The Education of a Ski Instructor, Part Three

There were other gurus at Keystone that winter besides the comely E.

A ski shop employee, a lifer prone to heartfelt clichés, told me, “Skiing is a dance, and the mountain always leads.” At the time, the metaphor was new (to me anyway), and I thought it was brilliant.

A ski-school friend, another apprentice, liked to punctuate conversation with a staccato laugh and the phrase, “Are you skidding me?”

The Education of a Ski Instructor, Part Two

She was the queen of the ski school. Already Stage 1 certified. Married to the supervisor. But more to the point to my apprentice-instructor’s eye, elegant.

Elegant the way she filled out her over-the-boot stretch pants. Elegant the way she arrived at lineup in the morning, rocking with that heel-and-toe motion of walking in ski boots.