New perspectives

I’m learning. People have different perspectives and priorities. I reckon I’m a pretty accommodating kind of person. I’m one of those people who will hesitate when opening a door, wondering if I should hold it open for that person who’s doing a bit of a jog and a skip trying to catch the open door, but not wanting to seem like they are. They are also wondering if I will hold the door open for them. By the time I’ve decided whether I will hold the door or not they’re already through the door and giving me an odd look that’s saying, ‘Thanks, you can close the door now.’ On second thoughts, maybe I’m not accommodating, maybe I’m just indecisive. Anyway, where was I before I got sidetracked by doors? Perspectives. So, being accommodating (or indecisive) I’m pretty open to new ideas or points of view. Or so I thought.

I’m in Vail, Colorado working with the Australian Paralympic Ski Team, which is training for the World Championships in January. These skiers like to ski fast. Really fast. And to ski really fast they like to have hard snow. Fresh snow on the ground is soft snow, making it difficult to go fast. I prefer fresh, soft snow. It feels floaty, it’s fun and it feels better than most things when it hits you in the face. Until a few weeks ago I didn’t realise how different our head coach’s perspective on soft snow is.

We’ve woken to several mornings of fresh powder. The head coach finds this infuriating. It makes it difficult for our skiers to train. It forces him to change plans. While he’s considering these change of plans the rest of us are standing at the bottom of the hill silently praying that training will be called off and we can all go freeskiing. To his credit, he gets creative and produces some good results, considering all this terrible new snow.

This morning was particularly difficult. Almost a foot of new snow fell and we had speed training with the US Ski Team. Their coaches and I spent an hour slipping the course, pushing this beautiful, soft, dry powder out the racers’ way. It felt like sacrilege. Please forgive me. But, I’m learning. It is another perspective on snow. And one that is not all bad, as race courses are fenced off from the general public. This means that most of the snow stays untracked. Luckily I’ve been very forgetful lately, leaving all sorts of things at the bottom of the hill that I have to go collect. I'm finding plenty of reasons to go play in the fresh powder that can hit me in the face. I'm accommodating the new perspective. 

Less than ideal skiing conditions in Vail.