This time last year, I was cruising around Vail’s legendary back bowls, thigh-deep in powder.

Today finds me halfway around the world, in a place where the very concept of snow is totally unknown. The language isn’t English, the people don’t party so hard, and the weather is much too hot for my liking. I’m a tourist in Asia, not a local.

It’s quite a big change from Vail, where I relished being someone set apart from the hordes of international tourists. It’s increasingly looking like I will miss ski season entirely. After skiing for solid months last year, it’s weird to be developing sandal tan lines in December.

NOT THAT IT’S ALL BAD (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

The digital nomad scene is a different sort of running away, full of very different people than ski bums. In some ways I fit in better here, but there’s not much room for outdoors adventures when you spend most of your time hunched in front of a laptop screen. Joining a pre-arranged tour for a hike up a volcano is a very different experience than going backpacking in your backyard.

(And truthfully, Colorado is sunnier than the tropics!! It rains a lot here!)

Since I’m missing the outdoor adventure lifestyle so much, I’m bringing on another writer to keep me informed, keep you psyched, and keep everyone aspiring to more.

C is holding down the ski bum dream in Vail, Colorado. He’ll be providing a continuation to the ski town content I started last year. He’s 20 years old, a college dropout, adventure seeker, and all around smart guy. In fact, you can spot him in one of the rotating banners up top— looking at his cell phone in a Vail Mountain lean-to. Last year found us alone in the glades on the backside of Beaver Creek’s Grouse Mountain; slamming into walls while doing quasi-legal rock climbing at Wolcott, and on top of four 14,000 peaks in one day, predawn, in the middle of a meteor shower. He’s solid company.

You’ll enjoy him.

C will be introducing himself with a post in the coming week, and after that, you can expect to see his posts interspersed with mine.

That’s all for now. Merry Christmas from halfway across the world! Make some holiday turns for me, a ski bum stuck in the tropics!