The other day, a young friend of the family was skiing along, minding her own business when WHAM! This reckless snowboarder smacked right into her causing her to wreck completely.
Then, instead of apologizing profusely and helping her find her skis and poles, he somersaulted away and flew off down the mountain. Stupid snowboarder you’re one of the few giving snowboarders in general a bad name. It only takes one unpleasant experience to inspire vacationers to warn each other, “watch out for the evil snowboarders.” My own grandparents are reluctant and fearful to ski around snowboarders and have generally joined the “flee to Deer Valley!” movement.
But it’s not just the snowboarders who scare visitors. In fact my own sweet-natured mother got yelled at for skiing recklessly that same day. She was just cruising along, carving past the SLOW sign, passing by the slower skiers and riders at the end of the day. When she stopped at the bottom to wait for her friends, she was shocked at a woman who angrily approached her and vehemently lectured her about skiing responsibly.
Apparently my mother had cut off the woman’s daughter and scared her to death. She had no idea that she had caused such a crisis. She apologized sincerely and skied somewhat timidly for the rest of the day.
Local often become frustrated with the tourists who often become frustrated with the locals. It makes me want to ask, why can’t we all just get along?
Standing in line for the Thaynes lift, I overheard to men laughing and complaining about the people ahead of them who were having trouble getting on and off the chair. “If you can’t ride the chair,” they declared, “then you shouldn’t be skiing this part of the mountain! Hahaha “
However, the woman behind them then pointed out that “If you can’t handle the tourists, you shouldn’t ski during Christmas vacation.”
Despite popular doubts, it is possible for all different levels of skiers and boarders to get along on the same mountain. We all just need to keep an open mind and consider each other’s situations.
Visitors need to calm down and realize that some locals like to speed down the mountain, but that doesn’t mean they are trying to terrorize anyone. Having said that, locals need to ski responsibly, bearing in mind that our visitors might not be expert skiers and boarders, and they don’t necessarily know their way around the mountain. Give them a break they just want to enjoy for one week the great recreation that we enjoy all season.
In fact, local / visitor interaction can be lots of fun. For instance, my sister worked on her language skills with the man next to us on the lift and learned how to say “Merry Christmas” in Mandarin Chinese.
A rewarding interaction with people from other places for me was learning about cities where I am considering going to college. The local view on the town can provide much more insight than the college websites.
Not only can we all get along, we can also learn from each other and benefit from interesting experiences with different cultures.