Photo & Words by Ryan Salm
Location – Squaw Valley
Skier – Judd Burke, Model – Lauren Bobowski
Late Spring Snow vs Good Lovin’!
You ever get that feeling when you wake up on a potential pow day morning and you just can’t make up your mind? You want to get out there and get rad with your buddies. It could be the last foot of fresh powder for the season (yeah right, it’s Memorial Day and it is still dumping every other day). When your alarm goes off you look to the other side of the bed and low and behold, a beautiful woman is lying there. She has that cute just woke up look that ladies have in the morning. Maybe she’s wearing a little nighty and all of a sudden you wonder if skiing is really that cool.
I feel like that’s been happening to me a lot lately. Do I strap on the sticks and go sliding OR listen to those inner feelings and make some love? That is the question. It’s a toss up at times. If you are the total stallion you can probably take the love making vibe including foreplay to about an hour max before you break down, finish up and be a real man and cuddle for 5-10 minutes. But skiing, that can last a few hours. You wake up, look at that cute, cuddly, angelic lady and quietly slide out of the covers, tip toe to the door, walk down the stairs, make an egg, drink some tea and head out to the hill. At times the buzz begins before you even turn into the Valley. The thought may cross your mind, “Should I have tried to do my business before I left?” If you completed the task there is no way you would be inside the corral when KT opened (unless, of course your girl is a morning person). You may have blown off some steam in the bedroom, but you definitely would have blown your chances for the true face shot!
So this has been my dilemma for the “Spring” season at Squaw. On Sunday, I was genuinely bewildered. I wanted the sun. I wanted the beach, I wanted to go climbing for god’s sake! But, a foot or so of fresh was what we got and although I had put my skis away it was the last day at Squaw and a pow day to boot.
I was about to get out of bed and there she was. So delicate, so pulchritudinous, such a fox. I was half way into the wooing process when something hit me like the tractor beam from the Millennium Falcon. “I gotta go skiing!” I left her there, in all her glory. I kinda felt like a dick, like a schmuck, like a total dumb ass. But, I made my choice, I chose the pow.
I raced to Squaw, put on my boots, walked through the Village and saw the lines. My buzz began to disintegrate. I was alone and was starting to second guess my decision. The KT line made me want to go to Headwall. At Headwall, I ran into Judd Burke and Pete Blanchard. We lapped C2 and Light Towers, cracked jokes and made a few perfect powder 8’s. Judd dropped Adrenaline Chute which appeared to the best line I saw skied with its rocks and shrubbery clogging the choke. Then like the finale of morning wood, I got soft. I just wanted to go home. I packed up and drove home. I saw my girl, gave her a kiss, tried to be all snugly but she was onto me. “You made your choice”, she said. I was left to spend the day with my memories of Sun Bowl.
Some say skiing is at times as good as sex. Here are some of my best Squaw ski shots of 2011:
http://ryansalmphotography.photoshelter.com/gallery/Best-of-Squaw-2011/G0000yoBF1J8qyPU/
You make the call.
The Line of the Week is a weekly photo piece by Ryan Salm featuring some of Tahoe’s finest athletes doing whatever we deem rad. We will be using the term “Line” loosely to describe anything resembling chutes, big airs, pointers or any general madness. All images are the property and copyright of Ryan Salm Photography.
