Blameless
AJ 27 FEATURE

Blameless

An Idaho skier hoped to enjoy midweek turns at her local hill. A few hours later, people were dead. This is her story

Early on the morning of January 7, 2020, I took the thirty-minute gondola ride from the parking lot at Silver Mountain, Idaho, to Silver’s mid-mountain main lodge and went to the locker room, where I met my friend Ken Scott. We hadn’t planned on skiing together, but I knew if I arrived early on a big snow day, I could find one of my ski buddies. Rarely do I ski big snow days alone, preferring the company of a friend, both for companionship and safety.

Ken skis a lot, like, every day. I ski when there’s new snow during the week and on weekends; although I still love to ski, I logged my time when I was younger. Growing up in the North Cascades and then ski bumming in Utah, I had numerous hundred-day seasons. That was twenty-five years ago. Now, I settle for skiing at Silver and other nearby mountains in the Idaho Panhandle. With easy access to uncrowded runs and fresh tracks, I

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