I was riding up a chairlift, by myself.  I got off the chair at the top terminal, but it wasn’t quite typical, because rather than go down a ramp to off-load in a straight line, instead I had to swing around to the right through the inside of the structure.  I had to be careful to stay out of the path of the empty chairs as they rotated around the end, and they were moving rapidly. Those things are heavy, so you’d not like getting hit by one moving at speed. The fact that they were moving so quickly stood out in my mind because of the contrast with how they are normally much slower through the terminals, for safety, obviously. After I successfully managed to avoid them, I focused more on the conditions and context.  It seemed either to be really early or really late season, where the mountain had very little snow coverage.  I took a few steps over and down a little bit to meet up with a group I’d be skiing with, and we tried to come up with a plan for the remainder of the day about where to go on the mountain.  I suggested, or expressed a preference for doing some runs on Warm Springs (frontside), because that’s where I believed the better skiing was, based on my experience, considering it was a bit steeper, and there was a single lift which went the entire way from the bottom to the very top.  We all knew the grooming was good, so it basically meant faster skiing, longer runs, and less time on the lifts compared to time on snow.  The group expressed some form of agreement about this plan, as it would at least be a new place to go for those who were new to the mountain, as we had so far only been at River Run (backside).  So as we were about to get going I realized I didn’t have any poles.  It’s possible to ski without poles, but for someone used to skiing with them, it feels a bit naked without them.  For a second it was like, “Hey, how did I even get here without them?” So I hiked back up to the terminal where I soon found a pair, or maybe two pairs to choose from.  One of the pairs was the right height, but were severely bent.  I wondered, were these mine? Did I do this? I tried to remember if I had had some terrible fall where the poll gets caught under the body during a roll and ends up completely warped. I didn’t recall that happening to me, but it happened to these poles.  The other pair was just too short, suitable  for a child half my height.  So I thought perhaps I could bend the longer ones back to straight, or close enough to straight to work well enough for a few more runs.  So I began flexing one of them, and it did straighten, but there was a crimp in it, just below the handle so it was obviously going to be permanently compromised from a strength perspective. It became flimsy and I expected it to just snap off with any subsequent use.

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