So Bode Miller likes to drink. There really should be no surprise there.

He also likes to get drunk and ski. There should be no surprise there either.

OK, maybe using the term “wasted” to describe his state of inebriation and never stating whether he would or would not do it again was a little shocking to some.

But overall, none of this is surprising.

Miller has always been kind of a renegade. (Of course renegades are a dime a dozen in professional skiing, but let’s just ignore that.) So what if he is the overall World Cup champion, and America’s best shot at a skiing medal in Torino this coming February?

The man is a skier.

Bill Marolt, the president and chief executive of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, should be lucky that Miller wasn’t tipsy at his apology press conference Thursday.

If you are a non-skier allow me to educate you on why this is not a big surprise: drinking is as much apart of the skiing culture as singlets are to wrestling. (I’m not saying all skiers drink. I’m just saying that a lot do.)

Look, skiing for many people is as much about the sport as it is the drinking. It is literally its own culture. Go to a ski village, you will see what I’m talking about. (There may be more bars in Colorado than any other state in the Union.)

To skiers, the fact that Bode Miller enjoyed getting drunk and hurling himself down hill wasn’t a revelation, a surprise, or even blink-worthy. Every skier knows at least one other skier who does this type of thing. On St. Patrick’s day every skier knows at least five. It’s the culture.

I’m not saying that any of this is acceptable. I’m just stating facts.

My father has told me many skiing trip stories. My favorite involves his ski boot being used as a margarita container by his friends and his ear as guacamole dip holder.

That notion that people, especially Marolt, are up upset about the situation is ludicrous.

Have we all forgot about the “ski bum”?

“Bums” are the cornerstone of the mountain community.

“Ski bums” tend to have odd white-guy names like Grotty, ski whenever they’re given the chance, work four jobs, live in small crappy apartments that cost the same as a flat in New York City, never seem to mature beyond the age of 25 and many of them drink until they are so “wasted” that they can barely tell what they are – never mind who they are.

So what’s the point of all this?

The point is, that in many ways, I just described Bode Miller. Miller is, in many ways, a glorified “ski bum.” He is the culture, thrusted into the limelight for the first time. (I know Johnny Mosely was big about three years ago, but he was the Hot Topic version of the product: sleek-looking, marketable and pimped out to giggling teenage girls.)

Miller is the real thing (or at least as real as America has seen so far). He is an aggressive skier, with an intimidating attitude and a crazy streak. He is also a very honest interview.

So, there was no surprise to skiing fans that he made the comments that he did on ’60 Minutes’. Every skier knows a Bode Miller type. Many are the Bode Miller type.

Miller is a skier’s skier. He goes for broke on every run, rarely taking his own life into consideration. The fact that he would do the same while intoxicated isn’t a surprise.

The real surprise was that he didn’t mention what his favorite ski town to drink in was or what his favorite mountain brewery is.

John Snodgrass is a senior in journalism who loves to watch old ski bums race each other. He can be reached at [email protected].