Open Mic is the series on BLISTER where we invite various people in the outdoor industry to say what they have to say, and share whatever it is they feel like sharing at this particular point in time.
Today, we hear from professional skier, Drew Petersen:
As a kid growing up high in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, I was only allowed to write on my mom’s calendar once a year: to mark the first snowfall.
I claimed that square for every millimeter it was worth, decorating it in snowflakes and writing in all caps: FIRST SNOW!!!!
It was the embodiment of my childish excitement, passion, and stoke for skiing. That day marked the end of summer, and the end of waiting. It marked the arrival of ski movie premieres, the arrival of the second (or in warm years, the third) issue of Powder Magazine in the P.O. Box, the tent sales at the ski shops in town, and Arapahoe Basin firing up the snow guns in their race to be the first ski area in North America to open.
As I’ve grown up, life has, of course, changed in some ways. I’ve bounced around the West, but without fail, if I’m in Colorado, Utah, California, etc., it snows up high in September, or at least early October.
When I lived in Utah, it became my tradition to climb to the top of Devil’s Castle above Alta Ski Area to watch the sunrise on the morning we anticipated the first snow. In 2020, the first snow speckled the Bridger Range outside of Bozeman, Montana, on the morning of my brother’s wedding.
The first snow still feels to me like one of the most important holidays of the year. And I still record it every year, just now in my journal rather than on my mom’s calendar. My excitement for the winter to come hasn’t wavered in the slightest.
But it’s no longer all I feel.
I’ve learned that the flip side of my youthful enthusiasm for skiing meant I was missing out on a lot of other aspects of life. As a kid, I never developed a strong affinity for any summer passions. I ran, mountain biked, and played soccer, but none of them ever came close to quelling my anxious energy for the winter to come. Summer used to simply be a season of waiting for the next ski season. And the fall took the same shape for me.
In adulthood, I’ve developed a love for summer—from its warm temperatures to long days. I’ve built a deep passion for trail and mountain running—so much so that, like skiing in the winter, it’s become my life’s compass in the summer, training for ultramarathons and dreaming up traverses through the mountains. Summer is now a time when I reset from my busy winters of chasing storms and filming for ski movies. Summer offers me an opportunity for reflection on the winter that was, and I no longer replace that quickly with anticipation for the next winter. I build more routine into my life than I get to have in the winters to tend the foundation of my physical and mental health. I focus my energy on running and creative work. I foster my relationships. I root myself in the present moment.
That presence I’m now finding in the offseason from skiing goes deeper than my adventures in the mountains. I’ve shared publicly (through written stories and my ski film, Ups and Downs) about my tumultuous journey of mental health struggles, my path to healing, and my personal growth throughout.
One of the renovations of my lifestyle was developing daily mindfulness meditation and gratitude practices. At its core, mindfulness is about exactly what I’m seeking in life now: being rooted in the present moment.
There is a concept in mindfulness called, “beginner’s mind.” It is about developing the ability to see moments of life through the lens of experiencing them for the first time without preconceived notions or expectations. This mindset creates the opportunity to appreciate more of the minutiae in life every single day—noticing the harmonic sway of the trees on my morning walk, savoring the crisp taste of my tea, or realizing new intricacies of the mountains I’ve seen my whole life. Personally, I’ve found this mindset helpful for rooting myself in the season we’re in, rather than only waiting for winter.
Meanwhile, my work life as a professional skier is fully consumed by the season to come. I manage the Quality Ski Time Film Tour in partnership with Salomon, which currently involves booking theaters, getting tickets on sale, and launching campaigns to promote the tour. In many ways, I suppose it really is the fitting evolution of that little kid who used to write on his mom’s calendar.
But this past week I found myself too consumed by skiing, by work on the film tour, by preparation of ski film projects and travel plans for the coming winter. I looked outside, and there was no snow. It was 70 degrees and sunny. I was still wearing shorts. Much of the forest was still green, sprinkled throughout with golden aspen leaves. It’s not by any means ski season yet.
Winter will come in due time.
But my intention, now, is to enjoy what each current moment has to offer, what each day has in store, and try not to look past these moments and days by focusing on the ski season on the horizon.
I’m going to keep lacing up my running shoes. I’m going to camp in my summer sleeping bag until temperatures force me to switch to my cold weather bag. I’m going to celebrate the stoke for winter on the film tour this fall while balancing it out with running in the cities and towns I visit. But you better believe I’ll bring my skis to take some early season turns at Arapahoe Basin, the mountain I grew up on, and to the East Coast with the hope that Killington opens one or two runs and its infamous wooden staircase by the time I’m there.
It’s easier for me to fall off my meditation practice than I’d like to admit, so after realizing how absent I was, I set it as my top priority every morning this week. As the first thing I do in my day, I meditate for 10 minutes. Afterwards, I write 10 things I’m grateful for in my journal. This week, some of the things I wrote in that journal included: the changing of the aspen leaves; getting excited to ski; fall running; and having time to train for the winter ahead.
All of them can be true simultaneously.
I don’t want to tell you how to live your life. And I definitely don’t want to be one of those “holier than thou” people who urges every single person to meditate like me. But what I have found is that my life has become much more fulfilling by staying present and by learning to approach life with a beginner’s mind to appreciate the day and season for what it is.
The years and days now feel longer in the best way. My happiness isn’t wholly dependent on one focus. And I know that when winter does roll around, my ski days will also be more fulfilling, and I’ll be able to appreciate every run, every ski tour, and every time I click in so much more than I ever have before.
About Drew Petersen
From Drew’s website: “I believe in living a life with passion as my compass, and I use my career as a professional skier and year-round mountain athlete to share that passion with others. Along my journey, I’ve followed the tracks of a snow leopard to the top of a ski line in Kyrgyzstan, explored the corners of my own backyard in the American West, skied all over the world, and ran ultramarathon ridge traverses.”