SKIING, GIANTS OF AMERICAN SPORTSMAN, TELLURIDE TO ASPEN, SKI PATROL HIGH ADVENTURE

     Birdman was on an avalanche detail with Sully, the head of the avalanche program with the Telluride Ski Patrol.  Sully had made the first winter ascent of Mooses Tooth in Alaska, and the first winter ascent of Lizard Head Mountain and Needle Rock near Telluride Colorado.  He was the real deal, a true old time mountain adventurer, who taught everyone on the Telluride Ski Patrol, an amazing list of survival techniques and the art of control of high alpine avalanche chutes.
     Sully would bellow loudly in the morning and shouted, "After we bomb the Mammoth Slide, lets hit the narrow chutes to the left, they will have more powder snow."  Three bombs exploded, and Birdman got first tracks on the narrow chutes.  It was the largest rush of powder, and the adrenaline that results, Birdman had ever experienced from the Big Burn at Snowmass, Aspen, to the wild peaks of Telluride Mountain.  The first rush of powder,  felt like he had dropped out of an airplane into the clouds, the powder blasted over his head, and the powder joy continued even as he launched out of the trees, into the main part of the wide Mammoth Slide, the legendary powder run of the old timers who hiked up the mountain before the lifts went in.  What a day to remember, it will never be forgotten.
     The Big Burn, at Snowmass Colorado, was the first experience that Birdman had with powder skiing.  Sixteen inches of fresh snow on the Burn was known by locals and tourists to be powder heaven.  The small pine trees interspersed in a near perfect glade, kept the snow in fluffy piles of white, with no wind, and cruising through the glades was a delight for the ski patrol and tourists from all parts of the US.  Snowmass has opened up many new above timberline bowls since then, and the powder days are unusually skier free, of locals and tourists.  Everyone wants to ski Aspen Mountain, so they can brag about their adventure in saloons from Aspen to Boston. 
     The early days working on the Telluride Ski Patrol, keeping records for the US Forest Service, bombing the avalanche areas all around the top of Telluride Ski Mountain, was high adventure and a unique opportunity to ski the steep and the deep snow.  The first year in Telluride, on April 22, 1972, it snowed 66 inches in one night on the top of the mountain.  Birdman dropped into Apex Glade, after walking from the top of lift 4, with snow as high as his neck.  He felt a great rush of joy, then could not see due to the blinding blasts of unusually deep powder.  Later he put a bandana over his face, as a breathing technique.  Birdman will never forget his first ride up lift 6 to the top of the mountain, that day.  He saw a short stumpy patrolman, nichnamed "Stump" coming down the lift line doing jet turns in the powder over the moguls.  The snow was so deep all you could see occasionally, was his hat and gloves, and a snorkel sticking above, for breathing.  When Stump got to the patrol room at the top, everyone examined his snorkel.  It was declared an ingenious idea, and talked about in the saloons downtown for years.  Stump was the first person to hang glide off of Smuggler ski trail, on Telluride Mountain, which had never been seen before. He was one of the pioneers of hang gliding. 
     You have to be tough, daring, and have a tiny element of crazy in your soul to be a skier.  Birdman always admired the tourists who came to the mountains, to brave the Big Burn, and the Telluride Plunge, a drop of 3000 feet, non stop to the town of Telluride.  It takes guts and true grit, just to ride a lift to the top of the mountain.  The chairs sway in the wind over deep chasms, rock and roll, and skiers have fallen off in the most peculiar places, one dangling from the top of a tree until the ski patrol showed up with ropes to get them back to Mother Earth.  The Snow Gods from Norway watch over most skiers, in their constant test of gravity, balance, speed , control, and at times a crazy maneuver, best left to a gymnastics arena.  Birdman watched a crazed skier once, bounce off the tops of two moguls on a high ridge at Telluride, do a half flip, land on his back, shoot towards the trees, get up to brush off the snow and smile with joy.  Children from 4 to 15 sometimes look like pros on the circuit, with amazing balance, speed, and grace. 
     You have to admire the Ski Giants of American Sports, the every day common skier who has the guts to challenge the wild mountains.  Once in awhile the White Hawk from the sky, comes down and takes a skier to the Skiers Elysium, the Great Ski Area In The Sky, with no cost for a lift ticket.

KING OF SKI TOWNS, ASPEN AND TELLURIDE, FREE ACCESS TO NATIONAL FOREST LAND, JOY THAT IS FREE, COMPARED TO CITY LIFE

     Birdman recently visited Telluride Colorado on a gorgeous sunny day, with a stop at Orvis Hot Springs.  During his three day stay in the ski town of Telluride, an insight of massive proportions, struck Birdman as he rolled over Dallas Divide, looking at the wide expanse of the Sneffles Range.  The miles and miles of high country timber, creeks, valleys, wildlife, endless hiking and joy, above the Ralph Lauren Ranch is all totally free of charge to gain access.
     Ralph Lauren paid mega millions for his pasture land below, the best land is above all over the west, a great majority of it set aside by Teddy Roosevelt a long time ago.  Birdman knew this from 35 years of hiking the high country, but it came back with the impact of lightning striking close by.  An Austrian friend, who had spent time with Birdman, hunting and hiking the high country, said, "In Austria you would have to pay a few hundred thousand a year to do what eveyone living in Telluride can do for nothing, hike the majestic high country, with no permission and payment to anyone.  In Austria the descendants of the kings own all of the best land, nothing can be bought or hiked on.
     Three years living in Colorado Springs and Denver also has reaffirmed this fact.  No matter how wealthy you are in a city, you must still deal with the traffic gridlock, inferior air to breathe, lack of wildlife, the constant cacophony of sound generated by sirens and cars and  people exercising their right of freedom of speech, talking constant nonsense on cell phones.
     Even the libraries and book stores are noisy havens of crying babies, people on cell phones, and loud speakers announcing nonsense every five minutes.  A quiet spot in America has become priceless.
     The poorest worker living in a town on the Western Slope of Colorado, with quick access to the National Forest, can live like a King, and enjoy his birthright, free access to public land, 750 million acres of it.
     The Trust For Public Land is buying up millions of acres of mining claims and inholdings, and selling it back to the US Government.  At one time in the nation, almost 950 million acres of high country public land existed.  Now is the time to gain more, and buy it back from the old miners, inholdings, and developers with the wrong intentions.
     We must preserve this legacy for the children of the future.  The genius of John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt allows us to enjoy some of the most pristine land in the world, the high country of the western US.  Leave the city for a day, take a long hike on National Forest Land and you will see what I mean.
     It is all free, and it is wild, and it is beautiful, and it allows for the experience of complete and total Joy.

ASPEN, TELLURIDE CELEBRITIES, GENERAL SCHWARZKOPF, MADONNA, STEIN ERIKSON, SKIER

     Birdman lived in Aspen and Telluride ski resorts for years, and worked on the ski patrol and in the land sales business.  During his time from 1970 to 2012 he had many revealing experiences with many famous people.
     Stein Erikson was the head of the ski school in Aspen for many years in the 70's before he moved to Deer Valley Utah, where he became director of skiing at the resort.  Birdman was standing by the Sams Knob lift at Snowmass during the winter of 1971.  There was two feet of fresh powder snow, and the Big Burn powder paradise, was calling him to the slopes.  All of a sudden he spotted Stein, flying and dancing down the mountain in a perfect powder form, with snow blowing over his head.  Birdman had never seen such an amazing display of perfection and grace before or since. Stein looked like he was dancing the mambo, at a very high speed.  Birdman thought that Stein was blessed by the Norwegian Gods of skiing, he had never seen anything like it, and never would again, until he saw Chongo on the Telluride Ski Patol, a few years later, in perfect powder form, dancing in rhythm over the moguls, with two feet of fresh snow, on the Mammoth Slide.
     Stein Erikson is currently married and has 5 children.  He is 85 years young, and still has that famous head of hair.  They say that he is a humble man.  He is quoted as saying "Be tough, be confident, but you will never be a whole and happy person if you aren't humble."  In 1997 Erikson was honored by the King of Norway. He was Knighted with the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit for his contribution to Norway, the highest honor that the Norwegian government can give to people living outside Norway.  It is said that Erikson was skiings "first superstar" since he was handsome, stylish, and charismatic.
     Norman Schwarzkopf walked on the treadmill in the summer at the Peaks Hotel, almost evey day, where Birdman worked out.  Birdman thought, I wonder how many miles the general walked while he was in the military.  Norman was a large man, but walked with a smooth motion, never losing his stride.
     Stormin Norman, "The Bear" was loved by the locals in Telluride and marched with the soldiers in the local Memorial Day parade each year.  Birdman recently heard that the vets in Telluride, came out of hiding, and proudly marched with Norman.  Before they were afraid to let people know they had fought in Vietnam, because of the anti-war sentiment in town, and the abundance of peaceniks.
     Norman loved to trout fish and hunt pheasants, and went to pheasant country with some local bird hunters.  He was a remarkable pheasant marksman, which is an upland game bird that often causes humiliation.  He fly fished the San Miguel river, and loved it.  One night he returned home, to discover a black bear in his kitchen, who had an arm load of ice cream, and a look of joy, like a child, caught with too much candy in his fists.  Norman got mad, chased the bear out into the Ski Ranch night, and fired several rounds of his shotgun into the sky.  Now he would have to drive 6 miles to Telluride to replenish his favorite ice cream.
     Norman has a series of medals for his duties as a soldier. The number of metals is astounding including three Silver Stars for Bravery.  He also was honored in France as an honorary First-Class Private in the French Foreign Legion. 
     Norman had crawled on his belly in a mine field in Vietnam, to rescue a wounded soldier, and led an entire group through his tracks out of danger.  He received a special medal, his third Silver Star for bravery for that brave action.  He has an Elementary School named after him in Lutz Florida.
     Stormin Norman brought the Kuwait ground war to a close in just four days, a record in the history of warfare.
     In Vietnam he implemented strict rules for his soldiers.  He told his men later, "When you get on that plane to go home, if the last thing you think about is "I hate that son of a bitch", then that is fine because you are going home alive."
     Madonna paid a special tribute to the General, during the 1990 Oscars ceremony.  When she performed the Academy Award winning song "Sooner or Later, I Always Get My Man" from the movie Dick Tracy, she added the line, "Talk to me General Schwarzkopf, tell me all about it."  Her performance was homage to Marilyn Monroe and saluting the general was reminiscent of the 1950's when Marilyn Monroe paid her respects to General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
     General Norman Schwarzkopf was an amazing soldier, and a true and real human being.  The folks in Telluride were lucky to have him there, chasing off ice cream eating bears and honoring the local vets.  He is truly and in real life "The Bear", the legend, the General.