To Aspen With Love (I Think)

The season opens with motion and memory: a fresh fall on Aspen ice, a likely ACL tear, and the kind of vulnerable story that turns a simple ride into a shared reckoning with risk. We invite you into the front seat as we unpack what happens when confidence meets hidden ice, when bindings don’t release, and when a wedding date looms three months away. It starts with a pop, but quickly widens into a conversation about safety, humility, and how the right gear and a few smart choices can save a season.

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About: Foundation Digital Media | Kuna Video

Chapters

• 0:01 Season One Reflection & Gratitude
• 0:41 Kicking Off Season Two
• 1:02 Meet The Host And Format
• 1:34 The Ski Lesson Goes Wrong
• 3:10 Suspected ACL And Aftermath
• 4:25 Aspen Trip Context
• 4:26 Gear Setups And Safety
• 5:25 Best Mountains And Hidden Gems
• 7:20 Big-Mountain Access For Beginners
• 9:05 Wedding Timeline Meets Recovery
• 10:35 Knees, Healing, And Uncertainty
• 12:30 Altitude Fears And Aging Out
• 14:15 Creek Bed Crash Story
• 16:35 Learning Curves And Confidence
• 18:20 Kids On Skis And Resilience
• 19:22 Reviews, Instagram, And Sign-Off
• 19:45 Après Life And Alternatives

Transcript

Kicking Off Season Two

Meet The Host And Format

SPEAKER_02 0:01

We're getting ready to launch the second season of Rides to a Road Talk today, but I wanted to pause and reflect. You've trusted me with glimpses into your world. Really raw, powerful stories. Stories of confessions, triumphs, heartbreaks, and unexpected wisdom from the most unlikely places. It's been so rewarding. It's taught me humility and grace through the rides with folks from all walks of life. TikTok influencers, surgeons, Michelin chefs, flight attendants, and yes, kidney delivery people. It's all sparked real engagement that I never anticipated. I can't thank you enough. With that, welcome to season two. Welcome to another episode of Ride Chair Road Talk, Conversations in Motion. A podcast where we create unfiltered talkspace that examines the meaningful lives of my passengers while engaging in personal and topical discussions. I'm your host and driver, John Fodis, and we're cruising the streets of Washington, D.C. Buckle up. Let's drive.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

And then what happened?

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Well, to be fair, it was my second day of first-time lessons, but um apparently I was doing well enough that the instructor uh felt I could go up and do the you know easiest path down. And no shame to the director instructor, because she was fantastic. It's like this um 65-year-old Australian woman living her best life, traveling the world being a ski instructor. Um so this was her last couple of days before she headed out to Japan. But we thankfully got to um get a hold of her, my fiance and I. And um yeah, so I went down on the second day, and it was the second to last turn before I finished the mountain.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

Always the way.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

Yeah, and I was going a little too fast, and it was a little too steep at the end, and so I tried to like ski on the side of the skis, like I think you're supposed to. Um to work an edge, yeah, slow down. Yeah. And I thought it was like fluffy snow on the side of the hill, and I was trying to turn into the hill, and there was some ice underneath, I think. And so my skis abruptly stopped, and my knee didn't. Oh no. And so I went forward and I I just heard the classic pop. Oh I felt it.

SPEAKER_02 2:55

ACL kind of a thing? Yep. Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

Um okay, I have questions. BMRI will tell me, but that's what we think it is. That's what the orthopedic surgeon thinks it is.

Suspected ACL And Aftermath

SPEAKER_02 3:04

Oh my god. Yeah. Okay. I have questions and observations. Number one, being an empath, you know that instructor probab I'm assuming she knew or knows.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

I didn't say anything. Oh no. I told her I hurt I told her I hurt my knee, and I I was able to finish, and I was able to like get on the bus and go back to the hotel. And so I I wasn't sure how bad it was because when I was thinking of an ACL terror, you know, it's like you're you're down for the count. Yeah. And someone's gotta like go get you off of uh the mountain or off the court, whatever. Um and so I like I could get up again, and she was like, Okay, it looks like you're fine, you know. She she came and checked on me like she was supposed to.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

Um I'd like to have a word with your instructor. Yeah. Well, I I'd like to have a word with the the whoever set your bindings, number one, because as a beginner, those should have released. They should have. So let's not start poking holes, but that's all right, that's like 101. Like I'd have been really pissed, to be honest with you. Um in advanced gear, you obviously want to be snug and you want to be able to grind through troughs and make those carves and turns without coming out of your bodies. But here we are.

Aspen Trip Context

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Yeah, here we are.

Gear Setups And Safety

SPEAKER_02 4:25

Um, where were you? What resort?

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Um, I I was in Aspen. Oh, okay. Which I hadn't been to before, given I've never skied really before. Um great place to start. I was visiting my um my brother who lives in Denver, and so it just seemed like a hop away.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

Yeah, I mean it's a couple hours.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

Yeah, yeah. One hour on a flight, which was thankfully on time. Yeah, that was good.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

I've been out to Colorado a lot to ski, and I never made it to Aspen.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

Um it's really beautiful, it's it's quite a scene. Yeah, well, sure. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Um, but the mountain's fantastic. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

Like maroon bells and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

And yeah.

Best Mountains And Hidden Gems

SPEAKER_02 5:05

Uh I had lots of friends um that just became like ski bums and went out to Summit County and they're still there. Um, but by default, throughout the years, we would always just instead of skiing here at Liberty, we would just say, you know what, let's just go out west for like a week or two once a year, and that's enough. Because what's the point?

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Right.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

At that point. And so tons of places in Colorado. Yeah. What's your favorite one? In Colorado?

SPEAKER_00 5:34

Yeah. Or both really. Colorado.

SPEAKER_02 5:37

Of all the there's a there's a lot of bucket list places I never got a chance to go to. Never went to Jackson. I never went to like Sun Valley. Oh, yeah. Um Big Sky was on there also. But God, I think in Utah there's a smaller place called Solitude that I really enjoyed. And most people go out there for like Park City and like Alta and Snowbird, which are amazing. But again, this is early 90s too, so it wasn't completely bananas just yet. Yeah. Solitude was amazing.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

Prices are reasonable.

SPEAKER_02 6:13

Yeah, yeah. And then um, what else sticks out? Uh Alpine Meadows. I really liked in California. In California. Lake Tahoe area. Oh, beautiful. Um, and I loved Vale, but Vale's is so big you can't really get the scope of it until you go all the way up top and then look at the backbulls and go, oh my god, this is amazing. Because it's layered, right? You just don't you just can't see it.

SPEAKER_00 6:41

I've heard that from other people as well.

Big-Mountain Access For Beginners

SPEAKER_02 6:45

But the great thing the great thing about Vail, that hopefully you'll get to go ski at some point in your life, is that you can get that big mountain experience even as a novice. So you can go all the way up almost above well above treeline, and you can find some nice greens, and you can get into the back bowls on some catwalks and experience that, which is pretty special. Um that is nice. Assuming you don't pretzel yourself again. Right, yeah. Um, anyways. Um well that sucks. I mean yeah. Um, can you wrap a good story around it at least?

SPEAKER_00 7:23

I mean, I mean, kind of sounds like a funny story five years from now, but um I'm supposed to get married in three months, so I'm really hoping I don't have to get immediate surgery. I cut it off.

SPEAKER_02 7:37

This is fresh then.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

Yeah, this was last week.

SPEAKER_02 7:40

Well, you didn't like hobble into the car or anything.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

No, it's it's often on pain. I've been doing my own. I'm gonna I have to start PT, but um, I've been doing the bike. I can cycle, I can put it straight, which I guess is a great sign. Um play it straight.

SPEAKER_02 7:56

So I had an injury once. This was years ago, back in that window where we were going out west. And I injured myself not skiing here, just oddly enough on a on some stairs where I just did like a little miniature hyperextension of my knee. And it hurt and it was tender. But I mean, for years, I would go skiing, and if you hit that right little spot, I would feel it.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Knees are funny, they really are.

SPEAKER_02 8:26

And it was years till it resolved. I never got it scoped or anything. I just figured, you know, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

Um, they're they're really strange. Now, of course, you you you know you do the deep dive on like Reddit and all these other mistake. Yeah, I know. NIH like research publications so you can barely read. And um, yeah, there's there's just like so many pieces tyranny. Yeah. Um and it's like a m miraculous joint, really. It is in how it works together. But yeah, it's like some parts of it can heal themselves, it just takes like a really long time.

Wedding Timeline Meets Recovery

SPEAKER_02 9:03

The resiliency combined with the fragility of all of it, right? It's just that yin and yang. Like, really? Okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

I can't believe this was working in the first place. Um you don't ski anymore.

SPEAKER_02 9:15

Oh god, no. Look at me. I'm like, I'm too I'm too fat to ski. No, that's like not true. I've always been this size, fairly good skier. Um, I am petrified to go back out west simply because of the altitude. I don't know how I would handle that. Yeah, never had an issue when I was younger, but uh I just know too many people that have gone out and spent like tens of thousands of dollars and they just get train wrecked and they have to come down out of altitude. Yeah, just sick. Yeah, like who wants that? I have a memory, that's fine.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

Um I know it's it kind of sucks being in the mid-Atlantic then. Yeah, there's like nowhere to go.

Knees, Healing, And Uncertainty

SPEAKER_02 9:56

I mean, if you have to scratch the itch, you have to. I understand that, but to me, it just was never worth it once you got a taste for blood, right? And you know, the the half an hour, you know, chairlift ride to get to the top versus just a half an hour waiting in line to go 30 seconds. I just don't see it. There's no value prop in that for me anymore. Yeah. Um we did this one trip to Park City one year, and there was like six or eight of us, right? And we were just knuckleheads partying, doing whatever. The very first day, we were all playing kind of like tag or whatever it was you do. We found this like old creek bed, and we were just kind of skiing through this creek bed and up and out and in these glades, and it was just like heaven on earth, right? And when things are happening that quickly, you have to react, right? You have to know how to ski and hit your edges and stop or whatever. And so we're coming in and out of this um this creek bed, and there was one section that you actually had to make a split-second decision and jump over about four feet of just nothingness. It was just snow and crap, but you still had to have enough to get to the other side, and so everyone's doing it, it's fine, everything's fine. But our one friend, I guess he paused, much like crossing the street. If you pause, you're dead. Yep. Um, and he didn't make it, and he faceplanted into the bank with his teeth, and his whole face exploded on the side of the creek bed, and there's blood everywhere on the snow. And half of us didn't know and just kept going, and the other half just was like, oh my gosh. And then from that half, this is really pathetic, actually, from the half that stayed, half of that half was like, All right, cool, man. Well, we'll see you later. I'm like, that's not cool, man. And so this guy's picking up his teeth. He gets ski patrol to take him down, yeah, gets emergency surgery at some dentist in Park City, and he's back at the place. He's so upset, and he's like almost in tears, he's banged up on Percocet, and his teeth just get on someone. Oh, yeah. Pounded his face out with a hammer. I felt so bad.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

Oh man. I hope it was your last day. First day! Oh no.

Altitude Fears And Aging Out

SPEAKER_02 12:29

First day.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

Poor guy.

SPEAKER_02 12:32

Oh, I know. I don't know what's worse. Your knee or that. I'm not sure. I I might take the knee.

SPEAKER_00 12:37

I might take the knee too. Yeah, I feel like face injuries are just all the more painful.

SPEAKER_02 12:43

And the noise. I can you know, when you hear something and you just it stays with you? Yeah. That thud and the the air coming out of his locks. Poor guy.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

Yeah, okay. So you haven't had any major injuries skiing then?

SPEAKER_02 13:02

I was really fortunate, no.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

Yeah, knock on, knock on.

SPEAKER_02 13:05

Yeah, yeah. That's good. Real fortunate. I mean, I was never super aggressive. Um, I could ski um some black diamonds, it wouldn't be pretty, but I would do it. But I was kind of like, give me a nice moguled blue or a nice groomed black. That was kind of like my my happy place.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

Did you learn young?

SPEAKER_02 13:28

I tried to and hated it.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

Really?

SPEAKER_02 13:31

Yo, yeah, I was terrified.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 13:33

Um, and then somehow came back to it. Yeah, I'm not exactly sure when it clicked. Um, but it was like in my teens. Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

I mean I seems like a reasonable age, you know. The I have no fear age.

SPEAKER_02 13:49

Yeah, that's why that whole the youth thing really does help.

SPEAKER_00 13:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:54

Um, you see those kids just flying by and they're like seven years old going 100 miles an hour. They don't care.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

It was like on the bunny hill with the three-year-olds. They actually were too small to go on the baby list. And so they had to like take them up in like this little mini snow tractor. Oh, that's funny.

SPEAKER_02 14:12

And yet they didn't blow their ICL out.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

No, no. They're like jello. Of course. That's true. Yeah. Just roll over and then get back up. No poles, nothing. And you see them up there on the mountain too. But I think that's really the way to do it. Get a feel for it early before you can truly injure yourself.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

I think I'd be down with just kind of a whole Apry ski thing now. I'm down with the environment. Just kind of kick it and sit outside by a fire pit. Be totally fine with that.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

Would you consider cross-country skiing? I feel like I'll have to. Um there's supposed to be some good place in uh West Virginia. White white snow, white ski.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

I just think I would drop dead after like 30 seconds. Because it's a really hardcore uh aerobic workout from what I hear.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

Um does look like a cardio workout.

SPEAKER_02 15:07

I'll walk when I play golf. That's enough. For me.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

You gotta get your stuff sent somehow, yeah?

SPEAKER_02 15:12

Yeah, I guess anywhere matters. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm getting all this flood of memories from all these ski trips. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

Seems like there were fun times. I feel like the other group is good. It's the way the only way to do it.

SPEAKER_02 15:26

Yeah, there's actually uh it was a really kind of a sad story where one of our friends passed away. In preparation for this trip, he went to like a ski place in Virginia to get his skis tuned up or whatever. And he was having an issue with the brakes on his car. And so when he got there, he put the car up on Jack's and got up underneath the look, and the car fell on his head.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_02 15:49

Yeah, it was really bad. That's awesome. It was really bad.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

Oh, sorry.

SPEAKER_02 15:53

And uh this is oh my god, probably 30 something years ago. But we were gonna cancel the trip, and his mother said, No, no, no, no, no, absolutely not. You know, you go and blah, blah, blah, and there'll be a service when you get back, or whatever it is. And um, we had a nice plaque made. And then when we were in um uh in Alta, we asked the ski patrol if we could go up above tree line and and put this on like a rock formation or something. They're like, yeah, totally cool. And so I remember uh a bunch of us did that, which is really cool.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

That's really nice.

SPEAKER_02 16:28

So hopefully it's still there. You never know.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

Yeah, that's a good way to honor this movie.

Learning Curves And Confidence

SPEAKER_02 16:32

You know, the only place I mean, I haven't been skiing, but the only place I would consider it would be like Seven Springs. Only because it just has that vibe.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

Is that over here somewhere?

SPEAKER_02 16:44

That's up um maybe an hour outside of Pittsburgh.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 16:48

Yeah. Um, it just has a cool, you know, wooden beam, bavarian kind of feel to it still. Um and the slopes are the same. It's not nothing to write home about, but there's just a great vibe there. Yeah. You know?

SPEAKER_00 17:04

That can be a fun day still. Even if you're gonna keep the best hills.

SPEAKER_02 17:08

Like like anything, everything is so damn expensive now. It just doesn't make sense to my brain.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

Uh no, it keeps getting more expensive.

SPEAKER_02 17:21

My kid goes to school in Tennessee and like during football season, the hotels in town, they're like$1,500 a night with a two-night minimum. In Knoxville. In Knoxville. It's like, come on, man. It's kind of like um it's like all that donor alumni fund money, because those people don't care. They just they're connected and they want to go back to school and see games.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 17:52

Students do get uh their tickets, but it's like through a lottery. But for parents and that kind of thing, dude. Uh you're gonna be on the left?

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

Okay. I can make a U-turn for you.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

Thank you. There is like a little DF that's easier for you.

SPEAKER_02 18:10

Whatever's easier for you. You're the one with the bad wheel.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

Well, I can I can walk from here, so we're gonna U-turn here is cool?

SPEAKER_02 18:17

Yeah, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

Excellent.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

All right. Well, it was nice meeting.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

Yeah, it was nice chatting with you. Thanks for that.

Reviews, Instagram, And Sign-Off

SPEAKER_02 19:22

If you've enjoyed what you've heard, we'd love for you to review the podcast on your favorite listening platform like Apple or Spotify. Your support helps us so much, and don't forget to reach out on Instagram with your feedback or topic suggestions. Until next time, let's drive.