By the time she got to the scenic overlook where boyfriend Mike was waiting, a spot wiped clean on a fallen tree, Kimberly Pursley was frustrated, she was tired, and she was perhaps a little miffed at Mike for taking her on such a long trek her first day on skis.
Mike handed Kimberly a couple bottles of wine, then while she was distracted pouring the wine, he reached into his backpack for the ring. ?I hauled Kimberly out there and proposed to her.?
At this Kim laughs and adds, ?I fell in a snow bank on the way up.? I earned that engagement ring, let me tell you!?
The duo were students at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas, when Mike decided it was time to introduce Kimberly to a place he?d grown to love. Back when the family lived in Denver, Mike had learned to downhill ski at age 3 and spent quite a bit of time on the slopes at Loveland before they moved to San Antonio, Texas, when he was 6.
?My family discovered Red River in the mid-?80s when I was in high school. We would come up during mid-winter break and we kind of fell in love with this place because it is halfway between San Antonio and Denver where we still have family.?
EFXC co-owner Goeff Goins (left) and Mike Ritterhouse hit the trails
Thanks to a knee injury one winter, Mike says he discovered Nordic skiing at Enchanted Forest Cross Country Ski & Snowshoe Area just outside Red River. Later, when he fell in love, he says, ?I wanted to share Enchanted Forest with Kimberly.?
So he proposed, she accepted, then, like so many young men, he went to work. Fast forward a few years: