Powder Days - a book report (I read it so you don’t have to)

[Rednaked]

Powder Days by Heather Hansman

It has been a long time since I was this excited to read a book. The cover, the excerpts, and the buzz on Twitter lured me to its pages as the cicadas lure trout to the surface of the Green River in June. It starts fast and easy with funny anecdotes about interesting people and places. Just as I took the bait and was on the hook, Heather starts to pepper in her woke narrative that is as cliche as it is boring. The book also suffers from a few editorial misses, errors that would of be easily overlooked, if not for the shrewishness of the author, who also happens to have a background as a big-time editor (https://www.heatherhansman.com/).


The first hint for what lies in store is around page 17 when she is explains that “Even calling yourself a bum [ski bum] signals a level of privilege…”. Not even two pages later she makes the grandiose claim that she is “trying to figure out if skiing as we know it will survive.” Perhaps she is alluding to some institution she identifies as “skiing” as she wishes it universally was, instead of the recreational pursuit of sliding down snow-covered hills on skis that it actually is and always has been.


In the chapter titled “Skier Trash”, the author glosses over Bob Lilly and his Skier Trash brand based in West Virginia (a better, more interesting, and less nagging article on Bob, and his not so exclusive existence, is available in the February 2016 issue of Powder Magazine), and instead badgers the reader by pointing out that “Skiing is exclusive on so many levels.” She then goes on to harangue the reader that “at any given ski hill, the snow is very white and so are the people.” And that “Skiing is broken because of that narrowness,”. Wow. How does one follow up such a race baiting chapter as that? I’m glad you asked, in this case the author decides to press her bet with a chapter titled “As White As Snow”. Her insights are so vapid and unoriginal that you’ll save yourself a few IQ points by just skipping the chapter entirely, but for the fact that she does touch on the National Brotherhood of Skiers. This is an amazing club that I had the honor of skiing with at Winter Park in 2014. The NBS has done such great work at introducing the joy of skiing to Black America, that it deserves way more than the eight paragraphs she scribbles to fill her ‘y’all are racists’, narrative.


Once you internalize your systemically racist ways of enjoying skiing at the expense of African Americans, she then lets you know that you are also a participant in the exploitation of “undocumented immigrants“ who are “mainly Mexican” and are relegated to work in the ‘Back of the House’. On page 108 she mentions The Doug Coombs Foundation in passing, not nearly devoting the text that this organization, and Doug’s wife, Emily, deserve for actually putting in the time, effort, and dedication to actually address accessibility to children of low-income families. When you finally accept the inherent racism that is apparently rampant in ski towns, the author then remonstrates that these cess pools of racism are also hotbeds of sexism. “Gender is another fault line in skiing. It signals who is welcome and who stays.” As if. It is commonly understood that females are generally outnumbered in ski towns, for a number of reasons, including self-selection, but if we’re being honest, that fact INCREASES the popularity of the ladies. Especially women who can rip. The fact of the matter is, most of the ‘Top-Ranked’ ski towns (according to the Authors' SKI Magazine), and especially the ones that the author focuses on, Aspen [Pitkin County - Hillary 69.7% vs Trump 24.3%], Jackson Hole [Teton County – Hillary 60.1% vs Trump 32.2%], Beaver Creek (Eagle County – Hillary 56.0% vs Trump 36.1%], are WAY more progressive than the rest of the country and are often the most progressive parts of the states where they are incorporated. Summit County Utah, where Park City and Deer Valley are located, voted for Hillary [50.9%] over Trump [35.6%] in 2016, and even voted for the Progressive Transsexual Senate candidate, Misty Snow [47.6%], over incumbent Senator, Mike Lee [46.6%]. If these towns are hotbeds of racism, sexism, and homo-transphobia, there is simply no hope for this country. What Ms. Hansman doesn’t seem to understand, perhaps due to willful blindness, or perhaps being stuck in her social echo chamber, is that it isn’t necessarily race that is the issue, but class. The elite with homes in Aspen (Gustavo Cisneros), Jackson Hole (Kanye West), Park City (Michael Jordan), or Telluride (Oprah Winfrey), are quite comfortable with and welcoming other elites of any color. It’s the coal miner’s son from Appalachia, or the Seamstress’ daughter from East LA that are the true outcasts in these oases of privilege.


The 5th Section on “Ski town Economics” is interesting and a good start. This section could easily be developed into an in-depth look at a critical issue. But as in other aspects of the book, she goes off the rails espousing drivel instead of suggesting solutions, or covering the individual’s out there trying to solve these problems. She tells us that “it wasn’t supposed to be like this. The ski bums we’re supposed to thrive and beat the system. Skiing was supposed to make things better.” What is she even talking about?


I totally agree with the author in her chapter “So brave young and handsome” when she writes “They died doing what they loved,” in describing avalanche deaths “is my least favorite mountain adage, but it’s a frustratingly common refrain every time someone is buried in an avalanche…” but then, not even 5 lines later, in the same fucking paragraph, she writes that her friend “Andre had, unquestionably, died doing what he loved.” W.T.A.F? He may have loved life just prior to his untimely demise, but did he really love sliding down a ripped-out slope, tumbling through tree branches and rocks, fighting to breath as he succumbed to the trauma? No, of course not, and that is why that cliche is so fucking stupid, insensitive, and generally unsatisfying, even if it is frustratingly common.


In “Champagne Problems” the author explains that “Aspen has all of the problems of any big city…” what would those be? Smash and grab robberies? Homeless encampments on the streets? Shit on the sidewalks? Used Hypodermic needles littering the ground? No, the big city problems she highlights are "unaffordability, inequality, systemic racism”. What a joke. I’m shocked, shocked that Beaver Creek (where she first decided to ‘skid’) and Aspen have issues of unaffordability and inequality. As if these two of the ritziest zip codes in the country are the epitome of all ski towns. That’s like castigating the Pogues of the Outer Banks that they are privileged beach town folks, because they are basically the same as the Kooks that reside on the coast in Martha’s Vineyard or Palm Beach. Has this former editor of SKI Magazine never heard of Driggs and Grand Targhee? Brundage and McCall? Eden and Pow Mow? Or hell, even Fresno and China Peak (aka Sierra Summit, where I bummed for 2 seasons in the ‘90s)? Nah, she just chooses to go to the most exclusive and expensive ski resorts in the Country and then extrapolates the experience to all ski towns. And her solution? She quotes Melanie Rees who says that “We need zoning policy and density.” Yeah, just what I want to see when I go to some of these most naturally beautiful places on the planet, high density crappy architecture that may appeal to Urban Millennial Hipsters from Brooklyn, or the peasants in Guangzhou, but not for many people looking to slow it down and experience the natural beauty of the mountains.



I guess what has rubbed me wrong, and the reason I have taken the time to write this review, is that I don’t like being baited into a romantic notion of the “ski bum” chronicle, only to be switched to a rotting smörgåsbord of political talking points that also, as I mentioned above, include a number of minor errors. I likely would have overlooked these errors that somehow were obviously overlooked by the author’s editors, but after being lectured to about the errors of my evil ways, I feel the need to point out at least two. For example, on page 180 Ms. Hansman, while discussing the potential effects of climate change, writes “somewhere like Mammoth Mountain, which sits at 9,000 feet and has a stacked fleet of snow guns, will be busier, while lower-elevation and lower-dollar operations— say, Ski Santa Fe — won’t fare as well.” Who wants to tell her? The base of the mountain at Ski Santa Fe is 10,350 feet. I know math is hard (and it is no longer a requirement to pass High School in Oregon), but since when is 10,350 “lower-elevation” than 9,000? Further along on page 219 she writes “The miners who first moved into Little Cottonwood called the narrow pinch of the canyon just before the base of what is now Alta Hellgate.” Now, I’m not an English professor, nor an editor for a prestigious SKI magazine, and I didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn last night, but that does not seem grammatically correct. Methinks she coulda used a comma or two to accurately describe the Hellgate mine, but I’m not one to nitpick so we’ll just leave it at that. Now I’m going to sign off, fire up the VCR, pop in my VHS copy of Aspen Extreme, grab a beer and a gummy, and chill into the nostalgia of Sierra Summit circa 1992.

[John_B]

Sweet blog dude.

[TBS]

Especially when there's already a thread discussing this book. OP is a few weeks late to the party
https://www.tetongravity.com/forums/...on-Dirtbagging

OP -
1. Delete this thread
2. (optional) Copy your navel gazing above to the linked thread.

TIA

[Rednaked]

OP -
1. Delete this thread
2. (optional) Copy your navel gazing above to the linked thread.

TIA

Thanks brah, but I think I will disregard your advice instead.

I read, and re-read the thread you mentioned before I decided to post, but it didn’t really add to the conversation. If we’re being honest, that thread went off the rails pretty much when you piped in on it. No offense, but we both know it’s true.

Happy to hear your thoughts on the book though!


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[I Skied Bandini Mountain]

Identify woke. Hate woke. Tell everyone about it on the internet.

[skifishbum]

cicadia bump

[Core Shot]

OP. Thx for the post. And book “review”

I wasn’t planning on reading it. But your review saved me the pain.

Yeah yeah. Skiing is white. But every BBS skier and every melanin challenged skier I ever met have been the nicest best souls on this planet.

I can’t imagine having to read that shit.
Let’s ski
And love each other

[Rednaked]

cicadia bump

Looks tasty! Thought you’d might like the ref


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[Rednaked]

OP. Thx for the post. And book “review”

Let’s ski
And love each other

^ this!

Parts of it were really good. Coulda been so much betta. So many people getting after it. So many people making huge strides and making this world a better place. Letz focus on them!



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[MakersTeleMark]

Letz focus on them!

We are correctly focusing on what a complete JONG you are.

[Rednaked]

We are correctly focusing on what a complete JONG you are.

Yeah, “JONG”, clever MTM, lol. May not have been cunting up threads as long as you have, buuut I’ve been around, may even have an alter ego, douche. Now bend the knee to your Master.


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[skifishbum]

Looks tasty! Thought you’d might like the ref


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been a fishy ski bum for a few decades
dont need or wants to read about it
"This is what we do"

[whipski]

my brother tended bar at Bridger for years. a ski bum some here may know lived in a squatters cabin a couple miles south with his girlfriend. he would mtn bike to the resort with his ski boots on. Warren Miller was heading up for filming and they shot some footage out the window. they waited and asked him to go back down the road and bike up to get a better clip. response: "Nah! I'll miss first chair"

and (I read it so you don’t have to)

[Flounder]

Sounds like Heather needs to slap a trigger warning sticker on the book cover.

[Rednaked]

Sounds like Heather needs to slap a trigger warning sticker on the book cover.

Not gunna lie…I tend to slap the trigger




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[Hacksaw]

OP. Thx for the post. And book “review”

I wasn’t planning on reading it. But your review saved me the pain.

Thanks.

[Coño Frío]

Well lookee what Santa put under the tree!
Cracking it tonight.


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[Coño Frío]

Finished it. Gotta say, OP is not wrong.


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[raisingarizona13]

The woke shit is really starting to wear me out these days.

[I Skied Bandini Mountain]

The woke shit is really starting to wear me out these days.

Quick! Watch some fox news and you can be outraged about even more shit that doesn't matter.

[Jong Lafitte]

The woke shit is really starting to wear me out these days.

You keep saying that word, I'm not sure that you know what it means.

[raisingarizona13]

Quick! Watch some fox news and you can be outraged about even more shit that doesn't matter.

Haha! They definitely love to feed that hate to the extreme right folk, no doubt but I don't need to watch that crap to get irritated by it. I work around a lot of super woke youths and the organization I work with is constantly being influenced by the woke-ness. I don't care to go into details about it but I assure you, it's a major pain in the ass at my work.

[raisingarizona13]

You keep saying that word, I'm not sure that you know what it means.

Sure thing, and if I disagree with you I'm sure I'll be called a racist by our extreme liberal "woke" movement.

[Core Shot]

The woke shit is really starting to wear me out these days.

Even the woke people are woked the fuck out.

It’s exhausting

[senior researcher]

Listen to : The Butthole Surfers Locust Abortion Technician, instead of reading this book?