Tales of the Rope

In the past two weeks I've mysteriously started receiving issues of SKI magazine. Not that I'm to complain about skiing literature to read, but the addition of another magazine to my home has me completely overwhelmed on reading time. Regardless, I still read it. As a magazine goes, it's an interesting toned down bit on the outdoor lifestyles of skiers. Seems to be written for a mostly maturer audience. I'm not so sure I like their "learn how to do it" sections' presentation method, but thats for another day.

In the first issue I received, the back cover has an opinion piece written by the one and only Warren Miller. The article centered on the joys of a rope tow and how it taught so many, was simple, was cheap, etc all in the Warren Miller nostalgia manner. He closes with a bit of a rhetorical question with an allusion to the changes in skiing culture that centers on the idea of "Where did all the rope tows go?"

To answer your question Mr Miller, if you leave the confines of the big destination resorts for a little while, you'd find that those mysterious rope tows can be found at the small resorts of America. I have several destroyed pairs of gloves to attest to this. But more importantly it's at the smaller resorts where you find regulars mixing freely with new comers and the staff.

Now if you were to ask about the T-Bar... thats a whole different topic...