Skiing: an inspiring lifelong passion. Make the most of your life, on, and off the ski hill.
By Cy Whitling
According to some historians, way back in 161 AD, Marcus Aurelius said, “It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.” And, while Marcus probably wasn’t referring specifically to skiing when he dropped that chestnut of wisdom, his attitude on living life to the fullest resonates with anyone who’s ever dropped everything to head to the mountains.
More and more, everything in life is planned, we’ve got our calendars telling us where to be when, and when to log in to that video call with whoever. We’ve got our meals planned and our commutes planned and even our entertainment planned. We’ve got everything lined out in a rigid schedule with no room for spontaneity. And that’s why it’s so important to take time every winter to unplug from the methodically regimented hustle of daily existence and head to the mountains to ski. Prepare your ski for the winter to enjoy your passion,
Skiing might just be the perfect antidote to the slow drudgery of our over-organized lives. It’s spontaneous, it’s fun, it’s hard, in a good way, it helps us reconnect with our inner child, and most of all, it allows us to feel free. So maybe our friend mister Aurelius never loaded a chairlift and headed up the mountain. Maybe he never got to experience the bliss of 8” overnight with more on the way, but his admonition to live life to the fullest rings true to anyone who’s found joy in skiing.
Sure, you can try to over-plan and micromanage your ski trip, but honestly, good luck with that. The mountains don’t care what arbitrary schedule you’ve set, what runs you want to hit in which order. The weather gods listen to nobody, and that’s part of the magic of skiing. If it was predictable, it wouldn’t be as exciting. Instead, you surrender to nature, wake up every morning and evaluate the snow conditions, reacting in real-time to make the most of whatever the winter’s weather has thrown at you. It’s spontaneous, it’s exciting, and it’s the rush of gambling with nothing to lose.
Another great sage, whose name is unfortunately lost in the annals of history, once said that “a bad day of skiing is better than a good day at work” and we agree. So what if it didn’t snow as much as you wanted it to last night? You’re here, you’re lucky enough to have skis strapped to your feet. Even if there’s just one icy groomer open, that’s still a highway to freedom. The light is a little flat? So what? You’re arcing playful turns, playing tag with gravity as your weight and unweight your ski, bouncing between weightlessness and the intense g-forces in each carved turn. Skiing is fun. Put more fun into your life, you only get one shot at today, and make it great.
And skiing isn’t just fun once you’re good at it. The learning process is part of the magic. As adults, we’ve been conned into believing that we need to be good at everything we do, or at least pretend to be. There’s no real room for progression, for being bad at something and relishing the learning experience, in modern work culture. But for skiers that feeling of growth is the norm. Every day you spend on the hill is another day to improve your dance with the mountain. We don’t get enough chances to fall down and then get right back up and try again. Skiing creates those changes, over and over again. You’re going to crash. Everyone crashes. That’s part of the fun. Don’t worry, you’ll crash less the next run. You’ll learn, you’ll feel yourself progress over the day. And every night you’ll go to bed knowing you’re a better skier than you were the day before. That’s a special feeling. To enjoy skiing Utah is one of the best places that provide a great experience and the best service providers for skis and snowboards.
And beyond that, skiing doesn’t just do all of that for you, it does it for everyone you’re skiing with as well. That shared experience creates a very special bond. Partaking in an activity like skiing is a great way to connect with friends and family. It’s a unique setting where everyone’s expectations are altered, there’s less ego and more camaraderie. The best memories are made in the mountains, they allow us to be more vulnerable, and the simple joy skiing adds to life highlights the things that matter—the relationships we forge with other people. Skiing breaks down many of the barriers to the interhuman connection we find in everyday life and makes it easier to get to know people in a unique setting. So go make some memories that none of you will ever forget.
For a lot of us, skiing is as close to the feeling of flying under our power as we’ll ever get. If you’ve ever held your arms out as you straight-lined a groomer on a sunny day, feeling like you could just lift off of the next roller and soar off into the sky, you understand. Every lap is another chance at freedom. Go where you want, make that turn, slash that snow at your friends, air over that stump, explore a new glade, or just meander along with a fun groomer around the mountain. Skiing makes the mountains into our playgrounds. Embrace that, come ready to play, and your life will be richer for it.
For a lot of us, the drudgery of our work environment can feel almost overwhelming, we adapt to the methodical routine and expect nothing more from our lives. But skiing lets us re-evaluate that status-quo, it lets us break from the routine and get more out of every day. Isn’t that sort of the end goal? When you near the finish line of your life and look back, are you going to regret skiing so many days? Or will you look back on every day you spend on the mountain and appreciate the value and joy it brought to your life?
Just remember, skiing: an inspiring lifelong passion. Get out there and enjoy the mountains and live your life to the fullest.