Check out my blog Skiing In The Shower.

I came off the couch as a 35 year old mother of two who was 80 lbs overweight to reenter life as an athlete. (In another incarnation, I was a competitive figure skater, and then a coach to world cup rock climbers). I had skied about 40 days as a kid, and snowboarded some, was a crappy intermediate level heel pusher when I began teaching my first lesson. (“We don't need people that know how to ski. We can teach you how to ski. We need people that know how to teach!”) they said to me. And off we went.

By the end of a week, I was rabidly hooked, I loved the way the mountain unlocked for me as I learned more and more about how to move my skis through the snow. At three weeks, I was full time, by the end of the season, I was training toward the goal of trying out for the PSIA National Alpine Team in five years. The next year, I was amazed and humbled to receive the Instructor of the Year award. Three years into that goal, I've fallen in love with life in the outdoors all over again, learned to play, become a better mom, gotten rid of my television, and started writing again! Oh, yeah, and I passed my Level 3 Alpine Exam, allowing me to get a job at Aspen Mountain in Colorado.

I moved to Aspen last November, where I continue to play with my mentors, clients, friends and kids, while still walking toward the idea of becoming a viable candidate for the National Team in 2012, when I will be 40. I'm fortunate enough to have a lot of support in my quest, from friends, family, and sponsors... no matter whether I make the team or not, I'm grateful to get to hike up many mountains on my way there, stand on the top, ski down, and huck myself off something huge... my favorite thing to do is either take my kids on the road with me, or call them from the chair... “Mommy just hucked a big cliff!” “YEAH MOM! Did you ski out of it?” “You bet, buba.”

Nelson Mandela said it: It always seems impossible until its done.