How did I end up here?

January 26, 2023. The day my professor cancelled class because we got so much snow.

Last fall was my first fall not going back to school and I was lost. I did not have a job and did not know what I wanted to do. What I did know was that I wanted to ski. I had spent every winter at university with a ski pass and the ability to go ski in the middle of the week when no one else was on the hill. During my last year of university my schedule just so happen to work out that I had Mondays off and a class that finished at 11:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I looked at my schedule and thought “woah I can ski three days a week not on the weekend”. With the ski hill being only a 30-minute drive from where I lived, I knew I had to take advantage. A few of my friends had similar enough schedules where we would all hop into my car after our morning classes and head to the ski hill. We made so many memories that year!

It was the day we got a huge dumping of snow and my professor, who lived on campus sent an email saying there was so much snow that she could not walk to the building our class was in and had to cancel class. I looked over at my roommate and told what I had just read with a knowing glance. Unfortunately, her professor did not cancel class but it took almost no convincing for her to skip class and head to the ski hill. Afterall, we did not get many big dumps living in the Eastern Townships and we had to take advantage. We loaded into my car with our lunches and excitement for a stellar powder day. When we arrived at the ski hill, we even got the closest parking spot; it was meant to be. That day was filled with powder wipe outs and good laughs.

During that winter I knew I wanted to ski every year so fast forward to the fall when I did not know what I wanted to do. The one thing I knew for sure was that I could not imagine a winter without skiing, so I needed a way to move out of my parent’s house in Toronto and live somewhere where I could ski. I applied to over 40 different positions at various ski resorts in Alberta and British Columbia and ended up accepting a child care position at a resort in BC. Two weeks later I was on a plane to Calgary with all my winter gear. I bought a used pair of skis in Calgary the day I landed and the next day I was on a bus full of people on the same journey to work a ski season in the mountains.

I immediately fell in love with the snow-covered mountains and was able to ski the three days of opening weekend. I loved every second of it and skied as much as I could. Not long after being out west I knew I wanted to stay. I wanted to have every winter be filled with skiing and epic mountain terrain. When the ski season came to an end, I found myself moving to another mountain town for a summer season, which was fun but when you work somewhere where you can stare at the ski runs all summer, I could not stop thinking about winter. This brings us to now, as snow starts to fall up in the mountains and every day is a day closer to the start of this year’s ski season. To say I am excited is an understatement. I have been looking forward to the start of ski season since my last day in April.