I remember very clearly the first time I skied in July. For a world cup star or an Olympic athlete I can see how that might not sound abnormal, but for me, it was a leap in the direction I wanted to be headed. I was soooo stoked!!
A few days earlier, I loaded my skis, my pack, my poles, my tuning kit, you know, the extensive entourage of things every ski racer has, into the back of my parents car- I was going skiing… In July!!!
That being said, besides my obvious excitement, as I waved my parents goodbye and walked through security at the Edmonton airport, I was REALLY nervous- at 13, I had never been away from home for so long.
Deplaning, I saw another girl about my age carrying race boots… this couldn’t be a coincidence, and she looked nice! “Hey, are you going to ski sisterhood!?” I asked. (I remember thinking it was going to be really awkward if she wasn’t.) She was, and I was relieved.
When my new friend and I walked out into arrivals, it was the first time I met Anna and Shona. I’m not going to lie, they were pretty hard to miss, they were decked out in pink sisterhood shirts and hats and were holding a giant sign. I didn’t think it was possible for anyone to be more excited than I was, but they obviously were. My nerves washed away.
The first thing, of many, that stuck me about Anna and Shona was their pure joie de vivre and how easily I felt I had known them forever. As a 13 year old (and still now), I idolize them. I remember desperately volunteering to clean up after dinner, my mother will tell you that cleaning is something I NEVER do (so it’s a BIG DEAL), just so I could spend an extra 10 minutes in the room with these masters of ski racing.
Nonetheless, my enthusiasm didn’t only grow for Anna and Shona. For the first time in my life I would jump out of bed when my alarm went off in the morning. The first thing on my agenda was taste testing. In our condo, we turned breakfasts into a cooking show and awarded a winner at the end of the camp. I’m sorry to say my burnt grilled cheese didn’t score so high, on the bright side I now know who to ask if I’m looking for a good waffle!
After breakfast we would jump on the lift, a pretty phenomenal morning commute, especially when they involved two-minute chairlift dance parties. When we got to the top we shoved our feet in our boots, dolloped a little sun screen on our faces and were ready to rip.
Training on the glacier was amazing. We had our own lane space and could lap quickly. The run was long but we could see it from from top to bottom and I was easily able to watch and learn from the other girls. We even got demos from the coaches! I drank in all the advice my idols gave me and by the end of the camp my skiing had improved juristically; I was convinced that I wanted to ski like them.
I think that having Anna and Shona as role models played a significant role in my life. All of a sudden, the current world cup racers weren’t the only kick-butt skiers out there. These women, my friends, who were smart and fun and nice were real people and exceptional skiers. They were people that I knew, and they were people that I knew I could strive to be. To be an awesome skier, I didn’t have to sacrifice goofiness or girlyness or fun or friendships or even be Austrian. The ski sisterhood camps opened new doors that helped me understand who I wanted to be as an athlete and as a person and gave me tools to get there.
That being said, the biggest thing that I took away from the ski sisterhood camps was the relationships I made with the other girls. The girl I met in the airport went on to be one of my best friends and a group of us (including other ski sisters) continue to hike, bike and ski together all the time. As we grew older, other girls I met at the ski sisterhood became my teammates and the relationships we had established earlier on played a huge role in our individual successes. To be honest, a huge part of my love for skiing stems from the community that you become a part of, the ski sisterhood introduced me to this community.
The girls that I met at Whistler I really do consider a part of my family, they accept me for my inability to cook and are thrilled at the idea of a two-minute dance party, but most of all when everyone else is lounging on the beach, there’s nothing in the world they would rather do then rip it up… even in July!