YODEL LIKE CHRISTMAS Now a few years past his ski-bum days, Colin Clan-cy rides the wire at his home mountain, Brighton, UT. Photo: Colin Clancy Family archive Cover art: Colin Clancy After a while Aurelia showed up, then Bill, then Ryan and Kylie and a few lifties. Pretty soon over a dozen people, mostly employees but a few tourists, drank hot chocolate and Baileys and sang Christmas carols. Someone brought sugar cookies. More people showed. Muppet tended bar, and he kept giving out shots and always pouring one for himself until he was by far the drunkest person there. Someone put a Santa hat on his head and he poured drinks while singing, Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer at the top of his lungs and telling girls to, “come sit on Santa’s lap.” “This is what it’s all about,” Bill said. “It’s about having a grand old time,” I said. “Damn straight. It’s about having the greatest and grandest old time we can have on this planet while we’re here, you know,” he said, putting an arm around me. “And live it up now, brother, be-cause it’s on to the next adventure after this one—South America for me, and hopefully for you too.” It did sound good. Finishing one ski season just to fly south for another, but I didn’t want to think about this one ending at all. Not yet. It had just started. “Why not just live in the moment, man?” I asked. “Why do we need to think about what’s next when we’re in the middle of something right now?” “Amen,” he said. I’d been wearing my ski boots all day and after several drinks took them off, feeling good and free walking around the bar in ski socks. Kylie and I sat on bar stools looking out at the restaurant, at Ryan hitting on a middle-aged tourist woman whose husband didn’t seem to mind and at Aurelia singing Christmas carols in Spanish with several of the other South Americans in the place. Bill joined them and sang as loudly as any of them, though he didn’t particularly know the words. Kylie ordered an old fashioned and I got one too. “You know, I do miss home, miss my family,” I admitted. “That’s a good thing,” she said. “I miss mine too, and being away will make it that much better when we go back.” “I just don’t want you to think I’m some cold-hearted asshole who hated his life,” I said. “I don’t think you’re cold hearted.” She smiled and offered her glass up for a cheers. Late in the night someone brought mistletoe and hung it above the bar. Kylie kissed me on the cheek, and before I could kiss her back Muppet grabbed me and planted one on me as well. We all partied well into the night. The snow had stopped by the time we left, but it had buried my skis first. I carried them on my shoulder and Kylie walked with my poles as we all headed back to the Block together. The walk was awkward in unbuckled ski boots and full of drinks. A layer of fresh snow covered the lake and village. Everything felt calm and silent.. Excerpted from Colin Clancy’s novel Ski Bum , published by Van Velzer Press and now available at colinclancy.net or your local mountain bookstore. 102 The Ski Journal
The Ski Journal Volume 16, Issue 3: Page 102
