Guest Blog
by Paul Hooge

When I was 14, some 48 years ago, I stood in the basement of my parent’s house in Columbus, Ohio gazing alternately at the window well to freedom and the backpack on the floor in front of me. My plan was simple: exit the window, ride my bike to the rail-yard some 10 miles away and then hob it all the way to Colorado where I would ski endlessly into waste-deep powder and brilliant sunsets. Supporting this “dream” lifestyle was no problem since I had saved everything from my paper route and lawn mowing for a year. Keep in mind the cost of living in Aspen was considerably less in 1958. My obligations were all taken care of; I had released my two pet snakes and a box turtle to the wild. My paper route was given to a friend down the block and at that moment I didn’t care if all the grass in the world simply went un-mowed.

Above me, my parent’s dusty old ski boots from the mid 1940’s stared down from a shelf. Dad’s boots ordered me back to my homework and adult-like responsibilities; however, mom’s boots wished to go along to be a part of my great adventure.

This story is true, although the conversations with my parent’s boots occurred only in my mind and it was thirty-two years later that Kathy (my wife) and I purchased a condo in Silverthorne, Colorado. Later we built a small lodge in Crested Butte, Colorado. Prior to moving, my wife owned a business and I was the Director of a small Archaeological Institute in Licking County, Ohio. Our Ohio friends were aghast that we would just liquidate everything and move to the great American “middle of no-where in the Rocky Mountains”. They obviously did not understand, as they were more concerned about the locations of the nearest hospital or the future need of quality care facilities for those golden years.

Kathy and I shared a different dream for the future and one day after the kids had both graduated from high school, we looked at each other and said “why not?”
So here we are, with absolutely no regrets, well over 50, and skiing the extremes with lots of other over –the-hill like-minded crazy people. This blog is about our life here in the mountains, it is about skiing as lifestyle, it’s about the dreams of a now older kid who finally escaped to the mountains.

Paul Hooge