Kids these days

One of the wonderful things about skiing Solitude Mountain Resort, is that you can head up late on a Saturday morning and still never wait in a lift line and even find patches of good snow.

However, the lack of crowds means that you bump into the same folks all day long. Generally, this is a very good thing -- it leaves you feeling that you are part of the mountain community -- but sometimes, it is frustrating, like this past Saturday, for instance, when I found myself envious of 11-year-olds.

These little punks had it all... skis I would love to be on (in a longer size), other brand-spanking new gear, iPods galore, etc, as well as the attitudes to go with everything else. (Note: attitude is generally not permitted at Solitude; it is either thrown back on the UTA bus to head toward the next stop -- Brighton -- or, is directed toward the other canyon.) And of course the capper is that they are skiing in Utah. S-P-O-I-L-E-D!

Envy is a bad thing, but particularly when directed to a group of thigh-highs. Will these kids truly appreciate the sport and the mountain with everything given to them? Sure, I have decent gear, a season pass, an iPod; but to earn each of those items I had to scheme, break the bank, or (essentially) sell my soul, not to mention move three-quarters of the way across the nation to ski here, because that is what skiing is worth. And these kids will never know it.