Come On, Spring, Hurry Up!

Just my typical day off stroll to town along Lake Wanaka. Ho-hum.

The ebb and flow of my days here in Wanaka as a ski instructor at Cardrona differs in ways big and small from home in Vermont. Principal among those is how we get to work and the logistics involved. Staff vans pick up everyone at selected locations in town, swing by the town office in Wanaka for a head count, and then we make the forty minute drive to Cardrona - twenty minutes from town to the bottom of the crazy, windy, mountainous, unpaved access road and another twenty minutes from there to the resort. All in, from the time I walk out of my house in the morning at 7:00AM it takes about an hour. The folks here find it amazing that at home in Ludlow, I could roll out of my house and be at my old job at Okemo in five or ten minutes, with the largest chunk of that time spent waiting for my engine block to heat up on cold winter days.

One upside of the logistics of getting to work here is that I do get a few minutes of downtime each morning, looking out at Lake Wanaka and the Southern Alps and observing the change in seasons. Wanaka is far enough south that at this time of year we see daily reminders that spring is on its way. Some of the signs are funny. Are the street lamps still on when we are leaving town? Are they still on when we're at the pickup spot? Do we need sunglasses when we get to work? On the road? In town?! Over the past week, there has been a significant increase in the noise from the birds in the trees around our house in the morning, in the amount of traffic on the roads, and in the number of people exercising off their winter insulation as I leave my house. In late August and September here on the South Island, we add something like three minutes of daylight every day, and we feel it! Like Spring everywhere, all of the changes come with a great sense of relief and release. Winter may 'set in' but 'spring has sprung', for crying out loud.

I head home from New Zealand next week to start my new role as the director of the Sugarbush Ski & Ride School. I'm very much looking forward to my first September in New England in a long time and I'm anxious to get cracking. In the meantime, I'll make use of all of the spring and all of the daylight I can get.

Lessons Well-Learned

A piste marker at Cardrona, essential
when air and snow are the same color

One of the indications of a great lesson, about skiing and riding or otherwise, is that it resonates with the student not only on the day and at the time, but also for weeks and even years afterwards. I am fortunate to have been the recipient of many great lessons as a skier and a ski pro, taught to me by some truly remarkable people. Some of those lessons are about technical skiing and teaching, some are about the business of snow sports, and many of them continue to inform me on a broader level, at a higher altitude.

After finishing my undergraduate degree more than twenty years ago, I moved to Colorado with some close friends and began my journey. In the years since, as a skier, coach, teacher, and trainer, I have been very fortunate to work and become friends with many pros and guests from around the world and from among several generations. Each contributes in some way to my understanding of skiing and ski teaching and to the joys I find in them. At times, whether I’m making wedge turns on the beginner hill, simplifying the world for nervous intermediates, giggling with great kids as we rip around, training instructors, and coordinating programs, certain lessons percolate to the surface. I work hard to take them to heart and to continue to learn from them.

Marty Harrison, Dan Bergeron and the many staff, guests and friends in Ludlow and at Okemo with whom I have shared so much over the past eleven seasons have helped me hone my own concepts of skiing, ski teaching, ski philosophy, line-up joke telling, edge bevels, the restorative effects of good Italian cooking, the psychological benefits of smoked salmon, why kids rule and why teaching them is a privilege, and how to find great satisfaction in eking out a living in such a beautiful place. I am grateful to and for all of them. Period.

Why the contemplative and rearward-looking histrionics while a big winter storm hammers the Southern Alps here in Wanaka? I’ve just accepted a big challenge, a major shift in my role in the industry, and I’ll need to take all of those well-learned lessons and put them into practice daily. I have accepted the position of Director of the Sugarbush Ski & Ride School in Warren, Vermont. I am excited and I have a lot to learn, but I am confident that I am ready, that Sugarbush represents a terrific opportunity for me, and that I can help lead the school there into an increasingly successful future. So, as I look ahead, please forgive me as I also take a few moments to look back and consider where I’ve been. Soon enough, I’ll be in Vermont charging forward.

In the meantime, it’s dumping at Cardrona right now and I’ll be in civies on my day off tomorrow enjoying all of it. If I’ve learned anything in my life as a ski pro, it’s that we have to take the time to enjoy our life as simple skiers when the opportunities present themselves. This coming winter in Vermont, I’ll look forward to doing that and more at Sugarbush!

After writing the foregoing, I did in fact have a great day of skiing except for the fact that we couldn't see past our noses. Can't have it all, I guess, but tomorrow ...


Yours truly dropping in