Love and Skiing

It’s Valentine’s Day. What do you love about skiing?

A simple question at first glance, a bit more complicated when given some serious thought. In order to help find a suitable answer, I sent out a mass email to friends and contacts and asked them the same question. Below are some of their answers. As for me, I found the best way to answer this question is to put on a pair of skis and make some turns. - Mike Rogge

Honestly I don’t even know what I love about skiing anymore. I love skiing so deeply that it has become a part of me, and I can barely even describe what I like about it. It’s become like a long-term marriage for me…sometimes I hate it and sometimes I love it, but I always know that I will ski and be around all aspects of the sport for the rest of my life…Jumping is really fun too. - Doug Bishop, Newschoolers.com

I love skiing because of its freedom, when I get of the lift at the top of the mountain I could not feel more free and relaxed! - Jon Olsson, skier

I love being out on the hill and seeing someone who bought their gear from me a few days earlier, and having them tell me how much they enjoy it. I love taking runs with people I've met at the shop, having them ride with the team, and just being stoked on skiing. - Josh Bryant, owner and operator of Jibij

I love the feelings I get when I ski. - Grete Eliassen, skier

There is no one thing that makes me love skiing, several factors contribute to my love. I love the feeling of weightlessness when dropping a cliff or hitting a jump and I love the feeling of going fast and being on the brink of crashing and burning.  While these feelings are great I find that the experiences and the people I have met and the places I have been have also developed my love for the sport. If it weren't for skiing I would have never traveled off of the east coast and would probably not have many aspirations to do so. The people I have met and the networks I have established through skiing are priceless. The people I have met through skiing, for the most part, are some of the most creative and unique people that I have ever met and some of that mentality has certainly helped develop the person I am today. In summary, not only do I love the physical aspects of skiing but also the more sentimental relationships and experiences that skiing has given me. - Erik van Ingen, skier

Friends, freedom, fun. - Amanda Cola, freelance photographer

I love laughing my ass off with the most special people I've ever met, the ones who have found a way to make this skiing stuff their life…And stomping. Especially when you don't expect to end up standing on your skis, both of them. - Lynsey Dyer, skier

Heshin out with friends and shredding some seriously haggard shit. - Jon Hartman, skier

I love skiing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Phil Belanger, skier

I love 50% off food in the cafeteria.
I love when it snows and no one saw it coming.
I love sampling ski town brews that I have yet to try.
- Alex Kaufman, Director of Media and Events at Sunday River

I love how skiing takes you into an entirely different world. I feel like I can reflect my own personality through my ski style, you do what you want when you want and you can shape your life around it no matter your ability. Not many people are basketball, football, tennis, soccer, etc bums that don’t go to college to do a sport, but there are plenty of skiers who do… You don’t depend on other people to help you out, like team sports, but it’s all on you, and you can be bad as shit sonnn... - Ahmet Dadali, skier

I love skiing because it let's me be outside all winter when most other people sit inside and mope. Skiing can be my escape from reality, but at the same time it is my reality. Skiing has also introduced me to my closest friends who are with me through the good and the bad. As for the actual act of skiing, there is no better feeling than ripping a few feet of fresh with the snow blowing up in your face. - Julie Weinberger, NS correspondent

I love skiing because I like to go fast and I like to catch big air. - Henrik Lampert, skier/big air enthusiast

I love the feeling of gliding on the surface of the snow and being able to do this with all my friends. - Sean Pettit, skier

Skiing is the one place where I can forget about all the emails and other stuff I have to deal with. I can just go out there and ski with my friends and have a good time. Skiing is how I get away from everything. - Jake Largess, Empire Team Manager

I love parking my car really far from the mountain, then taking a 15-minute shuttle and ending it with a nice long walk through a fake village before getting to the lift. I love $78 lift tickets and $6 slices of pizza. I love standing in the lift line with snot dripping from my nose. I love foggy goggles on powder days. I love super crowded gondolas. I love dropping my goggles from the chair in the middle of a long mogul field. I love really big park jumps made of ice with a 97% guarantee you’ll come up short and buckle your knees on impact. I love walking in my ski boots. Everyone loves skiing! - Jason Levinthal, Line skis

I love everything about skiing, and I love the people who just love to go out and ski...as opposed to bitching about what's wrong with it. - Jeff Schmuck, News Director, Newschoolers.com

I love skiing because it is an expression of who I am, each time I ski it reflects how I am feeling that day, and comes out in a style of some sort. - Aidan Sheahan, skier

What I love most about skiing is the freedom, and the ability to escape the real world and forget about everything that matters. Charging down an untouched face of fresh.... there isn't a better feeling than that. - Evan Spong, skier

What I love about skiing is the freedom and the relationships that it has brought to my life. No other sport that I have participated in has been able to give back so much personal satisfaction and life long relationships that skiing has given me. It's one of those things that is in your blood and rain, sun, or powder no matter how bad or good the weather is, the stoke factor is always there. - Cody Carter, Poor Boyz Productions

Now that you’ve heard from us, we want to hear from you! Write in the comment section what you love about skiing. We’ll pick out the best one and send you a prize package full of DVD’s, stickers, and a special prize.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Love,
The NS Staff