Why You Should NOT Miss the #beastworldcup. Ever.
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| The Original #BeastWorldCup |
The Beast World Cup.
Our World Cup.
I’ve never been one to be star struck or lose my head over a boy, but I have completely lost myself to this race. It bothers me, actually, when I realize how connected I feel to this race. Like a siren calling me, I just can't seem to break away from this weekend. It's the only days of the year where I would choose not to ski and that frightens me. What could be so important, so all encompassing that I would not ski in order to watch other ski?
The pageantry.
The energy.
The oneness.
Never have I even felt so a part of something as I do this event. There is something about this weekend that takes over my very being and I drop skis first into a community of people LIKE ME.
A people for whom skiing is not just a way of life, but the whole being of your life. It’s not a team sport, where you chant in circles before a game but a sport where you are often forced to look deep into the depths of your soul and connect with the skis and mountain beneath you. What wax, what skis, what turn - all these depend on the mountain and neither your opponents nor your self. A sport where you are not connected to other people, but to the mountain, to the earth.
Now imagine 20,000 of these types of people all standing in one space, their souls reaching out toward the mountain, their energies all focused on one young woman flying down that mountain. Beyond that ski racer herself, each precise moment of the course, each phase of each turn coming so clear into focus it feel’s like watching slow-motion training run videos back at the Club. It surreal, how slowly the time passes when you focus on each little moment, each half a second, comes into detail. This pinpoint focus combined with the overwhelming energy of 20,000 people will take you for an amazing ride each day.
How could you not feel it? The oneness simply embraces you, the love of skiing simply glows like The Who’s signing Christmas carols in Whoville or a Game 7 top o' the ninth in the Bronx. There is an energy that happens in this race, an energy like any other because there is another sentiment besides the unification of people united for a common love, a common obsession, a common way of life ...
PRIDE.
Pride in Killington.
Pride in Vermont.
Pride in the East Coast.
Pride in SKIING.
For so long we have sat quietly, caring more about skiing, turning and having fun out there than anything else. We have watched as Europeans and then West Coasties dominated the ski industry with photographs of 14,000 foot mountains and historical landscapes that have attracted lovers of mountains for hundreds if not thousands of years while we just quietly kept on skiing in our black coats that probably should have seen less seasons but why waste the money on a new jacket when I this one is fine?
On the east coast, we do things a little differently.
Mountains aren't things to be stared at and longed for, they are an every day part of our community and our culture. We don't wait until the mountain looks her most beautiful to celebrate the outdoors, we don't live at the foot of the mountains gazing longingly ... in Vermont, we live amongst the mountains, surrounded every where you go by them. They are a constant companion, a provider of food and a most veritable playground in all seasons.
We are from the hills and they are us.
Therefore, we see a sense of pride this coming Thanksgiving Weekend, and a gratefulness that we are here to experience whatever it is comes at us. We don't complain when the snow turns firm, we laugh and enjoy what mother nature has in store for us on any given day. We love skiing, the sport itself and not in a bluebird day or this year's fashion kind of way. We love the feel of wind in our hair, of finding that sweet spot in the turn and making our way down the mountain. For the east coast skier, the Vermonter and the Killington "local," it's all about being. Being with your friends, with your mountain and with your skis.
So many times, we wonder why the rest of the world doesn't feel the same way about skiing that we do.
How could you miss this tree line?
This can't be ice, there's no fish!
Nice rain gear - are those dish washing gloves?
There's not enough powder? WTF is wrong with you people?!
And here, on this Thanksgiving Weekend in Killington, we realize that we are not alone in our thoughts of skiing being skiing, no matter how much snow. We are not the bottom of the ski industry. We might have the smallest mountains, but we have the biggest hearts. And those hearts are directed at skiing, in all its forms and ways.
I can't wait to see all of you next weekend as the Ladies of the World Cup take to Superstar and we, the Skiers and Riders of Killington, Vermont and the Entire East Coast come together to show the WORLD what it means to be a true believer of the sport. We're an entire coast of ski bums, people whose lives are focused around one thing no matter how much or little money they have, no matter how many days they have on snow - none of that crap is important.
It's what you feel, deep in your soul.
And then I remember why I lose myself in this race.
Where in history have 20,000 ski bums ever all come together to celebrate the sport of skiing and be grateful all together?
#BeastWorldCup
May You Find the Spirit of the Mountains Within You,
FemaleSkiBum
PRIDE.
Pride in Killington.
Pride in Vermont.
Pride in the East Coast.
Pride in SKIING.
For so long we have sat quietly, caring more about skiing, turning and having fun out there than anything else. We have watched as Europeans and then West Coasties dominated the ski industry with photographs of 14,000 foot mountains and historical landscapes that have attracted lovers of mountains for hundreds if not thousands of years while we just quietly kept on skiing in our black coats that probably should have seen less seasons but why waste the money on a new jacket when I this one is fine?
On the east coast, we do things a little differently.
Mountains aren't things to be stared at and longed for, they are an every day part of our community and our culture. We don't wait until the mountain looks her most beautiful to celebrate the outdoors, we don't live at the foot of the mountains gazing longingly ... in Vermont, we live amongst the mountains, surrounded every where you go by them. They are a constant companion, a provider of food and a most veritable playground in all seasons.
We are from the hills and they are us.
Therefore, we see a sense of pride this coming Thanksgiving Weekend, and a gratefulness that we are here to experience whatever it is comes at us. We don't complain when the snow turns firm, we laugh and enjoy what mother nature has in store for us on any given day. We love skiing, the sport itself and not in a bluebird day or this year's fashion kind of way. We love the feel of wind in our hair, of finding that sweet spot in the turn and making our way down the mountain. For the east coast skier, the Vermonter and the Killington "local," it's all about being. Being with your friends, with your mountain and with your skis.
So many times, we wonder why the rest of the world doesn't feel the same way about skiing that we do.
How could you miss this tree line?
This can't be ice, there's no fish!
Nice rain gear - are those dish washing gloves?
There's not enough powder? WTF is wrong with you people?!
And here, on this Thanksgiving Weekend in Killington, we realize that we are not alone in our thoughts of skiing being skiing, no matter how much snow. We are not the bottom of the ski industry. We might have the smallest mountains, but we have the biggest hearts. And those hearts are directed at skiing, in all its forms and ways.
I can't wait to see all of you next weekend as the Ladies of the World Cup take to Superstar and we, the Skiers and Riders of Killington, Vermont and the Entire East Coast come together to show the WORLD what it means to be a true believer of the sport. We're an entire coast of ski bums, people whose lives are focused around one thing no matter how much or little money they have, no matter how many days they have on snow - none of that crap is important.
It's what you feel, deep in your soul.
And then I remember why I lose myself in this race.
Where in history have 20,000 ski bums ever all come together to celebrate the sport of skiing and be grateful all together?
#BeastWorldCup
May You Find the Spirit of the Mountains Within You,
FemaleSkiBum
That was very well written and provides a great insight into why people should go to this event. I am only sorry that I missed it this year.
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