Wow. I can’t believe it has been 12 years since the last time I skied. And I can’t believe that I had forgotten how much I loved it.

Yes, the last time I skied was just after Christmas in 2002, at Winterplace in West Virginia. When I lived in Tennessee, getting up to Winterplace was only about three and a half hours - easily doable for a day trip. But living in Huntsville makes that an almost seven hour drive.

Sure, there are a handful of other places nearby to ski. There’s a Ober Gatlinburg, and a few places in North Carolina. But to really get good snow, the best places in the South have always been in West Virginia.

This time, though, we went further. To Showshoe.

Getting up there was a challenge in and of itself. It was snowing pretty good before we even crossed into Virginia. By the time we got up on those two-lane roads, it was coming down good and the roads were starting to ice. We made it in just in time. But, the next morning, I awoke to a mountain covered in glorous powdery snow. Perfect for skiing.

It was a killer weekend. Snowshoe is a much more challenging place to ski than Winterplace. Some of the “beginner” runs at Snowshoe would be Intermediate runs elsewhere, and I didn’t even attempt any black diamond runs after 12 years without doing this (and especially given my … current physical state). Even without the risks, though, it was still a great time.

In short, in the future, I’m going to make time to ski more.