My skiing career started when I was old enough to stand(2-ish), when my ambitious father pushed me down the driveway on cheap little plastic skis. Soon, I became skilled enough to make my way down the slopes of the “bunny hill.” I was retrofitted with “edgy-wedgies” and a “racer-chaser” and caused terror on the learning slopes at Dollar Mountain. I then joined the early stage of ski team, which was more like a super cool after school daycare, where I would get to ski with all of my friends. As time progressed, my friends and I became alpine racers on the A-team. We would head to the mountain almost every day after school to run gates and occasionally free-ski. By the time my first year in high school came around, I was pretty bored of the monotonous routine of training for alpine races, so I made a radical shift and I joined the Cross-Country/Nordic ski team. I had always been a great endurance athlete, and I was a varsity cross-country runner my first year in high school. I stuck with the Nordic team for two years, until an unfortunate health issue forced me to quit. However, the Nordic team instilled a life long passion of the outdoor-fitness, and made me want to lead and active outdoor lifestyle. After Nordic team, I knew that I wanted to continue to downhill ski, but I wanted something new and exciting, something unique, and I took up telemark skiing.

My father has always been a Telemark skier; he is from an era of leather boots, three-pin bindings, and big long wooden skinny skis. He was the major influence in my decision to lose half my binding and free my heel. Telemarking came very naturally and quickly to me, I had some difficulty letting my knee drop at first, but I slowly felt more and more comfortable. I fell in love with the fluidity and beautiful style of the “tele-turn,” and I haven’t gotten back into my alpine boots since…