Luke Whitehead

Hello, my name is Luke Whitehead and I have had a long history with skiing, but now it is one of my favorite things to do. The first time that I went skiing was in 8th grade with my family and I thought it would be pretty easy because I did other sports and was pretty coordinated. However, after doing some practice and then deciding to go down a blue slope (the rankings are bunny, green, blue, and black in ascending order of difficulty), I found myself severely unprepared and was stuck on the mountain because I was convinced I was going to die. Looking back it is a funny story to tell, but I was terrified. After what felt like hundreds of falls, I ended up calling the mountain patrol people and I got one of the injury carts to bring me down the mountain.

That year, I was very much just trying to learn how to get down mountains without dying and evident through my telling of this story, I was successful. Since my 8th grade year, my family and I have visited that ski resort many times and I was slowly able to develop enough confidence and skill to easily pass through both the green and blue slopes. This past year (2024) we returned to the mountain again and I began to ski down the black diamond mountains, which was such a fun time. Now, my brothers and I race down the mountains and do different jumps/tree courses that the mountains have to offer and it is overall just a great time. I have been wanting to try out snowboarding to see how that goes, but I am afraid it may turn out like my 8th grade adventure.

I think that I love skiing so much now because I was able to conquer something that I had a scarring past with and once feared. Skiing is something that I know will stay with me long into my older days even if I have to slow down or go back to smaller mountains because of both the achievement and calmness that I feel while doing it. I'm glad that I was able to have the bad experience with skiing because it taught me that every challenge can be conquered and that one event has so heavily shaped my mindset even today. Among other things, I truly do not think that I would have the work ethic that I have today if it weren't for skiing and so I recommend it to everyone even if you're not the best at first. It provides a connection with nature, achievement, bonding with loved ones, and most importantly it allows you to disconnect for a little bit and live your life.