Day 6

Today was so beautiful. We went back to Lake Louise Ski Resort for more snowboarding. When we were there Monday, it was snowing most of the day creating low visibility.

Today was not like that. It was a beautiful blue sky with visibility for miles. We could see mountain ranges in the distances as well as the full runs on the mountains at Lake Louise. Every time I paused, I was in awe of how gorgeous it was.

One of our last runs in the afternoon, we were a bit tired and decided to skip going back to the summit and instead go to the second highest spot. From there, we'd take some blue (intermediate) runs down to the base. From where we were, there was only one blue run. Everything else was black diamond (advanced/expert).

I've gotten much more confident in my snowboarding abilities recently but there are still areas where I'm more hesitant. Black diamonds are one of them. Black diamonds out west (relative to my usual spots in VT, PA, and NH), are a flashing "no, thank you" for me.

So when we started down the only blue run in a sea of black diamonds, I was ok but honing in on every blue square I saw and mentally avoiding coming close to any black diamond.

But then the run seemed to stop. I saw a black diamond to my right with a steep drop. Ahead looked like a cliff. I lost sight of my friend who was ahead of me so I wasn't sure which direction to go. I stopped and inched closer the edge ahead. There was a drop but the run continued. My friend was a bit further down waiting on me. Behind him was a black diamond.

I tensed up. Somehow we'd lost the blue and gotten onto a black diamond. It was a very steep section. I pulled out my map to figure out how to get out of the black and back onto blue. I couldn't figure out where we were.

The thing is, I think we were on the blue all along. It was very steep, but looking back, it probably wasn't much worse than some other blue sections I'd been on today. I was just so aware that we had only one blue run in the area where we were, that seeing the black diamond signs, I assumed we'd made a wrong turn. I assumed the worst. I assumed the worst because I was looking for it.

And then I made it worse. Because I assumed the worst, I reacted as though the worst had happened. For a few minutes, I just assumed I couldn't snowboard down. I thought I'd have to find another way.

Because I already thought this is what I was afraid of, I didn't see what was really in front of me. I made it down. It was challenging, not terrible. Really, I overreacted because I was expecting the worst.

When you look for the bad, you'll find it. It applies to so much. Whatever we're focused on, is what we find more of. And it's so crazy how fast we can make a situation worse because we get fixated on something that may not be true.

Sometimes we need to pick our heads up, take another look around, and ask if what we're seeing is really what's there.