No Pain, No Gain

We recently had the great fortune to visit Whistler with two of our three children(unfortunately Tim could not make it) over the holidays and had an amazing week. As our children grow and build their own lives as young adults, I must say Barb and I cherish every moment we get to spend with them. This past week was especially special as we had the opportunity to be out west with our children and had an amazing blue sky week out at Whistler.

We have all heard the saying “No Pain, No Gain”. I remember my high school football coach often quoting this during practice but at the time I don’t think I really understood the true meaning of it. I have heard this saying for years but now believe this is so true in real life. What this means to me now is that there are really no shortcuts to achieving our goals. In order to truly experience life’s amazing moments, we have to somehow pay the price. It means that in life there are no shortcuts or “hacks” to achieving our goals or hitting those “love life” moments.

This really hit me this week when I had the opportunity to backcountry ski with our children Matt and Lauren. We had to work really hard but the payoff was effortless powder skiing and more than anything the amazing” love life” moments we experienced by being in the backcountry and in the mountains. I rarely experience this feeling other than when I am in the mountains. For some reason I am always in “awe” when in the mountains and in particular at the top of a mountain after climbing and working for an hour or so to get up it.

To try to paint the picture for you, it is hard work to climb up 1000 or 2000 feet on the side of a mountain. You are not running however you are lifting and pushing your legs, skis and boots one foot at a time up the mountain. It is hard work but the experience and the views are amazing and well worth the effort. As I always say to people when they ask about backcountry skiing, “you have to love going up hill and climbing as much as coming down if you are really going to enjoy the sport.”

The reward is amazing as you get to experience views like you see here.

Climbing a mountain is similar to life in that there are always issues or roadblocks that come up. When we started out on our first climb of the day Matt was having equipment issues with his climbing skins and equipment. He needed to resolve and fix them before he could continue on. It was also a freezing cold day, so your extremities get very cold. It is a constant battle to keep the proper layer of clothing on as one minute you are freezing and minutes later you are hot and sweating and have to take off layers from climbing up the mountain. Typically at the top of the mountain you once again freeze as their are high winds and blowing snow. Sometimes your fingers are so cold that it is almost impossible to take the skins off the skis and transform your bindings in order to ski down the hill.

The first chute we skied down was off the top of the mountain and was a narrow chute with tons of snow. I skied  down after our guide and there were buckets(feet) of snow sliding down the slope as quick or quicker than me. You are always on the lookout for avalanches and you can trigger an avalanche by skiing on these steep slopes. The snow had obviously covered the rock face below as I was flying down the chute with snow flying all around me and obviously hit a huge rock as my ski popped off and I catapulted  down the steep pitch head first. Fortunately I came to a stop on the steep slope in the powder and motioned for one of the kids above me to stop and retrieve my buried ski on their way down.

Like life, it is not the issues or roadblocks we face but how we overcome them. There are always going to be issues but the important thing is how we deal with them. For example when Matt had his issues with his equipment, he could have given up but instead dealt with them and kept climbing.

We faced some very steep climbs and the tracks we were climbing in were very icy due to the cold weather and the wind. Lauren was having issues with some of the extremely steep slopes and switchbacks  however she pursued and succeeded on some very difficult terrain.

Also like life, you have to pay the price in advance to experience what we experienced in terms of the love life moments. In order to climb or skin up a mountain, you need to be in reasonable shape in order to accomplish this. Fortunately, all of us were in good enough shape to enjoy the “up” as much as the down. We ended up climbing 4 mountain faces which meant we climbed for 3-4 hours which is hard work even if you are in good shape. However the reward of amazing views and being so close to nature was well worth the effort.

So my message is that you in order to really experience lifes amazing moments and accomplish your goals, you need to pay the price – “No Pain, No gain”.

Based on last weeks Blog, I received a number of notes on what people are doing in terms of their New Years Resolutions. Many of your resolutions revolve around health and fitness goals. Todays blog I think is appropriate as once again, it is hard to make progress without paying the price. For example, if your goal is to loose weight or improve your fitness, you need to put in the appropiate work in order to make this happen.

 Wishing you and your family a great and healthy weekend,

Kev

P.S. I want to give a huge shoutout to my pal and guide (and mountain saviour) Brent Phillips from Spearhead Mountain Guides. When you are in Whistler make sure you look up Brent to book an amazing backcountry tour.