New Friends

The best part of the trip is all the fun interesting people I have met. You meet people non-stop throughout the day -at the bar, on the chairlift, in line, in class, and when dining.

Every meal I get to sit at a table with new people who are also staying at the St. Bernard and participating in the ski camp as well. These people became like my family for the week. At breakfast we would talk about our goals for the day, at lunch we talk about how awesome our lessons were and what we were going to kick-down on the hill after eating. Then at dinner we would talk of world events, what people did in 'real life' (the St. B is your fantasy ski land).

I met Tina a yoga and writer, her husband Andy-the writer behind the "Dummies" self-help series, and her 91 year old mother Maria who was a hoot. I also met Artie, an 18+ year policemen from New York (complete with accent) who was also a first year visitor. We bonded over our love of skiing at Crested Butte and the pizza joint, The Secret Stash and eating elk at the Wooden Nickle. I also met Jim Walker a houston publishing tycoon who had many interesting tales to tell of life in the city. Another Jim I met was from Seattle and he was a retired electromagnetics engineer but liked to do photography. I also met another retired couple named Peter Frank and his wife who are New Mexico locals, just the sweetest people. I also met another retired engineer/mathmeticial Isabelle and her husband who were from Washington DC.

One of the most interesting people I met was a woman who was an ex-flight attendent turned fashionista named Toni. She came for 2 weeks every year and always stayed at the St. B. She had been coming for 18 years! Everyone on the hill seemed to know of Toni (although not always in the best way). On night at dinner she was telling me about a vintage ski jacket she had just got that was made by a famous woman skier in the 1940-50s. We went back to her A-frame and theentire room was filled with clothes, I felt like I had walked into an upscale California ski boutique. Toni had clothes and ski accessories everywhere! She had at least 15 different jackets, one for each day she was there. There was also matching pants, gloves, hats, gators, goggles for each one all laid out. She also had $300 long underwear, it was crazy! Then there were all her different outfits for breakfast and dinner. I have never seen anything like it in my life. I asked her how she got it all out there. Apparently she had 4 large bags/trunks they let her on the plane with. She was the true fashionista if ever I met one. (And I thought I liked shoes, but it was nothing compared to her love of clothes!) The thing about Toni, however is that fashion seemed to be her one positive median for attention. Her other median for attention was her ailments which were always wrecking havoc on her. Many people seem to humor her or just deal with her, I found her fun in small doses. She seems like she needed some friends.

The hotel/mountain staff was full of cool people as well. I met a tall blonde skier named Lief who was originally from houston. His family is 100% norwigen and he used to go to the Norweigen Seaman's church in Pasadena, the same place I go every year for their Scandinavian Christmas Bizzare. I also got to meet a number of Jean Mayer's children who worked there. (Jean Mayer I was told by the ski week regulars, was once quite the playboy and there have been numerous "Mrs" Mayers and several heirs to the St. Bernard) I also got to know the kids in the Taos ski and boot store where I was demoing all my skis from.

Then there are the people you meet in class. I became pretty good friends with Dev, she and I had a fun afternoon of skiing together on Friday. She was practicing her giant slalom moves for a race she had in a week, so we did high speed mountain cruisers together and practiced really leaning over on our turns.

I did have one accidental meeting, Bruce. He was a guy I thought was the original Bruce (the kiwi I met the first night) that I told to hold a seat while I changed out of my boots. I got back to the bar and saw Jim Walker about to sit my seat next to Bruce so I thought I would introduce the two. It went something like this, "Jim, this is Bruce, he is one of the original Kiwi bugie jumpers", then Bruce goes, "Actually, My name is Bruce, but I'm not from New Zealand. . . . ." Yup, I had just introduced Jim to a completely random person who looked like Bruce and actually had the same name. This Bruce I had never met and just yelled at him to hold me a bar seat. He said his friends and him had said hi to me from the chairlift when I was going out earlier in the afternoon, so technically we weren't perfect strangers. I didn't remember this too much since I kinda get calls from the chairlift all the time, but vaguely. I guess we were meant to meet at some point! Anyway, the three of us had a fun conversation without missing a beat after that about our world travels till it was time for dinner. I love how random things end up so well!

Overall I had such a great time meeting such cool people everywhere I went. Being this social reminds me of college!