On Sunday we had a very stereotypically Canadian experience. We visited a sugar bush, which is a plantation of maple trees that are harvested for their sap to make maple syrup.
It was very peaceful walking through the field of tall trees, each dotted with a blue bucket to collect sap from the metal spout drilled into its core. It was a very cold day, so the clear sap in the bottom of the buckets was frozen solid. Once enough sap has been collected, it is boiled down to make maple syrup. It can also be turned into maple sugar, taffy or butter.
We were lucky enough to see the very first syrup of the season being produced in the boiler room. The thick scent of maple syrup that hung in the air was intoxicating! We made our way to the pancake hut immediately to enjoy the sticky sweet deliciousness firsthand.
Over the past three months we've been lucky enough to go skiing nearly every weekend! We made two days trips to Mont St Anne in Quebec over Christmas, spent a week at Whistler Blackcomb in early March and have made several day trips with the North Toronto Ski Club to Blue Mountain and Mount St Louis - Moonstone.
Sadly, the ski season is all but over now. There has barely been any new snow lately, and yesterday marked the first official day of Spring. I've been reflecting on all my fond ski memories and realising just how much I've learned from the experience:
I learned to embrace fear
Fear was the biggest hurdle to overcome, and I had to face it at the steepest part of my learning curve. When presented with the completely foreign task of sliding down a slippery hill on two long planks attached to your feet, your natural, self-protecting reaction is to lean backwards so that your weight is positioned uphill. You quickly learn that this is the easiest way to fall over and that counter-intuitively, you have much better control when leaning downhill. As a fairly passive, cautious and gentle person, this aggressive approach went against every fiber of my being. Learning to ski has made me more comfortable being out of my comfort zone and has taught me that the best way to overcome fear is often to attack it head-on! I found confidence in myself
I have never considered myself a 'sporty' kind of person. I didn't play much
sport growing up, and my main physical activities in adulthood have
consisted of sporadic bursts of running (including a half
marathon last year) and some infrequent yoga classes. I feel very out of my depth
when faced with physical challenges and this quickly leads to negative
thinking, comparing my abilities with others, embarrassment, and
generally giving myself a hard time. This was all very apparent in the first few ski lessons we took. This self doubt held me back and made my performance even worse, which only served to reinforced my initial judgements. Over time I realised that I needed to believe in my abilities and spend less time 'in my head', over-analyzing the situation. The more that I was able to let go of the negative thoughts, the more focus I had on the task at hand and I quickly began to see improvements.
I mastered a new skill
It's been very satisfying to master a completely new skill from scratch, and I had so much fun learning to ski with Shane - it's very helpful to have someone to compare notes with and to congratulate/commiserate at the end of a run. I estimate we've had about 90 hours total skiing time over the past 2 years which has taken us to a level of comfortable, confident skiing. Some of my proud accomplishments include skiing the men's olympic downhill run at Whistler (a black run), getting down a double black diamond run at Blue Mountain and graduating to level 5 of the ski school with the North Toronto Ski Club.
I picked up a little physics along the way
The dynamics of 'sliding sports' such as skiing, skating and snowboarding were of course totally new to me. We had a bit of catching up to do on our knowledge of ice and snow! Shane found this really helpful website which tells you all about the science behind skiing. It describes how the skis are designed to turn, and what you need to do to use this to your advantage.
I can talk the talk
Edging, pole-planting, skiing in the back-seat, inside/outside ski, fall line, short turns, carving, off piste, hockey stop, yard sale, snow sandwich, they're all part of my vocabulary now! I've had to stop and pinch myself a couple of times when I realise how 'normal' skiing feels now. The first time I saw snow, I did a little dance in the street, but now I'll be skiing down a mountain and thinking about what to have for lunch and when my tax return is due.
Lastly, here is some video evidence of my new-found skills (spot me in the aqua ski jacket, pink gloves and white helmet):
