CMC Ski Ops: Why we are Here

At the age of seventeen I was ready to throw my life into the daily grind of pulling and stripping wire, crawling in the dark and unpleasant places under the buildings you walk about, simply for a good looking paycheck. It’s not what I wanted to do but I did like the idea of the money and the union aspect of things made it a no brainer. I was on my way to being an electrician. I’d assumed the title of apprentice, I was working in my field in a respectably organization and was close to graduating High School which was the last thing stopping me from fully throwing myself into the trade, when one day that it occurred to me that I really didn’t want to spend my life in that way. I made the conscious decision that I would rather make less money to do something that I have a passion in than make more money doing something I hated. What then fell upon me was the uncertainty of what I could do that I would truly enjoy something that I would be excited to wake up for, BE EXCITED to go to work for.

A short span of time later I found myself poking around the Colorado Mountain College webpage. What happened next could be well explained by anyone who has found their “calling”. When you wake up in the morning knowing “this is what I am supposed to be doing with my life” it was so obvious. Ski Area Operations. Those three words made my mind explode with ideas, possibilities, opportunities and excitement for the new mountains I would get to explore and learn, people to meet and friends to make. To say the least I was a kid in the Costco of candy stores.

It does not take one long to know when you are in common company even more so here in Leadville. When you begin talking with people you have never met or seen and you instantly spark a conversation that hits home and you realize the passion that brought you here is instilled in your classmates that everything that attracted you to this school attracted them in more or less a similar way. We are here for the lifestyle. We are here for the passion, the booters, thrills, a good time and most of all those bluebird powder days where you can hardly breathe from all the snow being hurtled into your face. The people you meet and the friendships you forge. This is why we are here, because nothing on earth makes us feel the way we do while riding down the side of a mountain, nothing gets us going more than hoping in that car on our way to ride what will go down as one of our greatest pow days ever. We are Ski Area Operations students. Come join us.

By Neal Skannes