Board The Earth

Life’s Good When…Your adventurous thrill seeking behavior delivers situations that are often best described as “Gnarly.” For most the idea of swinging fiercely from a chairlift with steady 60+ mph winds is insane much less desirable. Nevertheless, we’re out there searching for and savoring these experiences.

Pulling into the parking lot of Mt. Bachelor earlier this morning, instead of being the first one on the chairlift I found myself contemplating with others, “to board or not to board?” With one chair open, 60+ mph steady winds, and whiteout conditions, my concern was not about the conditions. Rather, how long before every lift closes to high winds and I’m left without a refund!

The choice was simple and a half an hour later I was riding to the top. After a couple runs of gusting winds, white outs, and unpredictable terrain I found myself on the lift next to a stranger. Glancing over at my fellow thrill seeker, I saw a significantly elder man with a frozen solid mustache and a smile. Inching our way closer to departure the chair seemed to rapidly increase momentum sideways as the chair climbed. As the end of the line rose over the horizon we stopped, waiting. Stopping meant one thing in such a scenario, heavy wind gusts. The chair bobbed, dipped, dived and swung violently as we clinched to the chair like magnets. Yelling, “YEEWW” and thinking, “this is awesome” (hooting and hollering seemed appropriate) letting my chairlift companion know that I was psyched about our intense ride. Surprisingly my reaction was followed up with an enthusiastic response, “ what an experience!”

We parted ways as our chair crept past the ice landing (being one of the last chairs up before shutting down.) As I strapped in, turned my music up, got my bearings two things registered: thrill seeking is important, and Life’s Good When… You Experience!

Stephen Conway