BOOK REVIEW: Story of the disappearing ski bum a well told, sad story

"In Search of Powder, A Story of America's Disappearing Ski Bums," by Jeremy Evans, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London, 256 pages, $16.95. Publication date, November 2010.

I've skied with Jeremy Evans several times, including once for a week in Switzerland. I skied; he boarded. And now Evans, a former reporter at the Tahoe Daily Tribune and Nevada Appeal, has come up with a fine book about the snow sports, past, present and future.

"In Search of Powder: A Story of America's Disappearing Ski Bum" includes a forward by Glen Plake, he of Heavenly Mountain Resort with the wild hairdo.

The story of the ski bum goes back roughly to the early 1940s, when after the war young men (and women) dedicated to skiing powder shucked all careers and headed for the west, willing to sleep in closet-sized rooms, work nights to sustain life and spend the rest of the time on the hill or in bars and occasionally inhaling illegal substances.

They were a hardy breed and to a large extent created such things as free skiing, racing the bumps and shuttling the canyons. When I started skiing in the '50s, they were all around the west, particularly Colorado and Utah and yes, Nevada. That was a time when you could be a ski bum and never worry about tomorrow.

But as Evans points out in his detailed and definitive book, that has all changed. The ski bum of the past has been replaced by temporary workers from such places as Spain or Chile working the jobs the bums used to do (kitchen work, lift operations, food servers). And the resorts have changed as well. They are largely no longer owned by mom and pop but now by major corporations, which are chiefly concerned with the bottom line. To enhance that bottom line they do many things that ski bums would find cheating - manicured runs, high-speed quad chairs, but most of all real estate.

A local example of it all is Kirkwood, just down the road from Carson City. Once upon a time it was the locals' favorite; now it is bursting with condos and mansions.

And of course, the ski bums have aged. With that has come families and all that such require. Some traces of ski bums remain. At South Lake Tahoe on a morning of fresh powder one can find businesses shuttered with a sign in the window, "Out skiing powder."

Evans' book chronicles all this in fine details, gathered over several seasons of boarding and interviewing. He has all the history, all the names and all the places. If you're an ex-ski bum, this is required reading. If you remember those days, ditto. Or if you just like tales of men and women on the edge, give it a read. And keep an eye out for Evans, he's still riding our slopes.