Head Space

One of the aspects of skiing that I enjoy most in my role as an instructor is that it is thrilling for people when they slide on skis for the very first time and that it remains thrilling even for we who have been skiing for a very long time or who ski for a living. It allows those of us who teach skiing to really understand and appreciate the excitement of those first few moments. That thrill is what separates skiing from other similarly social sports and is part of what makes it so appealing and so rewarding at the end of the day. We can share our ski experiences with others of different ability levels because this essential component is always present.

This past week I watched some of the finals of the Big Mountain portion of the 2008 Völkl NZ Freeski Open at Treble Cone. The competition was held in the Motatapu Chutes, a lift serviced area adjacent to the Saddle Basin which is accessible, conditions permitting, to anyone skiing at TC. It’s an enormous area of extreme terrain, some of which is outstanding terrain for people looking to try this type of skiing for the first time, and some of which is truly, exceptionally steep, narrow, and difficult. Skiing in this area has been one of the great joys of my experience here, and it’s always a welcome challenge. The photos here are of the Motatapu and of a competitor in the Open in order to put their scale in perspective.

For the Open competitors, among whom were a couple of friends of mine, the need to focus on what was necessary to not merely ski in the chutes safely but to compete in them successfully often is referred to as the need to be in the right “head space”. It’s a funny term but it is apt for the idea of the thrill that is present for all of us in skiing. Obviously, dropping cliffs on skis is dangerous business, requiring skill, confidence and, errr, spinal chord, working accurately and in harmony. The reality is, however, that the process of arriving in the right head space to ski at that level is really no different than the process of someone driving up the precarious road to Treble Cone, seeing snow for the first time, and then learning how to ski with us in the Snow Sports School.

Improvement as a skier necessarily brings with it an expansion of the type of terrain on which one is comfortable and able to enjoy skiing. Our head space changes its literal and figurative location, but the principle, how it makes us feel about the activity we’re doing, and how we feel afterwards, remains the same. It is what links the beginner’s Magic Carpet to the Motatapu Chutes and brings us all together in shared experience on the mountain.