As a young man working my way through high school, and even into college, there was a poster hanging over my bed of Lone Peak (better known as Big Sky Mountain). I wrangled with dreams of moving west and spending my life skiing counterbalanced with the realities of finishing school and getting what could be called a "real job". I knew, or at least thought I knew, that being a ski bum wasn't an option for a full life. Even now I look back on occasion and wonder what could h

While I was skiing out west with my brothers, we ran into a man wearing a hat from one of the few small town hills still in operation near our hometown in Massachusetts. The three of us struck up a conversation about the ski hills where we learned to ski, and the difference between those hills and the sprawling, luxurious resorts of today, and jokes about all the the hills that we all remembered. Immediately, the three of us lamented that we couldn't represent our lost ski