Taking the really high road to inner peace

Laurence Washington, Special to the Rocky

Friday, November 30, 2007

Instant Karma

* Nonfiction. By Wayne K. Sheldrake. Ghost Road Press, $17.95. Grade: A

Plot in a nutshell: You'd think Sheldrake wouldn't go near a pair of skis. Not because the writer has escaped death several times, limping away from trees with bone- shattering injuries, but because at 10 years old Sheldrake was diagnosed with a heart condition that his doctors warned could kill him if he overexerted himself. So naturally Sheldrake becomes driven to challenge authority on treacherous mountain ranges in search of inner peace.

A Pennsylvania transplant, Sheldrake moved to Denver with his divorcee mother as a child. While attending college in southern Colorado, he worked a variety of summer jobs: teacher, trout farmer, bicycle repairman and river guide. But it was winter that he lived for, and "ski bum" was his highest calling.

In a story punctuated with wit so arid you could fix a martini, Sheldrake searches for self-enlightenment, whether skiing down a summit or even a sand dune or two.

Best tidbit: While parking at the back of the Wolf Creek Ski Area lot so he could easily leave early, Sheldrake is hassled by an attendant who tells him to park in the front or be towed. As Sheldrake obeys, he yells a dubious threat: that he has a Nixon mask in his glove compartment. When Sheldrake returns months later and tries to park in the lot reserved for four-wheel-drive vehicles in his all-wheel drive, another attendant tells him to move or be towed.

"I was really miffed," Sheldrake writes. "I said, 'You know, Earnest, I have - "

"Yeah, we know," the attendant interrupted. "You have a Nixon mask. Big hooty."

Pros: Sheldrake's a master wordsmith, writing vivid descriptions. Consider this bit about one of his operations: "A person you met the day before (soon to be your hero) slices your chest open from just below your Adam's apple to just above your bellybutton. Your sternum is chopped in half with a circular saw that would serve as well to build a backyard birdhouse. Your lumpy red and blue heart is filleted. More tubes grow from your chest. When you wake up, you look like a greenhouse irrigation system."

Cons: The book seems a bit short, although that's far better than a memoir that filibusters.

Final word: You don't have to be a ski bum to enjoy Sheldrake's inspired stories of bucking the status quo. All you have to be is spiritual and free. And a bit of recklessness wouldn't hurt either.