SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE WESTERNER

When “country” goes skiing

By Julie Carter

Carhart ski wear and Solomon skis is a combination known best to the rural folks of America.

Call them rednecks if you will. Redneck has been defined as a glorious lack of sophistication. That also qualifies in snow skiing.

I’ve watched ranch folk go to the ski slopes for several decades now and there has been a common theme that carries through from then to now. They come to have a good time and skiing finesse is not what it is about.

I know this because I am a second generation redneck skier and have taught a third generation the basics of enjoying the snow on the mountain.

Everyone that wants to ski has to learn to ski. Not an obvious natural skill that comes with being born, strapping a couple of boards to your feet which are entombed in big heavy masochistic boots, brings with it a complete set of problems to conquer.

First, nothing is done easily when you are clothed in so many layers you resemble the Michelin tire guy from the commercials.

Then you stuff all those pockets with snacks for the kids, a camera, Chap Stick, sunscreen, Kleenex to wipe the snow off the goggles after each fall and wipe aforementioned children’s noses, money for hot cocoa and the car keys. Rural folk travel prepared for anything.

Every time you bend over to fasten a boot buckle or pick up the ski pole you just dropped for the third time, your car keys, buried in a pocket deep within, perform surgery on your body and the orange you are saving for the gondola ride, rolls across the slope.

Your goggles are fogged up and you just remembered that you were going to go to the restroom before you got all the kids ready to get in the lift line. Why does it appear like all those people in the real ski clothes with matching everything never struggle with clothes, kids or escaping oranges?

The male rednecks are easy to spot in their Carhart clothing and most often if not a cowboy hat, they are simply wearing a cap with a cow feed or gun company logo on the front of it. Their jackets frequently wear the same logo.

Their Wranglers are two shades of denim--faded on the front and with a darker definite “wet” look to the back pocket area. That comes from challenging themselves on that blue, more difficult, slope and finding out at the bottom it was in fact a black diamond which can translate to “write your will before you ski.”

The younger cowboys can be found chasing the latest and fast growing sport of snowboarding. Again, the full length tan canvas duck material outfit is a dead giveaway.

This young man will be right at home on a bucking bull or riding a horse full speed across a rough pasture, rope twirling and in hot pursuit of wild cow. On a snow board, it may take him awhile to get the hang of having both his feet tied to a board that wants to leave the mountain before he does.

During these weeks that the local ski area offers such a great deal to students of area schools, Wednesday should be designated Redneck Day at the ski area. Students come to ski from many small rural schools and bring their parents with them.

When in a crowd of like kind, we country people can find reason to celebrate our glorious lack of sophistication.

Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net or at the hot cocoa stand looking for some aspirin.

© Julie Carter 2005


The following is in response to this article.

Letter to the Editor, by Laura Schneberger

Dear Editor,

In response to Bobbie Holiday's, Mexican Wolves Did Their Part, Ms. Holiday has once again shown that her primary interest is in promoting only the environmental propaganda supporting the wolf reintroduction program. Ignoring the plight of rural areas that have the entire weight and consequences of the program on their shoulders has become an art form for pro wolfers and agency personnel.

Rural Arizonans and New Mexicans are seldom surprised to see these kinds of letters and articles covering for the USFWS and their blatant disregard for the welfare of the people in the reintroduction areas. There is a select group of people who feel it is their job to keep the program looking clean and shiny regardless of reality and they work very hard to keep up appearances.

Failures of the program usually have to do with the impact on people. They include but aren't limited to several final rule violations. The rule specifically states that livestock killers will be removed, permanently. It also states that wolves in the wild will be monitored, collared, vaccinated and kept track of. That livestock kills will be investigated and the situation mitigated promptly.

These rules are violated indiscriminately and on a regular basis.

The FWS doesn't have a current count on how many wolves are actually out there in the wild, simply because they stopped counting a couple years ago. Those of us on the receiving end of the program feel that the majority of their budget is now spent promoting full blown recovery and giving pro wolf presentations to Kindergarteners rather than following the rule and fulfilling their obligations to rural people. Although reports and sightings go to the agency on a regular basis, verifying the spread of wolves beyond the Gila Wilderness or beyond the western boundary in AZ has become low or no priority. The agency has a (we don't want to know) attitude. If they know they may have to admit their job is done.

Opening up the boundaries is an easy task because it can be done on paper and makes it look like there has been limited, hard won, progress. In reality, The agency has ignored the boundary rule for several years unless it pertains to collared re-released stock killers that should never have been re-released anyway. Refusal by the agency to remove those problem animals the second and even third time, is not well tolerated. In a nutshell the boundary rule has been meaningless for a long time. Ask any rancher in central New Mexico and they will tell you wolf management personnel are a much rarer species in their neck of the woods than wolves are.

Release of fresh wolves into the Gila National Forest beyond the Gila Wilderness is completely unnecessary since a substantial wild born population already lives there. The only thing that would be accomplished by doing this would be to throw a bunch of inexperienced animals out on top of the ranchers in those areas and increase the stock killing that Agency personnel don't seem inclined to want to investigate any longer.

Don't fall for the pie in the sky assessments of this program. The success of it was had off the backs of hard working rural people trying to make a living under the most brutal of circumstances.

As successful as they claim to be, agency personnel put their obligations to ranchers, outfitters and rural dwellers on a low priority list while they promote unnecessary and superficial changes to make it look like they are actually going to accomplish something meaningful. Those changes are often the whims of the environmental extremists who are allowed to partner with the program.

Bobby is right about one thing, the wolves are out there, the program is finished. The unsaid goal of the pro-wolfers, agency and the litigation happy, non government organizations, is to prolong the misery as long as it takes to remove the rest of the ranches and other forest users from the picture. That is how they believe true success will be measured.

Sincerely

Laura Schneberger
Gila Forest inholder
Black Range
Winston New Mexico


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