You Were Here

Something that has immediately stood out to me about backcountry skiing is the way that a slope, with just a line of S curves cutting through it can stir the soul. I am new to the backcountry scene. And so my opportunity to cut those turns has been limited, both by experience and ability. But with time that will of course all change. But even in the few tours I have done I have at least felt that sense of accomplishment that comes from looking back up at a hillside, admiring the turns and saying ‘I did that. I was here today’.

Nobody can undo those first tracks.

And I am not certain that that particular evidence exists in any other sport. In mountain biking you follow a trail that people have moved over in every direction, every day, for years. And even when you do cross a primitive or little used section of singletrack, all that is left is the trail. Unchanged. As if you never were there at all.

But those turns cascading down an otherwise untouched snowy slope are absolute proof that ‘you were here’.

And I find that extremely appealing.