September 15. I'm waiting. The big peaks of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado are still bare at the end of Summer. Waiting to be dusted by a few inches of snow at the 13 to 14,000 elevations. That cold front has not come through yet, and as a skier, I'm getting nervous... But early snow has no connection to how the ski season will wind up. Some years, an early snow is followed by a dry Winter, other years an early snow is a harbinger of a huge Winter. No computer model can predict how a ski season will turn out. Too many variables, and global warming is just one of them (so far, Colorado has escaped any significant effects ) I just like to see a bit of snow on the highest peaks, as it fills me with anticipation of making my first turns with the aid of gravity on a snowy slope. Most people get excited with the anticipation of Spring, with me, it's the advent of late Fall and the ski season opener. 2,000 ski days in Colorado, I tell my bowed, arthritic knees to shut up and let me take that first run; and then another and another. I am in Colorado, and that first snowfall will come, and then another one, a big storm to lay down a base for the early season. Huge season or dry season, a turn is a turn.
