Having a small, but quality, ski resort close to New Castle is a wonderful thing. I’m speaking of Sunlight Mountain Resort, home of the 52 degree Heathen and many nice tree-filled glades.

The last four times I’ve been skiing have all been at Sunlight, and aside from nailing a tree, each day was perfect. Other than having fresh powder all four trips (the first two were light and fluffy, but the next were somewhat frozen), I don’t think I could have asked for anything else.

I’ve only been skiing for a year and am very surprised at how quickly I’ve picked it up. When I started last spring, there were some blue trails that were enough of a problem for me, now those are my cool down runs.

Somehow I’ve been on the expert sections of the double blacks at Sunlight, including the Heathen, as well as others at Breckenridge, Beaver Creek and Vail.

I’ve heard it takes people years to be able to handle double blacks. Granted, I’m not the prettiest thing scampering down the mountain on those tougher trails. I know my form is surely off and who knows what else I’m doing wrong.

But I don’t care what I’m doing wrong at this point, I’m just glad that I’m pushing myself this hard and I’m able to respond. If I can get down a double black only touching a hand down once or twice, that’s fine with me.

There’s such a great feeling of accomplishment when just a year ago I was working on my French fries and pizza slices. Flying down a slope at 40 miles per hour or making pin-point turns in the trees ranks up there with cradling a 23-inch brown trout in my hands.

I’ve told my parents and friends this: I’d rather take a day of good skiing over an afternoon or evening of hoisting 20-inch trout out of the water. I still carry my fishing addiction with me anywhere I go, but the thrill of being on skis lights a different kind of fire within me.

Now, I just need to combine skiing and fishing. Would that be “skishing”?

My latest trip to Sunlight was over the weekend for the 24 Hours of Sunlight affair. This event is something that I’ve never heard the likes of before, especially coming from my home state of Pennsylvania.

I can only imagine what it’s like to face the mountain for a whole day. Not an eight-hour office day, one of those 24-hour ones. It would be hard enough to just stay awake, let alone the amount of endurance it takes. I don’t think I could handle 24 hours of snowmobiling and skiing, and the sled is doing all the work on the uphill for me.

These are some true athletes.

Competing solo or on a team, either one would be extremely hard.

It was a pleasant sight to see so many family and friends of all the racers cheering them on. It sounded like a high school cross county running race to me: Cowbells were ringing left and right. It didn’t matter if the person with the cowbell knew who the racer was. They were just glad to cheer everyone on.

Eric Sullivan, of Crested Butte, took home the men’s solo trophy. He trekked almost 40 miles and climbed more than 40,000 feet of vertical elevation in 27 laps. The funny thing was, Sullivan had seven laps and 10,000 feet less than his world record he set last year for most human-powered vertical feet skied in 24 hours.

I consider myself pretty tired after six or so hours of skiing, and I’m taking the lift.

Give these uber-snowsporters a hand, and if you see me skittering down a double black, just yell out what I need to be doing different.

Baron Zahuranec is a sports writer and copy editor for the Post Independent.