Werner and Mary Braun: Skiing: Highlights and some lowlights

Published 7:08 pm Wednesday, December 23, 2015

We recently took a family vacation to Steamboat Springs, Colo.

If you’ve never been there, we can highly recommend it. Everyone we met was very friendly and helpful.

The city of Steamboat Springs was incorporated in the early 1900s when droves of avid skiers put it on the map as “Ski Town USA.”

Prior to becoming a skiing Mecca, folks in the pre-Civil War era traveled to the area for the curative sulfur hot springs. So part of the city’s name came from the numerous springs in the area.

But where did “Steamboat” come from? Well, I’ll tell you. Back in those days, the area had a geyser that sounded like the whistle on a steam engine boat. Unfortunately, years later, during some excavation the magma chamber was breached, releasing the steam.

The “steamship” whistle was silenced forever. I’m glad they decided to keep the name.

But I digress. We went to Steamboat Springs to go skiing and we skied as hard as our flatland legs would allow. We got to town late on Saturday and learned that the mountain had received two feet of snow during the previous 48 hours.

Sunday dawned with a blue, cloudless sky, no lines at the ski lifts and temps in the low 20s.

If you are a skier, I need say no more. If you aren’t a skier, this is the definition of perfection.

Or so we hoped. The four of us hopped on Mary’s favorite run, “Why Not.” We were just cruising down the run when “BAMB!” An out of control snowboarder slammed into me, sending me head over heals. Once I caught my breath and shouted a brief expletive, I realized that all my body parts were still where they should be. I “reminded” my new friend about rule two of downhilling: “Uphill skier/boarder is responsible for avoiding collisions.” Have a nice day. The next three days it snowed. I mean snowed! All told, we got another two feet of snow on top of what we already had. I love to ski deep powder, having learned how from a friend that was on the U.S. Ski Team.

We were cruising down an intermediate run that had been skied a lot and the powder was getting packed down. Fortunately, most skiers avoid skiing near the tree line for obvious reasons

However, I love skiing down as close to the tree line in untracked, deep powder as I dare.

And then it happened. My skis crossed and I did a face plant.

Thankfully I was unhurt but I had another problem; I was buried up to my shoulders in snow. I tried pushing myself out with a ski pole but couldn’t touch bottom. ML realized that Dad was stuck.

With the help of a couple of other skiers, I finally made it to the packed snow. Believe it or not, I went back to skiing the tree line but decided that knee deep was a rush enough. Older and a little wiser.

No ski vacation would be complete without great friends (family in this case), wonderful food and age-appropriate beverages.

We sampled several restaurants both at the foot of the mountain and at the gondola halfway up the mountain. By far, our favorite restaurant is the Slopeside Grill. The name says it all.

The outdoor tables are a few yards from the run. The ambiance is great and so was the food.

This is not a commercial but it could be. I had the shrimp and grits. I pronounced them the best I’ve ever had.

All in all, it was a wonderful vacation and it adds to my list of favorite stories. And these don’t even need embellishment.

Werner and Mary Braun live in Dalton. He is the retired president of the Dalton-based Carpet and Rug Institute.