The season is afoot. Snow: the good, the bad, and the transcendent

It's now December 9 and we've had a solid two weeks on snow here at Waterville Valley. Granted, it's limited terrain, but the snow has achieved an ideal consistency for race training. It's moisture content is high, it is consistent, and there has been just enough of a dusting of new snow each day to fill in any cracks that might have otherwise appeared.

For ski racers, snow is a very deep subject. Once a certain threshold of proficiency is reached, the subject of snow takes on a whole different meaning. Listen to any world class racer talk about their skiing and you'll notice how much time they spend talking about the surface. For them, the question is less about "how am I going to ski" than about "how am I going to ski on this surface?" There's a great lesson here for young racers... it's OK to think in terms of: "what do I think I can get away with?" In fact, it is precisely this line of questioning that invites an athlete to first step back and observe the environment in which they act, and then second to create a solution to be acted upon (we'll write another blog later on getting conception to action. It'll be entitled "faith and self-reliance in ski racing"). Too often we find ourselves fixated on our bodies, our equipment, our state of mind, etc, without giving the environment the attention it deserves. Or, when we do pay attention to the environment, it is often in a negative, reactive mode. For example, when I was young, when the conditions were "bad," my mind would simply say "this sucks" and leave it at that. When it was good, I wouldn't think about it at all.

As it happens, at least from my experience, the whole good/bad thing was more of a distraction than an accurate way of meeting the universe with whatever skills I had on loan from God.

Those on the warrior ski racer path may want to consider the alternative of non-judgmental observation when it comes to things you can't control, such as snow conditions, course set, weather issues, etc. Although you cannot control the conditions, you certainly can control your observation of them, your subsequent interpretation of them, and thus how you act upon them. If life gives you death cookies, frozen muffin chunks and sugar, you give back a technique perfectly suited for it, period. The great thing about ski racing is that, most of the time, everyone has to deal with the same crazy variables. You're missing out if you don't embrace this wonderful nuance of our sport. Once you understand that the true joy and satisfaction of the sport is to meet the conditions as you find them, as opposed to pursuing a lifetime of linked park and ride hand-touchin' sweet spot crushing ego-stroking turns, you'll achieve an openness in your ability to perceive things that you may not have had before. Trust me, you'll start having "hero days" where you never dreamed you'd have had them before.