Tanned Feet

A typical securities industry disclaimer says something to the effect that ‘past performance is not an indication of future performance’, and it’s just like snow storms in autumn. Pre-season snow may excite us, but it is not an indication of a snowy winter to come. Still, all of us, myself included, reserve the right to become giddy when it does snow in autumn. At a minimum, it reminds us how much we love skiing and riding and it brings some of the details to the front of our minds as we make plans for the approaching winter. Even the simple motions of getting ready for winter – changing to snow tires, pulling our winter clothing out of basements and back closets, and trying to locate boot heater batteries – are elevated and become worthy of excitement and giddy anticipation.

This is equally true for Southern Hemisphere winters, though with some funny wrinkles for me. Instead of slowly evolving my wardrobe into warmer clothing, with flip-flops and shorts slowly finding their way to the back of closets and the bottoms of drawers as I do here in October, I sit and contemplate all of those funny winter details while enjoying the benefits of warm weather and sunshine. There’s nothing quite like sitting outside on my favorite beach chair reading in the warm sunshine while contemplating which down coat and how many pairs and which weight of long underwear bottoms to have with me in Wanaka, New Zealand for the winter. I consider packing shoes and socks necessary for life in a small town where I walk everywhere and don’t have use of a car, where I look for housing close enough to town to pack groceries into a backpack on my way home from work and can make it to my weekly pub quiz on time without rushing.

A newly-hatched dragonfly and friend.

The forests here in Vermont have now fully evolved into that rich, yellowy-green of pre-summer foliage and the hardwoods are covered in newly full-sized leaves. Memorial Day weekend was gorgeous – sunny, warm, unhurried for me, and a wonderful reminder of summer. Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet, there is snow on the peaks of the Southern Alps and several New Zealand ski fields have announced early openings. It’s downright exciting, and the bigger the contrast between the season here and the season there, the happier I’ll be. Ultimately, one fun sign of the perfect transition from Northern to Southern Hemisphere for me is to be sitting in a ski school locker room in the Southern Alps and taking a fond look at flip-flop tanned feet before shoving them into my Nordicas for the day. If I get to walk through LAX in shorts and sandals while carrying my ski bag over my shoulder, all the better! It’s these contrasts that make my choice of on-and-off season so odd for people trying to grasp what I really do for a living, and I definitely revel a bit watching them grapple with it.

Pre-season snow may not be an accurate indicator of a snowy winter, but it definitely helps me get excited and focused. I leave for New Zealand next week, and I’m looking forward to the confused looks of the folks in LA. More importantly, I’m very much looking forward to putting my suntanned feet into ski boots and going skiing!

Lake Winnipesaukee, surrounded by New Hampshire's White Mountains