March 23, 2025 Five Years Gone.

I woke up and stared out the glass doors of my friend’s condo. Snow blanketed the slopes of Big White Ski Resort, at least ten centimetres of light fluffy powder lay atop the railings of his deck. Millions of light snowflakes descended from the heavens, filling my view with a scene of a winter wonderland.

A surge of excitement filled my being as I scurried to get ready for what was sure to be one of the last epic days of powder skiing for the season. If not the last powder day. Soon things would change, the forecast was calling for warmer temperatures. 

It was late March after all.

I stared at the calendar and saw the date; March 23, 2025. I thought back to another March 23rd. Could it be five years already? Five years since Big white closed under a cloud of fear. I remember that day as if it was yesterday, and yet it felt like it was from another universe. 

The Coronaverse.

That day was very different than this March 23rd. It was a bright spring day, yet the world was sitting under a cloud cast by a new viral pandemic that was spreading across the world like wildfire. Five years later Big White was being inundated with a storm that would end up filling the mountain with almost thirty centimetres of powder glory. It seems surreal that so much time has passed since the early days of what would become known as COVID19. 

At the time it was a strange new disease that had something to do with beer. 

In reality, it had nothing to do with beer.

But we sure drank a lot of beer and other spirits in those first months when the world was locked down. In the early days of COVID, we all hoped that it would bring us together, we were all in it together. Dr. Tam and Dr. Henry were heroes, bright lights guiding us through the darkness.

Until the world became enveloped in a different form of darkness. A darkness steeped in conspiracy and fear, anger and hate. Then those same heroes became villains to certain segments of the population. That same segment would lead to the re-election of a crazy old man who shall remain nameless.

On March 23, 2025, when they closed the hill and told everyone to go home – And Stay There. I found myself writing my journal. A journal that has taken me in a direction that I’ve always wanted to, yet never thought I would. Forced to stay home, and not work, I decided to write. With my wife’s help I created this website, and this blog and began my journey to becoming a writer. I’ve now finished my first novel and am working on my second one. Although my journaling has fallen off in the past six months, I feel a sense of angst because I’ve stopped sharing all my musings on the state of the world. 

A world gone insane.  

Now here I sit five short years later. Or so it seems, yet time has felt like we missed three of those years. When the closed the ski hill we all thought it would be a few weeks, maybe a couple months then things would go back to normal. 

We never went back to normal.

As I plummeted down Parachute Bowl I reveled in turns in fresh powder snow. It was a sensation of something beyond normal. Despite all the insanity of the world beyond the scenic boundaries of our mountain paradise, there is no purer feeling than the connection with turns on snow.

Such a simple thing – turns on snow. It doesn’t matter if it’s on a snowboard or a pair of skis. When a person feel’s the connection with the mountain, nothing else matters.

Not some idiot president in a white house somewhere. Not some wack job of a car salesman. Not the dictator in the Kremlin. Nothing. Else Matters.

Just turns on snow. And when the snow fills the air and coats the ground with layers of fresh loveliness, the world is a beautiful place.

I slid back into my friends condo after an amazing day of skiing. Exhausted and fulfilled we jumped in my buddies truck and headed back to the real world. It was the best day of the year, five years removed from that fateful day when we were told to stay apart and stay safe.

Today we joined together, took a chance, and danced with the mountain. It was a day to celebrate turns on snow and powder to the people. It was an awesome time to be at Big White Ski Resort. No matter what happens in the coming days and months, I can hold on to the memory of an epic day of powder glory.