My mom has always taught me to see the positives in everything, regardless of the situation. Although at first I was bummed about quarantine altering the end of the season and the entire spring, I am actually really thankful for my experiences during this odd situation we find ourselves in. This spring, I was home in Vermont with my parents for 3 months. When quarantine set into effect, I went from not being in a place longer than 10 days, to being settled in one place longer than I have in 5 years! Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am a social butterfly. I rarely prefer to do anything alone and I am always on the move, never sitting still in one place too long. So as you could imagine, this lifestyle change was a bit of a shock to what I am used to.

I would describe this spring as a period of personal growth and self discovery. Instead of relying on other people to do adventures with, I set out on my own solo adventures and discovered why I do it besides the social aspects. I spent the first few weeks chasing down any cross country and backcountry skiing I could, skiing for however long I wanted with no real plan. Normally by the end of the racing season I am so burnt out that I don’t go skiing even when there is still snow left, but this spring was different. I was more excited than ever to get out, I was not skiing to train or to become a faster skier but purely because it made me happy and I enjoyed doing it. Getting outside on solo adventures went from something I used to dread, to something that feels like a sweet escape. I love being in mountains and bagging summits, however big or small; nothing beats sitting on top of a mountain in my mind. These adventures have been an outlet for me to feel a sense of movement and clarity, a time when I feel like I can breathe fully and be perfectly content. I was able to explore my local environment, growing my appreciation for the upper valley even more. I kept it all local and safe on all of these adventures and discovered so many cool things I could do right out the door or a short drive away.

Amongst my solo adventures, I actually ended up meeting a lot of new people (at a safe distance), I guess I can’t help myself from being social even in anti-social time! It turns out, when you do things alone, you are much more likely to engage with the people around you and I found it to be quite fun to branch out and meet a variety of different people while skiing and biking.

After finishing up my second to last term at Dartmouth (online this spring), I shifted gears to focusing full time on skiing. Despite the positives that have come out of my solo adventures, I am extremely excited to be in Stratton, training with my SMS T2 teammates again! I ended up being way more active this spring than usual, which built up a solid foundation of activity for me leading into the new training year. I finished up my first big block of training in Stratton and I am kicking off the second one this week. It has been a very hot and humid start, but thankfully having teammates around to push each other and keep company makes the tough days that much easier.

Moving forward, I want to take these spring lessons and continue to find ways to incorporate big adventures into my ski training. It looks like I will be in Stratton at least until November, so I am making sure to mix things up and make some trips home to keep things fresh and exciting and avoid burn out. I have been on big biking kick (along with my team it seems), exploring new routes both on my mountain and gravel bike. I am still dealing with my frustrating IT band issues that started last August, so I guess I have lots of gear shifting in the near future. Thankfully I am have been STOKED on biking lately :)

I hope everyone is staying healthy and safe during these times! More to come soon...