Just another day at the beach

Saturday the power went out across the mountain. Every chairlift stopped. My son and husband and I stood third in line for the Northwest Express chair when it stopped; we stood there, fidgeting, as more and more and more people joined us in line. It was lovely at the base of that chair: sunny, warm, calm. Mt. Bachelor had constructed a little beer garden down there, where people sprawled on chairs and ate hamburgers. Mmm, hamburgers. Time passed. A couple people complained, and a couple people sighed classic Mt. Bachelor!, and a couple people went to buy beers. Everyone struck up conversations. The guy in line behind us said that he's always wanted to be evacuated from a chairlift; he said he deliberately skis down to the chairlifts with a reputation for getting stuck. (I couldn't tell if he was serious.) After awhile we detached ourselves from our respective planks and walked around. Ho hum. Some Mt. Bachelor employees gave us updates, but no good news. Suddenly a good-natured snowball fight broke out, everyone laughing and hucking snow into the crowd and then ducking. Blake, inspired, pelted me and his dad. And then they told us: this lift's not going to run again today.

NW Express is the lowest chair on the back side of the mountain. Once you've skied down to it, there's nowhere else to go. Either you take a chairlift back up or you hike back up.

So, so. Me and over a hundred other people, we took off our coats and rolled up our sleeves — it was warm, I tell you — and we hiked to Outback, the nearest chair that had power. A couple people complained. Other people seemed to consider it an adventure, or part of the deal, or something, and stopped strangers to say, "Take my picture!" The hike took 20 minutes or so. Upon arrival at Outback Mt. Bachelor employees gave me a free day pass, saying, "Thanks for your patience!" I stood there squinting in the sun, sweating, proud that I'd barely lost my breath. After a few minutes I found my husband and son, who had gotten a ride on a snowmobile.*

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On the ride up Outback our seatmate commented, "That was still better than my best day in the Army!" People often say things like that. When it's extremely cold or stormy or raining or too warm, so that the snow grabs your board as you fling on ahead, people always say something like, "At least I'm not at work!" or "At least I'm not stuck in traffic!" I'd rather be here than anywhere else, even on the worst days... People used to freely criticize the mountain's operations, though — to rant about it, even. In my totally unscientific analysis, that seems to be changing.

* Before you get indignant over my husband's getting a ride: the snowmobile has a tow rope, and I didn't think that I could successfully manage that on a snowboard, which has a sideways stance. It was easier for me to hike & stick him with the kid.