Skiing-Personal Narrative

Besides soccer, sledding is something my sister and I love to do on snowy afternoons. We have this amazing hill at our house thats super steep and has lots on turns; its the perfect sledding hill. The only problem with it is that at the end of the hill there is a road. My father didn’t want us sledding on the hill until he could put a fence up to keep us from sliding into the middle of the road.

The coat of armor I adorned, made of down feathers and a nylon shell, yielded no protection against the daggers of that cold winter air. As I peered out toward the horizon, I saw nothing but tree tops, and some snow capped mountain tops in the distance. With my feet bound to freshly waxed skis, the only thing stronger than my ski poles was my determination to get down the mountain.

Cross Country is one of the hardest sports out there. That may be a biased opinion, but in my experience it is true. Only certain people are willing to put themselves through such physical and mental pain for a race that is less than 30 minutes. I am a very driven person. When I want to do something, I set a goal and I work towards it until I have achieved it. That’s why cross country is such a satisfying sport for me. It’s hard--harder than anything I’ve ever done--but it’s so much more rewarding when you look back and see how much progress you’ve made. Cross country may seem like an individual sport, and it can be, but to succeed, you need your whole team’s effort. I have learned that not everyone is as driven as I am. Few people are willing to put in the hard work in practice to do well at meets.

The first time I went snowboarding I was 9 or 10. Me, my mom, my dad, and Lucas drove up to Mars Hill, North Carolina. The place we went was a small resort named Wolf Ridge Ski Resort. Wolf Ridge has 15 trails including one bowl, one black, nine blues, and four greens. The black diamonds are the equivalent to blues in colorado or utah. Since it was my brother and I’s first time we found a rental place the night we got into Mars Hill and rented boots and boards for the very next morning. We were so excited, my brother and I got up super early in our family's hotel room and drove the short 5 min drive up through the mountains. We got there around 7:30 and the lifts started running at 9:00. We had brought skateboard helmets, small jackets almost hoodie

Cross country is a sport that can change the way people see themselves. I can only say this statement because I have been affected by this myself. During this satisfying sport I would constantly find myself lost in the moment. Not realizing how much this sport has meant to myself. Now that I have seen just about everything this sport has to offer I can relive some of the valuable life lessons that cross country has taught me.

“Daddy, hurry up!” he says, trying to hide a smile while glaring at me. I laugh and drive to his friend’s house.

I am a ski coach at Craigleith Ski Club in Collingwood, Ontario. Last year I was a float coach, so I got to work with about four different teams over the course of the season. Generally, I must be a mentor to all the kids I coach. I always make sure I exhibit lots of energy, have a positive attitude, and am friendly and helpful. I try my best to ensure the kids are comfortable around me yet also respect me.

It was a chilly Sunday afternoon with blue skies and all the makings for a good day of early season skiing on that fateful November afternoon. The day was winding down, the Broncos had just kicked off, and my friends and I had just leapt off the chairlift to embark on our last run of the day. All was well on the way down, a blur of orange jerseys rushing by as I sped down the mountain making the most of the last run of my day. Upon our final few turns of the afternoon, I found myself in a predicament that would later shape me into the person I am today.

The first thing I have to mention about this course is the distance, I had expected it to be just about exactly 5K and maybe up the ski mountain one time, but I found out right away before the wave started it was more like 10K and we would go up the entire ski mountain three times.

Way to go Amanda! Let everyone know that we don't talk to enough people who drive. Embaress us, it's cool. We will move on, after we get shots fired by a bunch of people. It's okay, it's not like I care.

Let’s go back to a cold winter day at Shawnee Peak in Bridgeton, Maine. I was discussing my dilemma of what to do for the upcoming sports season with my ski coach. I have been playing softball for the past 12 years, but this year something felt different…I wasn’t interested. The past season was quite rough, getting to the point where I was seriously thinking about quitting the team. I knew I didn’t want to go back to that, but I needed something else to occupy my time. While talking to my ski coach he mentioned playing lacrosse because it was the first year being offered at my school. I quickly responded with “but I don’t want to have to run!”. He assured me that if I was the goalie there would be minimal running. My coach also added that it

Around seven years ago, my family and I would always go to Colorado. Most of the time we went with another family or we brought some of our friends, and that year we went with another family, the Egan’s. We were having a great time just like the multiple times before, and we were eating meals, playing ping pong, watching Forest Gump or Pokemon, and we skied. I had some experience skiing, but Aidan, my friend, had never really skied before.

For my entire life as I knew it, I had been skiing. Ever since I was a little, chubby four-year old, tumbling right off the magic carpet like a glove in the dryer every time it shuddered even just the slightest bit, I’d been on skis. And I was more than satisfied with that. It was the same every Saturday afternoon during winter: my mom would spend almost an hour smothering me in layers upon layers of fleece, coaxing my pudgy legs into my snow pants, and tugging at me and attempting in vain to force my feet into my hand-sized ski boots, haul after heave, until I was finally ready to hit the snow. And then I would realize I had to go to the bathroom. Eventually, I think it got remotely easier as I learned how to do it myself, although I absolutely despised putting on my boots myself and the suffocating heat of one too many layers, as hot as the elementary school classrooms that year when all the air conditioners decided it would be a good idea to stop working in June.

I woke up and was excited to go skiing with Porter and Brigham and Cannon. We were in Utah going to go to Snow Basin. The night before, we skied a lot and did rails. I had a ton of fun and got ready really early so we could ski longer. We drove to the resort and got our stuff out. We went on a run before Logan, Landon and Luke got there. It was very icy and scary to ski, so I took it slow the first run. When we got to the bottom, we caught up with Logan, Landon and Luke. We all rode up in a gondola. We got off and went to the terrain park to practice rails. I was doing good, and knowing me I started tucking the long gaps between the different parks. We had just gone through the last park, and I tucked the groomer to the bottom. One of my Logan’s

Ever since that moment I realized how much I want to help people in distress and possibly save lives. Now I find myself only a few months away from having a cross of my own on my back and helping other people on the mountain. After two years of being told “you're too young and there's no choice but to wait,” so I could get a head start at becoming a member of the decorated Snow Summit Ski Patrol team . While the only thing left to do is pass some the tests, every year I come closer to the patrol family and one step closer to leaving a mark and standing out in our team. For several months I would drive up to Big Bear every other weekend to attend a hands on portion of a first-aid class, while Wednesday's our group would attend a conference call