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Winter’s little white lies

Jon Maletz

I’ve met some interesting people on chairlift rides of late. It seems as if their stories are growing more and more elaborate.I talked with a twentysomething ski instructor from Park City on the Loge Peak lift the other day and soon found out he was driving back from Michigan, where he had purchased a new truck. He said he was hitting many of the Colorado resorts on his travels back to Utah. Without the prompting of the all-too familiar question, the man said he skis more than 300 days a year. He lives in New Zealand during the Northern Hemisphere’s summer months. Three-hundred days. I did the math, and this guy skis 82 percent of the year. I guess he’s occupied with other ventures for five days each month. Slacker.I’ve met people who work with Warren Miller Entertainment and with the mother of a well-known World Cup skier. I’ve met entrepreneurs and real estate moguls who ski moguls.This has me thinking. I wonder who’s telling the truth, and who’s embellishing simply for effect. After all, no one will ever know the difference. Maybe I’ll contrive an elaborate story for my next ride up. I’ll tell people I was on the baseball roster for the 2012 London Olympics, at least until officials decided to scratch the sport on Thursday. Perhaps I could pass as Theo Epstein; I’ll need to work on my Boston accent. I could be the guy who helped design the iPod, or those helmets with headphones. I was the guy who had a small, but crucial walk-on role in “The Big Lebowksi.” I was part of the research team that decided chopped pieces rather than slices of pepperoni were better on McCain’s Ellio’s frozen pizza – it’s a long, but partially true story.I’ll probably just stick to the truth. I’m a 23-year-old sports reporter who lives on Main Street in Aspen. Now that’s too good to believe.Jon Maletz’s e-mail address is jmaletz@aspentimes.com