Summer Blues? Just Go Skiing. 

…Climbers can head to the gym when it’s raining and hang board all winter. Runners hit the track or treadmill in the off season. Bikers spin in the garage. So, here in the dog days of summer, what are we skiers supposed to do?

Option 1: Do squats in the garage while visualizing all that ugly green stuff outside dying so snow can fall…

Option 2: Drink only lite beer to maintain base fitness while watching your favorite 1970s ski film classic.

Option 3: Tune your skis and daydream.

Option 4: ….Just. Keep. Skiing…..It might be dirty and bad, but why not?

While all of these options offer respite from the heat, there is no salve quite like option 4. If you want to go skiing, just go. You don’t have to count your consecutive months, it doesn’t have to look pretty, and there are no rules about what “counts.” Just enjoy the sun cups, sunburns, and long walks to find snow. You’ll feel better afterwards, I promise. Remember, a bad day skiing is still better than anything else humanity has yet devised. 

Over the last few years, I have missed out on making turns during at least one of the mid-summer months, opting instead for fishing, fatherhood, running shoes, and self-control. But such enlightened adulthood never seems to last the whole stretch from late June through October. Inevitably, a couple of windows to winter pull me out of summer’s malaise.