It was a global underground society. Called “Planetary Defense.” Mark told me about it then gave me the proper apparel and told me about the salute: “To the head!” The group was dedicated to parades, telemark skiing, safety, and…and…I forget.
Here’s a link to a Summit County, CO, news story about the group, and its founder (maybe?) Phil Kopp.
A decade ago I’d been away from Colorado for a decade but was back driving through on a roadtrip around the US of A with Martha — an early date. We were visiting friends back in Breckenridge and were hiking up through a wilderness valley to a place to camp above the treeline one summer, Lord knows why. “A little hike” our friends said. It was the hardest thing ever. And harder than that, even, for Martha.
We’d been hiking straight up for a couple hours, a couple came down past us on the goat-track. I was focused on going up (carrying two packs). The dude was carefully coming down past me. I suddenly saw he was wearing a Planetary Defense hat. I had on my PD t-shirt — it was one of the only ones I had. As we passed, both working hard not to fall down the , we could muster was a “To the head!” and a laugh and we stayed on our mutual ways.
https://www.summitdaily.com/article/20110130/NEWS/110129777
