Took McKinley skiing this past week to Deer Valley. Not that it was anything out of the ordinary but then again, it was. After an early morning ski tour on Mt. Aire with friends I came home, got a couple things off my plate and went and pulled McKinley out of school to ski the rest of the day at Deer Valley.
After years of begging, my parents plunked down for some used gear and a night lesson at Sundance that my dad took me to. I remember that night like it was yesterday. That night a fire was lit inside me. All I wanted to do from that night forth was to ski.
As my passion for skiing grew he was always there to push me along and support me. We’ve only skied a couple times together and as a kid taking me out of school to ski was something I always wished he could have done, but he didn’t ski so much and we weren’t nearly as fortunate when I was growing up. Either way, taking McKinley to Deer Valley today felt like coming full circle.
Aside from falling in love with the place, Deer Valley had little jumps everywhere that McKinley honed in on like a heat seeking missle. I snapped a photo of him in action:
It’s so very cool to see my son develop a love for skiing. And it’s even cooler to see him making parallel turns down steeper slopes and keeping up with me as I ski my own pace. This year has been his year indeed and ripping up Deer Valley from one end to the other was a great way to showcase his skill.
Finding ourselves on the Empire lift at closing time (3pm), being the end of the season and since we have season passes at Park City we broke the rules and ducked over to PCMR to finish out the day skiing more tree stashes of powder (Deer Valley was also a gold mine for untracked powder in the trees). The first thing after doing so McKinley said “Dad, Snowboarders!!”. The joy of being a skier at Deer Valley.
After a few runs at PCMR on McConkey’s, Pioneer and a home run down his favorite black at PCMR we took a ride on the mountain roller coaster. I HIGHLY recommend this ride – it’s a bit pricey but what a blast we had riding it together.
McKinley’s reaction after the roller coaster ride
As we rode the town bus from PCMR back to Deer Valley I struck up a conversation with the young man sitting in front of us. He asked if we were here on vacation to which I replied that we lived local. He asked if McKinley was out of school today to which I replied that I had pulled him from school to get one last powder day while the lifts were running.
He turned to McKinley and said, “You’re one lucky kid. Your dad is one cool dad.” If you say so…
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