This weekend I enjoyed another great day skiing at Deer Valley resort located in Utah where I believe the ‘Greatest Snow on Earth’ still exists!  I spent the morning enjoying the fresh powder from the night before and the afternoon taking on the challenge of skiing the moguls also known as ‘bumps’ with a good friend that is a master ‘bump skier’!

I’ve always been more of what I call a ‘Jack Johnson’ style skier where I stick to the ‘groomer’s’ listening to my favorite Pandora station (which in case you’re wondering is called Jack Johnson Radio) making as many turns as I can, cautious and careful of skiing down the mountain.   As many skiers can relate, I have feared going off track into the trees, into the bumps, or heaven forbid, the ‘steeps’ on the mountain!

A couple of seasons ago I made a conscious decision that I wanted to stretch myself, become better, learn to ski stronger, thru the trees, thru the bumps, on the steeps! Besides, if I wanted to keep up with and ski with my son who has no ‘fear’ of finding some fresh power and just ‘going for it’ I would have to push myself and learn how to ski the terrain I’ve always avoided.

Last season, I decided I would start stretching slowly by taking a ski clinic titled ‘Intro to Steep’s’, thinking to myself that this would be an ‘introduction’ class where I likely would be on blue, double blue (intermediate terrain) at the most difficult.  This ‘intro’ class would be perfect way to see if I could begin to overcome my fears of skiing terrain I’d never skied before. I advised the clinician that I wanted to work on fears I’d had with skiing as well as work on my ‘vertigo’ issues on the steeps that I get when on a steep pitch.  Besides this was an ‘intro’ class and the clinician wouldn’t really consider taking us on any black diamond (most difficult, expert terrain), right? The first few runs were exactly what I was expecting,  easy blues, to intermediate blues, then we started going into tree runs, steep tree runs!!!  I seriously almost bowed out and said ‘adios mi amigo’s I’m outta here!’  Until the words of the clinician sunk into my mind and soul…   He said to me ‘Eddie, the best way to tackle your fear is entering the fear itself and seeing yourself succeeding.’  

By the end of the class, I found myself hanging the tips of my skis on the steepest expert double black diamond terrain on the mountain!   I never imagined that I would ever ski down the expert Daly Bowl and Daly Chutes of Deer Valley!   Was I scared?  Heck yea!  Did I see myself succeeding to tackle my fear?  You better believe I did as when you get to certain places on the mountain, there’s only one way down!   And guess what?  It totally worked!   I skied terrain I never thought I could, I overcame my fear that day and learned that we all can stretch ourselves, we just need to UnPlug from the worries and fears and PlugIn to seeing ourselves succeeding.   Since this class, I have become a better skier, and I hope to apply the same principals in life and become a better person.   I start by seeing others succeed (like my friend, master bump skier, tackle the bumps like nobody’s business) then I see myself succeeding, and in time, courage will prevail and success will be the end result!  So, take courage, see yourself succeed and enjoy the ‘steeps’!