Getting out of my Comfort Zone in 2022

Kicking off 2022 Trying a New Activity – Skiing

I’ve always been afraid to ski. Hills scare me–okay it’s actually the thought of flying down a hill and crashing that scares me. Feeling like I have no control over where I’m going scares me. My husband used to cross-country ski a lot before we met. He has wanted to go skiing again but hasn’t since I don’t ski. As a compromise, a couple of years ago we purchased snowshoes. We’ve gone snowshoeing a few times and I really enjoyed it.
 
This year I finally agreed to try cross-country skiing (still trying to avoid hills). Why now, you ask? I’m always encouraging my hubby to push past his comfort zone, so I thought now I should try to push past mine. Since cross-country skiing is usually fairly flat, I thought it may be okay.

The Day of Skiing Arrive

It was a sunny Saturday in January. We packed up the car with my husband’s ski equipment, snow gear, snacks, and coffee (of course) and headed up to the Mt. Hood area.
 
We stopped at Cooper Spur Resort for our adventure. We got our Sno-Park Permit and paid for my rentals. They didn’t charge a track fee as the trail wasn’t able to be groomed due to the recent rainstorms. We thought it would be fine and headed over to pick up my rental equipment. My hubby was going to give me lessons as we got started. I was feeling optimistic. With the sun shining so bright it was hard not to be happy and positive.
 
I took some selfies as I got my skis and put them on. I was so proud that I was able to put them on and stand up! I thought to myself “this will be fine, great in fact! Woohoo!”

And then

Feeling good about my progress, I smiled and said “let’s go!” It was slow focused movement as I began. Getting my ski legs and the feel of how to balance. I thought I was doing fairly well navigating this new terrain.
 
And then…the slightest incline took me out! Wham, Bam, Crash! Just like that I was down and struggling to get back up. Since the trail hadn’t been groomed, it was extremely difficult to get back up. The snow was deep so falling made it tricky. Despite all of the help from my husband and explaining the process of getting back up, I just couldn’t do it. I had to remove the skis to scramble back up. This happened repeatedly over the next 20 minutes. Once the spills started, I don’t think I was able to go more than about 10 feet. Yup–the small incline did me in.
 
I decided that the trail was better for snowshoeing and told my husband I was going to see if I could swap my skis for snowshoes and then I can trek along with him as he was more experienced on skis.

My Takeaways

1. Be brave enough to try something new and be willing to fail.
2. Lessons are a good thing! I’ll be looking into getting lessons before I try to go out again.
3. Groomed trails are your friends. Several folks we met on the trail mentioned that it was really rough going and to try again when the trails were groomed. That was very encouraging to hear.
4. Just because I couldn’t ski on Saturday didn’t keep me from having fun. Ask for what you need. In this case, I needed snowshoes instead of skis. (And they were awesome about swapping the equipment for me.)
5. I wish I had a photographer with us to capture my spills and the hilarious attempts of me trying to get up with my hubby demonstrating. While I was frustrated at the time with snow stuffed up my back, I’m sure it would have been fun to look back on and laugh at later.

We all have our comfort zones and we don’t like to push them, but when you do it can be so rewarding. This year, I’m going to keep pushing at my comfort zone a little at a time.
 
Wishing you all a wonderful year full of new adventures!
 
P.S. If you want to have a photographer capture some of your family memories of outings or vacations, let’s chat! I can create a custom package for you.