"Wave to the truant officer"
Skiing and snowboarding at Crystal Mountain in March is a rite of spring in the Northwest. AS students, we cringed under the lion’s roar at this time of year, longest segment of the academic calendar without some kind of holiday. But as adults, these glorious 31 days of early spring produce the most and finest snow of the season. If ever there was a month ripe for playing hooky, it’s March. I’m just sayin’.
As a former educator, I simply can’t condone taking the kids out of school; you wouldn’t want to mess up their concentration. Perhaps I’m a little myopic due to the daily powder reports, but I believe the responsibility of skipping “class” should really rest on our shoulders and our shoulders alone. It’s simply the responsible thing to do.
The calls from Green Valley’s hallways proved too loud for me by the end of last week, so I scheduled my morning sitter for the kids, found a couple of culprits and dashed over to the mountain. Free of all responsibilities, we set off immediately for Northway, dropping into Snorting Elk Bowl for a warm up before pushing out Paradise Bowl and a couple of luscious runs through Penny Dawgs. At play in Northway, no one felt a hint of guilt within the deep snow fields that buried boards and skis to the knees and remained soft enough to cushion a couple of (karmic?) yard sales.
Cutting class
Digging snow out from our helmet air vents, we all agreed that we’d worked hard enough for a Summit House lunch. Satiated and with hours to go, I can state with authority that a day of hooky at Crystal sure beats the hell out of smoking behind the gas station.
Start forging that doctor’s note now. Fortunately, we’re in for a long, long month.
Follow travel writer Crai S Bower on Twitter: www.twitter.com/craisbower
