I cruised down S.R. 224 amidst the early morning traffic, turning into Canyons Village. At the stop light, it struck me how quiet it was. Gone were the clever attack placards. There were no more ski patrollers roaming the sidewalk. And the honking of horns was silenced. A dozen hours earlier, the patrol union and Vail Resorts had come to a tentative agreement.The silence was golden.When I started Ridgelines a few years ago, it was to write positive vibes about my favorite sport in my own little ski town. We ski to have fun, right? Well, we didn’t have much fun the past few weeks, did we? And this sport we love, which provides the livelihood for our community, tore us apart.It was a cold Wednesday morning. The temperature was zero when I left home. I sat in the car in the Cabriolet parking lot, anxiously awaiting the temp to hit at least 10. It stalled at 9. I finally acquiesced and headed up. It was a midweek January morning. Gone were the holiday crowds.“Tombstone yet?” I asked a mountain host, who replied with a smile: “Not yet, but give Iron Mountain a try!” I settled for laps on Saddleback Express.I just wanted to get up on my mountain. I didn’t care where I skied. I rode Red Pine with a gondola full of tourists; same on Saddleback. They were all having fun. No one was telling horror stories of their holiday vacation. I think they left that to us locals.My laps on Snow Dancer and Kokopelli were magnificent. A little topping of fresh snow made conditions very carvable. Lap after lap, I felt the wind in my face and looked up to the ridgeline to see wisping clouds on Square Top and 9990. It was a wonderful morning on some of my favorite ski runs.Those who are familiar with me know that I’m a glass-half-full kind of guy. I don’t tend to get involved in controversy because I prefer to find my own positive way around it. But the last few weeks haven’t been among our community’s finest moments.Our town breeds the deep-rooted character of hard rock miners — gritty, stubborn, opinionated. In a way, it’s a characteristic that brings us together, even though most of us only inherited that heritage when we moved here and became locals.I do understand people in our community choosing to use the patrol issue as a platform to shoot arrows at Vail Resorts. I don’t necessarily agree, but I do understand. What I do not understand are the personal attacks on our local resort leaders. It’s one thing to throw down epitaphs against an office building in Broomfield, Colorado. It’s quite another to make it personal toward our own friends and neighbors — Parkites who love serving guests at our resort and who really have nothing to do with the conflict or its resolution. They’re just trying to run a resort against challenging circumstances, including Mother Nature.Writing words on a social media channel is easy when you don’t have to look someone in the eye. But it hurts just as much!Looking forward, I have two messages as takeaways from the holiday we want to forget. To my friends in town, remember that our local resort leaders are also a part of our community. They share the same values as you and I, choosing Park City as the place to raise their families and contribute to our town. And they are now tasked with bringing it all back together. They need our support, not criticism!To my friends in Broomfield, know that Park City is a unique, strong, and united community of hard rock miners. We would like you to be our friend. But you have to become a genuine part of our neighborhood.All of this turmoil aside, my dream is simple. I just want to be able to ski up to Cloud Dine for a doughnut.The post Ridgelines: All I really want is a ski-in doughnut appeared first on Park Record.