As the deadline for filing income tax returns looms, fraught with all kinds of complications and convoluted forms that make no sense, there is only one thing to do. Get out there and ski.

After getting off to a very slow start, this winter has turned out to be another big one, and the skiing has been very good. I didn’t ski much in December. It just didn’t have a lot of appeal with limited terrain open and kind of sketchy conditions. So I’m a little behind my usual pace, but will still manage to ski my age — one day of skiing for each year. And the years are mounting up. Once it got going, the ski season just keep giving.

Mother Nature plays the major role in making a good season, but she doesn’t do it entirely on her own.  The early season happened because of a lot of people doing really difficult jobs like making snow all night long in dismal conditions. Snowmakers are largely invisible because they usually work at night when it’s coldest. Those white ribbons on the mountain side in December didn’t happen on their own.  So a big thanks to the men and women who froze their keisters off blowing snow. 

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Their work was followed up by the groomers, who also work at night driving big machines on improbably steep slopes in the dark. I’ve spent a fair amount of my life on farm equipment, and even in broad daylight on relatively flat ground, the potential to tip something over is fairly high. Running a snow catdown something like Silver Skis in the dark with a winch cable holding you from rolling end over end all the way to the grocery store takes some serious grit. 

It’s no secret that the local lift infrastructure is getting old. Thaynes and Jupiter are historic artifacts now. We think of Deer Valley as being the new operation, but Mayflower and Red Cloud have been there from nearly the beginning. 

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The newer high speed lifts are complicated with a blend of mechanical and electronic stuff that provides plenty of opportunities for problems. The lift mechanics, also working after hours for the most part, keep things operating smoothly with very few beakdowns. 

As much as I ski, and have for many, many years, I’ve never had to be roped off a lift. It happens, but not very often. That’s because the lift mechanics are there keeping things running smoothly. It takes more than duct tape to keep them running safely. 

If you take the basic premise of a ski lift — that we’re going to have lots of people sitting on chairs dangling from elevated cables in all kinds of weather, and expect them to move safely and have fun doing it — well, on paper it doesn’t seem like a good idea.

The faces we see on the mountain are the lift operators, the line organizers, and ticket checkers. Those have to be amazingly boring jobs while at the same time demanding full attention to stop the lift and respond to the inevitable misloads, danglers and bullwheel riders. What we don’t see is that they got there an hour or two before opening to dig things out, set up the mazes, transport coworkers up the mountain to the higher lifts and ski patrol for avalanche control. 

They’ve often put in a pretty full day before the first guest shows up with their pass in the same pocket as their phone so the readers can’t work.

Ski patrol has had their hands full this season with avalanche mitigation. In addition to a lot of snow, we had some wild wind events, and things got dicey even on the days it didn’t snow. They know what they are doing, and I always felt safe even at the highest reaches of the resorts if the patrol dropped the ropes. 

I’ve made it through another season without exploring emergency medicine on the mountain. In better than 60 years of skiing, I’ve never been for a toboggan ride, and hope to keep that streak going. But it’s great to know they are there, just in case.

This last week or so has been great skiing. Spring at its finest, and the mountains are empty. The other day we ran non-stop laps on Stein’s Way with not another soul in sight, yahooing like a bunch of Texans. Our own private mountain. My group went in for lunch early because we were worn out.  Everybody on the deck was a local, and lunch turned into a great celebration of our town. 

Thanks to management, and our remote corporate overlords, for staying open when it really can’t make any economic sense. It’s a favor for the locals, and greatly appreciated. We’ve got another week, and to return the favor, at least buy a snack when you are there.

So, to sum it up, a big thanks to everybody at the resorts who work so hard to make the season so good.  It wouldn’t happen without you.  I hope you had as good a season as you provided the rest of us.