The text pinged on my phone. I was driving, so I ignored it and went on singing along to the radio, cleverly disguised as a Spotify playlist on Apple’s CarPlay. Pulling into the trailhead, I jumped out, grabbed my phone, and scrolled to the text as I prepared to take my skis off the top of the car for another day of turns.
Mid-reach to the rack, I stopped and smiled. My oldest child, my one and only son, wanted to come out for a week to ski with me, his mom, and his sisters. Awesome. I instantly replied, “Let’s do it. Tell me when to pick you up at the airport.”
Then, I forwarded the text to his sisters and mom and listened as the responses pinged in while I stepped into my boots and got ready for a few quick turns in the sun. I laughed as I once again wondered at the power of texts and how another awesome adventure was started with a few simple words typed on a screen.
A few short weeks later, I found myself standing in baggage claim at the Boise airport, waiting for a glimpse of my son. Soon enough, Travis rounded the corner and headed my way. A quick hug and a few pleasantries later, we grabbed his gear, walked to the parking garage, loaded the car, and headed up the mountain.
The nice thing about these airport runs is they give you time to reconnect. Two hours. Two and a half if you run into small delays. Much longer if you get unlucky. The drive offers plenty of time to talk about the flight, life back home and, most importantly, organize a plan of attack for the week.
Our plan was to start at Tamarack, work through all three resorts (Little Ski Hill and Brundage), and do a little side-country hiking and powder slaying. To say the whole family was amped is an understatement.
The next day dawned bright and cold. We rushed to Tamarack, rode two lifts to reach the summit, and with nary a word to each other, skied off the chair, jumped the wind lip to the right of the lift, and sliced down, angling left into the trees. About a third of the way down, my son and one of my daughters’ boyfriends spotted a cliff jump. The boyfriend slid up to it, took a look, hopped down, and skied out of the runout.
Travis yelled, “How’s it look?”
“Good,” yelled Lucas. “But stay right.”
