“Skating Through An Uncertain World” by Emily Shoff (fiction, ’16)

An excerpt from “Skating Through An Uncertain World” by Emily Shoff (fiction, ’16) from The New York Times:

Skating Through An Uncertain World

Telluride, Colo. — The snow came late to Telluride this year.

Until a week ago, our normal 70-inch base stood at a paltry 30 inches and amber waves of grass rippled on south-facing slopes, already ready for the summer elk.

Usually, there are a dozen ski runs curving into town; at the beginning of February, there was only one, an icy chute coated with a thin veneer of fabricated snow. Our mountain hamlet was quiet, too quiet, everyone panting for tourists and the crisp green bills they set down upon our quaint streets, paved off the backs of gold miners.

The average annual snowfall is 300 inches. This season we’ve had 99 inches so far, with more than two feet of that falling in just a week. We welcomed it with the joy of parched desert-dwellers greeting the rain. […continue reading here]