Greetings from beautiful Big Sky. It has been a few years since I’ve written a newsletter. I’ve kept in touch with some folks through e-mail. I hope you are doing well and enjoying the life God has given each of us. As we go through life’s joys and sorrows it is good to remember God loves us.
| Lori and I still live in the same condo in Big Sky. Our neighbors gave us a dog about 2 years ago. They named her Squirt and the name stuck. We think she is the cutest thing, but I’m sure that’s what everyone thinks about their pets. |
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| This winter I am
getting back to full time ski teaching. For the last two winters I taught full time, but
much of my attention and time was directed toward painting. This year no painting during
the winter season (except maybe a bathroom here and a drywall repair there). The last two
years we were working on completing the interiors of new custom homes. I am looking
forward to being more single minded in my work this winter. Lori will be working in the
Mountain Village this winter, so we can drive to work together most days.
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| Big Sky had the honor of being the first resort in the Rockies to open this year. We must thank the Lord for the early snow which let the management decide to open on October 16 & 17, and weekends after that. | |
| Last winter (1999 - 2000) I passed my PSIA Level 3 certification exam. That’s the highest level of certification for American ski instructors. Now with renewed confidence I look forward to skiing with many of you again. One factor that I believe helped with my success at the level 3 exam was skiing at a few other ski areas. I visited Red mountain in Canada, Snowbowl in Missoula, and Discovery Basin near Anaconda. Discovery Basin is an easy day trip from Big Sky, and I’d love to accompany any of you there for lots of black diamond skiing. Red Mountain offered the best tree skiing I could imagine including intermediate and advanced tree runs. The cruisers are long and wide, and there is lots of variety to keep an intermediate or advanced skier busy for days. |
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| This summer I took up road biking. I loved it. I thought I rode quite a bit when I reached 900 miles until I met a gentleman in one of my ski lessons who is 69 years old and was only 135 miles short of 5000 miles this year. Next summer I’d like to shoot for 2000 miles. I think I finally found a sport I enjoy as much as skiing. | |
I also started running when a friend asked me to run one leg of a marathon relay. The relay is four legs of 6.5 miles. I thought I could do that even on the short notice of two weeks. One week before the race we could not get the rest of the team together so my friend and I decided to run the half marathon. I was not about to let a week of running go to waste. I finished the 13.1 miles in about 2:15. It was fun, and I want to do it again next year at under 2 hours. I am actually considering running a whole marathon sometime. My orthopedist, Dr. Campbell, says if I want to run a marathon I’d better do it soon as my knees are getting arthritic. I think I’ll stick to the half marathon. The knees don’t hurt all the time yet, but for the long term he says biking is better than running. |
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I’d love to hear from you all. I hope you are doing well and enjoying the life God has given each of us. |
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