddos to you!!!:beer:

 

[deadheadskier]

Great Thread HPD

Here's my Simple Twist of Fate moment. I prefer the Garcia version though....suprise, surprise


As a kid, I was always fascinated with snow. Winter was my favorite season as long as I can remember. In the second grade, my elementary school offered a six week after school learn to ski program at the venerable Ward Hill. I loved sledding and was all over it after begging my parents for weeks and weeks to sign me up.

It was definitely tough at first and I remember plenty of afternoons having my mother pick me up from the hill cold with tear marks from my frustrations. The thing that sticks with me though is even at such a young age, despite how frustrating a day I might have had, I always went to sleep at night elated that I went and yearning for the next time out.

I signed up for the program again in third grade and in addition, made my parents promise to go out and take lessons and ski with me. They were reluctant at first, but eventually tried a couple of times at Ward with me late February and we took a day trip or two in March up to King Hill in NH.

The following winter, my folks were into it from the start and we took day trips almost every Saturday of the season to places in New Hampshire as well as a few weekend outings to charity race events the company my father worked for hosted.

The next winter, time share rental at Okemo for the winter. By the time I was twelve, my folks bought a vacation home near there.

The sport lead me to go to a quasi-skiing academy in Vermont for high school, go to college at UVM and pursue a career working in the hospitality industry so I could work and live near the mountains. The latter is no longer the case, it's a rough business to work in in seasonal areas, but I still live close enough.

The biggest thing I take away from my Simple Twist of Fate is that my parents are still together today. They and anyone else will freely admit that if it wasn't for skiing, their marriage would have never survived. Prior to it, they did NOTHING together on the weekends. It was just chores and shuffling off responsibilities of myself and my brother between them, so that they could go do something on their own. Skiing was the single best thing that ever happened to their relationship.

My folks are getting a bit older now, have retired to Florida and traded in their skis, but have applied the same principles about doing things together and being friends on the golf course.

So, I guess I could say that skiing and that Simple Twist of Fate has affected me in most every area of my life.

can't wait to get out there again

 

[Hawkshot99]

I have been skiing since I was 7 or 8. max times I ever got to ski a year was 9 or 10 times. This was up till I was out of HS. My Freshmen year of College I had a great schedule and was able to ski alot(for me maybe 15 times). That April, I started looking for a job. Nobody would hire me, and I was putting in my applications everywhere.
It was down to were I would accept anything that came along. Come September I got a call from a ski shop that I had applied at. I was real exited to work there, but hey I finally had a job after searching for nearly 6 months. 10 mins after hanging up the phone I got a call from Target down at the mall. If they had called first I would have taken that job.
Since getting that job, I have been able to get very good gear, and ski over 30 times a year. It has made me even more addicted to skiing than I ever was.

 

[Marc]

The simple twist of fate for me was when in the fall of 2003 I was in a sporting goods store to help purchase hockey skates for my grandson when I spied a snowboard and boots on sale and the little voice in my head said "Do it" ....

Ever since that day we've been tryin to get Jerry to lay off the sauce.

 

[wa-loaf]

Back in HS when I was preparing to take the SATs and all my dad suggested I take the ASVAB (armed services vocational aptitude battery kinda the SAT for the armed forces). I was like nah why would I want to join the Army? He talked me into it and I scored in the 97th percentile. The recruiters started knocking at the door, but I blew them off and went to U Maine. I was not ready for college and wasn't having a good time at school and suddenly what the recruiters were saying started to sound good. Next thing I know I'm off to basic training and then language school in Monterey, CA for almost a year and then three years in Munich.

Because of a decision to take the ASVAB in HS. I got to ski in Lake Tahoe and all over the Alps for 3 years and on top of that I was in Germany for the end of the cold war (I was in Berlin when the wall came down).And when I got out I got into a much better school than U Maine.

 

[Grassi21]

I have a quick one that is related to skiing in a roundabout way.

Lacrosse has been my sports since I was in 6th grade. Yorktown HS is one of the more storied lacrosse programs in the country. All of my friends went off to Hopkins, Syracuse, UNC, etc etc.. I forever a second stringer playing behind all americans.

When the time came to apply to colleges I whipped out a copy of Lacrosse magazine. I applied to colleges that were national ranking in lacrosse (applied to schools ranked 11 - 20 in Division 1 and the top 10 in Division III). I was accepted at 13 schools. To name a few; Michigan State, UMass, Hofstra, Rutgers, Nazareth, Ithaca...

I started dating this girl my senior year. She was only the second real girlfriend I was with. She decided to go to Cortland State. I decided to attend Ithaca College just 30 minutes away. I never visited the school and had no knowledge of which programs Ithaca was known for. The first time I saw the school was at orientation.

Just after the prom I got dumped. Friends started leaving for college throughout the summer and the inevitable was nearing. I had to start from scratch in upstate NY. I hated Ithaca the first few months. From 6th grade to senior year of HS I played lacrosse with, got drunk with, and lived for being with my buds. I hated my college teammates at first. I hated my major. I hated that I would bump into my ex at Cortland when I went to visit one of my best friends from HS.

I changed my major, settled in with my new teammates, and got into a groove at Ithaca. I started dating this girl 2nd semester my sophomore year. It took me a full semester to really get into dating her. Talking to my wife now, she was one phone call away from never speaking to me again. Her friend actually talked her into giving me one more chance.

Because I tried to follow a HS girlfriend to upstate NY I ended up meeting my wife. Looking back it was the best decision I ever made. Through my wife I was able to meet some of my closest friends and have ended up in a great situation in many respects (wife, kid, dogs, house and all that).

But what about skiing? I grew up waiting for the snow to melt so we could play lax. Growing up I feared skiing. I knew if I tried it I would hurt or kill myself the first time out. Well, wifey force me to try skiing. For three straight seasons I kept pushing off her requests to go skiing. I caved during the 04/05 season. Two bluebird days at Okemo and I was hooked. Now I try to keep busy during the Spring, Summer, and Fall waiting for the snow to fly. So I guess if I never followed that HS girl upstate I wouldn't have met my pushy wife who nagged me into trying skiing.

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

Great Thread HPD

Here's my Simple Twist of Fate moment. I prefer the Garcia version though....suprise, surprise


As a kid, I was always fascinated with snow. Winter was my favorite season as long as I can remember. In the second grade, my elementary school offered a six week after school learn to ski program at the venerable Ward Hill. I loved sledding and was all over it after begging my parents for weeks and weeks to sign me up.

It was definitely tough at first and I remember plenty of afternoons having my mother pick me up from the hill cold with tear marks from my frustrations. The thing that sticks with me though is even at such a young age, despite how frustrating a day I might have had, I always went to sleep at night elated that I went and yearning for the next time out.

I signed up for the program again in third grade and in addition, made my parents promise to go out and take lessons and ski with me. They were reluctant at first, but eventually tried a couple of times at Ward with me late February and we took a day trip or two in March up to King Hill in NH.

The following winter, my folks were into it from the start and we took day trips almost every Saturday of the season to places in New Hampshire as well as a few weekend outings to charity race events the company my father worked for hosted.

The next winter, time share rental at Okemo for the winter. By the time I was twelve, my folks bought a vacation home near there.

The sport lead me to go to a quasi-skiing academy in Vermont for high school, go to college at UVM and pursue a career working in the hospitality industry so I could work and live near the mountains. The latter is no longer the case, it's a rough business to work in in seasonal areas, but I still live close enough.

The biggest thing I take away from my Simple Twist of Fate is that my parents are still together today. They and anyone else will freely admit that if it wasn't for skiing, their marriage would have never survived. Prior to it, they did NOTHING together on the weekends. It was just chores and shuffling off responsibilities of myself and my brother between them, so that they could go do something on their own. Skiing was the single best thing that ever happened to their relationship.

My folks are getting a bit older now, have retired to Florida and traded in their skis, but have applied the same principles about doing things together and being friends on the golf course.

So, I guess I could say that skiing and that Simple Twist of Fate has affected me in most every area of my life.

can't wait to get out there again

My wife read this thread and she got teary eyed after she read your post. It has a real nice ending. All the posts here have been interesting and fun to read. I wrote my original post a while ago, but was reluctant to post it. I wasn’t sure how it would go over. Now I’m glad I did.

 

[deadheadskier]

My wife read this thread and she got teary eyed after she read your post. It has a real nice ending. All the posts here have been interesting and fun to read. I wrote my original post a while ago, but was reluctant to post it. I wasn’t sure how it would go over. Now I’m glad I did.

I often get teary eyed listening to Garcia Band's version of the tune. Now whenever I listen to it, I'll associate this thread with it as well. Again, Great Thread HPD! If you have any more like this that you're holding back, let em' loose. Stuff like this really digs deep towards the soul of skiing inside each of us. It's what makes us yearn for one more run.....

 

[sledhaulingmedic]

I grew up with some skiing always close by. I went to Boston to school and skied less, but kept it up some. I met some friends that skied and gradually got back to skiing more and more.

I went back to college in my mid-20's and practiced with the ski team. Oddly enough, we trained at the mountain in my home town. When I graduated, I barely had two sticks to rub together, as my new bride and I were saving for a house. That season, I only skied BC on Mt. Washington (not that it was a bad thing.)

The next couple of years, the bulk of my skiing was nights at Wa. It happend, my boss saw me do the Clark Kent: head into the Men's room in a suit, come out in goretex. He said: "Oh, you ski? You'll have to meet our customer, JK. He's really into the Ski Patrol".

I met JK. I joined the patrol. I got layed off from that job. JK hired me. Both of us got layed off. Many other things have changed. However, my first responder experience, ultimately lead me to getting my Paramedic certification. I still haul sleds, I'm now a medic...