Comp - Perspective

Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today. ~James Dean

Today I found perspective. It took 40 wheels, and thousands of tons wrapped in metal but today I found perspective. It started out like any other weekend, car full of gear, cruising down the highway, maps in hand, lines in head and another selfish day of powder gluttony about to begin. Then it happend… eighteen wheels, fifty-six thousand pounds of beef and machine with a few hundred pounds of human at the controls, suddenly became powerless against a thin layer of ice. Wham! We were in the middle of a grown up Bumper Car game and we were losing. Unwilling participants pushed in front of another eighteen wheels and left to fate. Five seconds later we came to rest in the middle of carnage and adrenaline. I took a deep breath. It felt like I had just caught an edge in the middle of a tight stand of giant cedars, but I was alright… everyone was alright.

We all question what we do and if you don't, the public sure does. If you spend enough time in the mountains, they will take someone close to you. This reality has become all too clear this past year and I found myself asking if these would be my last tracks. A trail to the unknown.

I can't give this up. The moments we experience are unlike any others. The sparkle in the snow, the spindrift on the ridge, the cold smoke stinging your face, floating down a mountainside. Why do we do this? Is the risk really worth the reward?

But today I found perspective.

Life is not lost by dying; life is lost minute by minute, day by dragging day, in all the thousand small uncaring ways.  ~Stephen Vincent Benét

The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.  ~Henry Miller

Over 150,000 people died today

40,000 kids died of hunger

Over 30,000 died in Lybia's six month war

And I just about died in a car crash.

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count.  It's the life in your years.  ~Abraham Lincoln

For most of us, we've been given an amazing opportunity to fill these years with life. We're not at war, we're not hungry, we're not disabled. Being thrown into a metal avalanche is a raw reality check and an opportunity to put everything into perspective. Don't take that next day in the backcountry for granted.

Appreciate the uptrack

the sunset,

the moonrise,

the powder,

the scenery,

Don't hide out in our child safe, bubble wrapped society. Our giant back yard is waiting for us to experience the euphoria, excitement and exhileration that comes with a day out backcountry skiing. Don't live in fear of dying, get out there experience life while you're still living!