Weekends. Perhaps
one of the dirtiest words in the ski industry. Saturday and Sunday, two perfectly good
days, ruined by about 40,000 people. For some of us, they are the only days we get to
ride. Whether it be because of school or work, the two days each week we can make to the
hill, happen to be between Friday and Monday. If there's never been a time when snowboarding was the main part of your life and you could pick and choose your days, you might not realize how good it can be without long lift lines, crowded cafeterias and a skier on every mogul. As for me, I've been spoiled, I only rode on weekdays, and now, when I have to go up to the mountain on weekends in order to get in any time on the snow, it might as well be torture. I know what it's like to get right on the lift, to not have to wait to drop in, or to go over a roller and not land on top of someone. That stuff though, it's not so bad, the worst part about weekends happens before you even put your boots on, before you take your board off the rack. It happens in the parking lot, where if you're not there by 7:30 AM, you park in a different zip code. You have to ride shuttle busses, or in some places, even walk what seems like miles before you even see snow.
Everytime
I go to the mountain on a weekend it takes me longer to park my car then I actually spend
riding. I'm one of those people who parking lot attendants hate. Someone who beleives
there must be a closer spot, so every weekend I drive right up to the top of the parking
lot, and every weekend I witness more asinine parking jobs than forum snowboards. It seems
everyone is like me, always looking for that closer spot, and when they can't find it,
they make their own. They triple park, or park right in front of the no parking zone. It's
not like they'd ever get towed, there's no way a tow truck could fit through the lanes. Of
course, they all drive their Suburbans and Four Runners, so a parking lot that would hold
about 100 normal cars, holds about 15.So what do you do when you can even fit through the lane forward? You keep driving, because the whole parking lot can't be full, there must be a spot just a little ways ahead. So when you get to the end and realize there are no spots, and the cars are parked so tight you can't turn around, what do you do? You drive out backwards, taking some paint off here, maybe a fender, or a mirror off there. This is pretty much a weekly occourance for me, someone who can't drive a can backwards to save thier life, although you figure I do it once a week, I must be getting good at it by now. Ha!
I'm
pretty used to stupid parking jobs, since they always seem to effect me, but yesterday, I
think I saw a winner. I pulled my usual, drive up to the top bay in hopes that someone
left already, and drove all the way around. When I turned around to get out because like I
should have known, there were no spots, just a lot of people doing the same thing as me, I
drove right up to a car, parked across the bay. Now I thought this person must either
think they're god, or be really fucking stupid. I shook my head, said a few curse words
then prepared myself to back out. Of course, as I was going backwards, there was a SUV
coming up forwards at me. I got out of my car to warn them to turn around now, but of
course the girl driving had no idea how she would back out either. She let me squeeze past
her (amazingly there was enough room) and I started to back around the end of the lane.
Soon, I had my car wedged inbetween a van and a few SUV's. At this point, the parking lot
attendant shows up, and asks if I need any help. He gets in my car, and in about two
moves, is completely out and can easily back out of the lot. He tells me to get in the
car. "Now, let's go find you a parking spot," he says.
I told him that it wasnt my fault
I got stuck, it was the idiot who decided to park across the lane's. The attendant assured
me that the idiot wouldn't be happy about his spot. As it turns out, that wasn't were he
parked at all, in fact he triple parked, and when the owner of the vehicle he was triple
parked against decided he wanted to leave, he simply pushed the car out of the way,
leaving it bashed and beaten. While part of me is saying, that sucks, cause now that guys
car is a mess and he's has to fix it, the much bigger part of me is laughing hysterically.
This, in fact, almost made my day, but I was still fully planning on leaving before I even
rode, because if the parking lot was that bad, I didn't even want to think about the
trails. We continued to drive, lamenting the poor parking jobs of, well, everyone. The attendant then pulls up to the head parking guy, and says, "I need a spot for my sister."
The head guy points him to the load zone, which is pretty much adjacent to the base lodge. "How's that," he says.
I got basically the best spot I've ever gotten, and at 11:30 on a Saturday. I couldn't bring myself to waste a spot like this, so I decided to go take a couple runs. My faith was almost restored in Killington, and the trails, they weren't even that bad. Except of course for all the idiots, who as it turns out, are worse at skiing then they are at parking.
-Brooke Geery
