The mental challenge of skiing. I have recently come back from a skiing holiday in New Zealand. Queenstown to be precise. While I was away from my work as a Psychologist for the week one thing that come through quite strongly for me is the mental challenge that skiing presents. It is absolutely critical to be focused on the moment and your technique. I found that I could not become distracted for even one second, otherwise I would fall over and even worse.
The highlight of the week for me by far was a hike and ski that I undertook with 2 buddies. On the afternoon of our second day skiing we decided to hike up to the top of the highest mountain and ski down untouched powdered snow, to finish about 1K from the skiing village. A bus would bring us back. Very few people attempted this run as no chair lift was present to take you to the top. But I remembered looking at it all day and it was almost calling me to do it. It was my Everest. While I expected it to be a physical challenge - which it was - especially the hiking part of it. The hike and ski turned into more of a mental challenge. And through doing it - I gained enormous clarity, especially during the hike part. It was a case of putting one foot in front of the other on the way up the mountain. I couldn't allow myself to look down the mountain because it was too steep or think how far it was to go or how on earth am I going to ski down it or how much energy I had left. The sheer focus I needed was extraordinary - I couldn't afford any errors. I was totally in the moment. I had never witnessed this amount of focus ever in my entire life. We took 4 breaks on the way to the top of the mountain, where we would sit in the snow. The breaks were as important as the hike cos It gave us a chance to mentally switch off as well as physically recover.
At the top we celebrated for a few moments and took a few photos and just as I was about to take a video a huge gust of wind came through and we all ducked for cover. This was the universes way of saying to get out of there and stop mucking around.
The ski down was magical. I was extremely mindful not to make any mistakes in the thick powder snow. But I was also very aware to actually enjoy the experience and not to view it primarily as a task to complete and tick off.
At the bottom of the hill after the run it was pure excitement when I caught up with my 2 buddies. I had barely known them 2 days but that day I felt that I really bonded with them and got to know them a whole lot better, even though very few words were spoken. It was absolute, utter contentment.
And that is the mental challenge of skiing.
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