YODEL We’d started our daughters skiing early. First in Mighty Mites at Mt. Bachelor, OR and then racing with Mt. Bachelor Sports Education Foundation. Ski racing seemed perfect; it starts as the ultimate family-friendly sport. The kids train, and parents have time together on the slopes. On Rainier, a person didn’t need any previous experience to attempt the summit, but the regimen of ski racing was different. It seemed so controlled compared to climbing. Sure, sometimes one of our girls would catch a tip on an icy course and take out mul-tiple gates. But there’s layers of B-netting, grooming, endless course maintenance and ski patrol. Still, ski racing is all about finding speed at any cost. Skills and drills are important, but at the end of the day, the point is to go faster than anyone else. I got the first call when Lili was 12. There were bruises, broken thumbs and concussions. Coco quit after a scary crash at 16. Lili took an academic gap year to race, suffered yet another concussion and decided to move on to college. Alice is still racing and was to compete in FIS events in Europe when COVID struck. The truth is, as skiers get better and faster, risk increases. In 2017, Alice was training in Canada when a 17-year-old slid into the netting during a Lake Louise Nor-Am downhill and died. Our friends, US Ski Team Olympians Laurenne Ross and Tommy Ford, have had major crashes, resulting in long recoveries. I thought a lot about Alice racing in the Alps. They weren’t World Cups, but I knew she was stepping up her competition and speed. When the races were cancelled, like everything else during the COVID spring, I was disappointed. But there was a bit of relief. I wonder: If I’d have known how fast my daughters would ski, and how driven they’d be in the pursuit of a podium, would I still have promoted ski racing over climbing? In the long run, the answer is “yes.” Given a choice, would I want a child climbing a big route without a LEFT TO RIGHT Oops mom, I had a little accident. Where’s the superglue and duct tape when I need it? Super G training on a powder day at Mt. Bachelor, OR. Photo: Prichard Bouchard Family Archive Thanksgiving race camp on Mt. Hood, OR. Dad hiked up and skied off the summit while mom skinned up the Palmer lift to help with training. Photo: Prichard Bouchard Family Archive “One of hundreds of approaches we did for ice climbing in the Rockies. To this day I have never figured out how or why Nancy never seemed tired. She would just stand there and stare at me as I gasped for air on a break, then quietly suggest that we ‘pick up the pace a bit.’” Photo: William Pelander rope or going all out on a speed event at Mammoth? Clearly, I’d prefer Mammoth, but I’m still scared to death. It’s hard to watch Alice run speed events, but we know she’s put in a dozen years of practice. Coco has embraced surfing, so there’s a new set of metrics to deal with. Lili is at college—perhaps the biggest adventure of all. Once upon a time, John’s parents forbade motorcycles, guns and football. He became a motorcycle-riding alpinist; his brother became a Navy Seal. So it goes. Climbing is still very dear to our family unit. We tried to both protect them from it and prepare them for it—a com-plicated calculus. We still climb—this summer, all five of us took on a 1,000-foot, multi-pitch trad route. Now the girls want us to teach them how to place gear and set anchors. In trying to steer our daughters away from risk, it seems we inadvertently instilled in them an aptitude for adventure. We’ve given them as many tools as we could based off our own experiences, but now the decisions lie in their hands. 102 The Ski Journal
The Ski Journal Volume 14, Issue 3: Page 102
