So my father died on February 6^th of this year
after a quite rapid decline over the last year, one that accelerated in the
last two months of his life after he was diagnosed with ineoperable renal
cancer . In his younger days my father was intolerant of heat but not bothered
much by the cold. In his old age, though, he hated the cold and kept the house
temperature in the high 70s F year round and even kept his room over 80* once I
bought him a space heater for his room so the rest of us in the house wouldn’t
have to suffer so much in the incubator. So it’s fitting that he died at the
beginning of what turned out to be the coldest February on record in many parts
of the eastern U.S. rather than endure a month of the temperatures he so came
to hate.

There’s a lot to attend to in the weeks after a family
member dies but no good reason to mope around long-term in grief. So when my
brother Doug invited me to join him and his wife Aviva at their shared ski
house at Killington two weeks later I happily accepted, even though this was
turning out to be one of the coldest winter months on record.

Killington is located on the slopes of a mountain of the
same name in central Vermont and is probably the biggest ski complex in the
eastern United States . I skied at Killington once with Doug for a weekend around
a decade or more ago, but he’s become a regular over the last eight years,
usually purchasing a share in seasonal house rental. The one he’s in now he
calls Sasquatch Lodge, identified from the ski trail by the Sasquatch sign
nailed to a tree. You always know there’s a party going on where you see a Sasquatch
sign.

TO someone who has mostly skied in the West, eastern ski
conditions usually leave much to be desired. The usual winter pattern in the
East is warming before precipitation followed by much colder sunnier periods,
resulting in precipitation frequently as rain, much manmade snow and often icy
conditions, and very cold temperatures on the clearer, sunnier days. With it
being bitterly cold this month, things at Killington are not as they usually
are. The snow is deep and natural and powdery, but most days are so cold and
windy that getting out for more than just a few runs at a time is painful.

So I got in far less skiing that I had hoped, just one full
day at Pico with Doug on Sunday, the warmest day of my stay, and two partial
days with just a few runs on Wednesday and Thursday at Killington. Monday and
Tuesday barely got above 0*F and were much below with the windchill factor,
good days to stay inside. What can I say – if it’s not one thing, it’s another!
I did get a lot of writing done, though, over the four days I was alone at the
ski house during the week, along with some much needed time by myself.