Last Chair

For most skiers, first chair is a special thing. First chair usually means first tracks, first turns, and first to the bottom. But very few people ever talk about last chair. True, unless you are a patroller, you can't truly get last chair. But there's something about the mountain after 3 PM. By this time of the day, most of the tourists are already back in the bar, many locals back at home (or for a good many of them, tending the bar that those tourists are at). The snow takes on a bluish grey tint, not like the shiny white that it was under the midday sun. By this time of the day, the snow is far from perfect, the runs bumped, rutted, and scraped into icy obstacle courses by hundreds of metal edges. While first chair of the day is part of a race to get to the best snow, the same can hardly be said about last chair.

But Last chair isn't about a race. If anything, it's time to ease back on the throttle, and go tranquillo back down to the baselodge. I have to admit, I often don't take the time out to enjoy the mountains I'm in when I'm skiing. I'm too focused on my line, my next air, or little technical details that are supposed to make me a better skier. But sometime around 2:30, when the Alpenglow begins to set in, I start to take note of my surroundings. The colors that the mountains turn in the last hour of daylight are unreal. My last run always follows the longest time I stand at the top of the mountain. I'll take one last look across the mountains, illuminated by the final rays of that day, before descending, like the sun itself, into the valley below, another day ending.