Dwight Peck's personal website

Marlowe Tyson Peck

Learns to ski (1988)

Born in the Swiss Alps before US-led global warming got into high gear, what else is a girl to do but learn to ski as quickly as possible.

Medical experts dissuade kids from skiing before the age of three, knee-wise, so here Marlowe, just days short of that milestone, prepares bitterly for another day of hiking with no skis.

Above Gstaad in December 1987, Marlowe implores -- IMPLORES -- her mother to let her get up on the boards soon. After all, she's just turned three!

So here, in spring 1988, Marlowe blasts off the Berneuse in an access of confidence and more supple grace than most people enjoy in a lifetime.

From Berneuse to the Lac d'Aï is for Marlowe but the work of an instant.
(Her old dad, after dark and on X-C skis, frequently spent a half hour inching down the same stretch.)

"Turning now!"

"And now a little to the left."

Is that all there is to it?

Alpine skiing, downhill skiing -- it's pretty crowded. Noisy people. Long lift lines. Cigarette smoke! Can we just go into the mountains by ourselves?

Marlowe sets off on her first ski randonnée, March 1988, still however wearing downhill skis, thus requiring some extra motive power. Bunny pack at the ready.

-- Everybody okay back there?
-- Oui, papa.

Better skiing, without the cigarette smoke and long lift lines

A pause for lunch out past Les Fers.

Sometimes tired ski trekkers have the advantage of a strong mom along, but mostly we don't.

Nearing the end of the hike. Thanks, mom. I'll pay you back someday.
(Heh heh heh)

Feedback and suggestions are welcome if positive, resented if negative, . All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 16 September 2002, revised 15 January 2009, 16 February 2014.

Marlowe Tyson Peck