Friday Question

[The Reverend Floater]

Question for today due to relevant problem:

At what point does your passion, commitment and/or addiction to skiing and the mountains cost too much? What price is too much?

Discuss.

[Beaver]

I can not answer this question because I have not experienced "too much." I did however experience a GF who did not understand the passion. Come December she was kicked to the curb.

[K-Stormchaser]

Hi everyone, my name is Chris and I’m a skiaholic. I’ve been sober for one day. My friends and family tell me I am in desperate need of help. They simply cannot understand why I vaporize from the face of the earth from late October through late May – no birthday parties, no guys nights out, no weddings, no family holidays, no returned phone calls, and many, many “sick” days from work. Even my boss knows that for me, a sick day just means another sick day of skiing that keeps me from my duties at the office. Stormchasing the white stuff will soon cost me my job, my friends, and my family. This addiction is controlling my life. Can anyone in this group help me?

[mrryde]

Question for today due to relevant problem:

At what point does your passion, commitment and/or addiction to skiing and the mountains cost too much? What price is too much?

Discuss.

It depends on what you are sacrificing for your passion and if you think you would regret it in the future.

[A-wreck]

It seems to me that losing your job because of skiing would be too high of a price. If you can't afford to ski anymore then, what's the point?

As far as losing friends because of it, well, all of my friends ski, so I don't think that would happen.

As far as losing a girlfriend because of it, well, if she doesn't want me to ski, or ski herself, then HER priorities are WAY out of whack and I was probably going to have to break up with HER eventually for being so screwed up in the head.

[Blurred]

Question for today due to relevant problem:

At what point does your passion, commitment and/or addiction to skiing and the mountains cost too much? What price is too much?

Discuss.

Quit looking to women for happiness.

Happiness is found within yourself.

Women enhance that.

Skiing is the activity that puts the stoke and drive in your heart.
Your question should be:

At what point does your passion, commitment and/or addiction to one girl cost too much?

Sounds like she's ruining your life. You know what you need to do. Sack up.

[jimmy page]

I saw this problem coming from a long ways off.

[PlayHarder]

When you start to spend more time wondering if there's more to life than you spend enjoying it, you may have reached that point.

[The Reverend Floater]

Quit looking to women for happiness.

Happiness is found within yourself.

Women enhance that.

Skiing is the activity that puts the stoke and drive in your heart.
Your question should be:

At what point does your passion, commitment and/or addiction to one girl cost too much?

Sounds like she's ruining your life. You know what you need to do. Sack up.

I'm the last person that "looks to women for happiness". And she's not ruining my life, dude. She generally makes it better.

[The Reverend Floater]

I saw this problem coming from a long ways off.

Wow. You should be a detective!

[bdog]

I'm the last person that "looks to women for happiness". And she's not ruining my life, dude. She generally makes it better.

There is no easy answer. Still some of my finest solo tours/climbs and good writing have come from the break up with a partner who had "other priorities". I suppose you need to ask yourself if you could go without the dawn patrols, the silence of the storm just passed, the feel of skis sliding through fresh snow. The child like glow and smiles during and after such tours. Regardless of how this shakes out for you, know that this too shall pass. For me, I can not live without the mountains, the storms, the beauty and the wonder .. and still I seek her. I ask myself why.

[phUnk]

It seems to me that losing your job because of skiing would be too high of a price.

"Too high of a price" ?!?

I prefer to call it "the November training regimen."

[silas]

And she's not ruining my life, dude. She generally makes it better.

How important is skiing to you? Are you willing to give it up?

My answer is VERY and NO.

[warthog]

I used to tell my GF's how it was, before the season started.

"So, I'm not gonna be around much on the weekends or afternoons, or pretty much at all this winter. If that isn't ok, then let me know now."
It always worked out, but none of them were serious. Now I am engaged, but don't live in ski country. I could see it being a problem if I did still live out west. But, then I probably would have tried to find a girl that loves to ski too.

My chick is cool with me taking 1-2 weeks vacation to ski with my friends. I, in turn, am cool with her doing whatever the hell makes her happy. It works. Just sit around the house drinking beer and watching foozball all weekend, she'll be begging you to go skiing.

[homerjay]

If your special lady doesn't nurture your passions and let you live to your fullest, it's probably not the right situation. Sure, relationships requre work and compromise, and you cannot pursue your passions, i.e. skiing, and disregard her feelings. Then, she'll feel unimportant.

There is a way to ski all you want and still have time to make your lady happy. If anyone knows how the hell to pull that off, please let me know. Sometimes it isn't necessarily the act of going skiing or hunting or whatever, it's how you approach it. Make sure that you have her feelings in mind and prioritize them.

[Buster Highmen]

Question for today due to relevant problem:

At what point does your passion, commitment and/or addiction to skiing and the mountains cost too much? What price is too much?

Discuss.

In the corrupt corpulent credenza of crapules, I wallowed, I withered, I writhed in joy and agony. I beat myself, crawled through the dumpsters of depravity or divinity and dragged my sorry carc-ass across gaps far wider than space or time, away from profit, from corpocratic conceptualization, away from academic vigor and acheivement. I walked the dog star. I prostituted myself, dealt drugs, had sex with the meat department (O for a good rump roast), snorfed the reddiwhip, molested the toilet brushes. All to ski, dredging the gutter for sparks to sell for scheckels to ski. Hitchhiked, snuck, crashed in closets and starved. But that was ago.

And all that was OK.

But now it's funny. Because the cost is not in dollars, yen or pink plunging, it's in love. Because I have a couple of teensy buns that need me, whose eyeglow is too bright and ache for contact is too rich. Or maybe it's really just my priorities has shifted and the tempestual tectonics of heart generate the cost. Who knows. But as usual, the economics for me is not of cash, gold or Freudian fecunda, but of some stupid and lost arcana.

[Cornholio]

Except I sorta think you just showed how it's not arcane at all.

Anyway, I suspect that transformation happens to all of us eventually. I also suspect it has something to do with something called "maturity," which I certainly don't feel qualified to discuss. Maybe the question is if you're ready to make that switch.

And, extended, if you sacrifice some skiing (& etc.) for her, does that mean you're interested in offering some of that commitment to her?

edit: Although, I don't really think one can dictate one's passion. If you're still passionate about skiing, and this passion leads you to sacrifice parts of your relationship, and she's not digging that ('cause that's not the way she rolls), I don't really suspect that you'll be content even if (or just because) you make a decision to sacrifice some skiing for her. Or whatever.

[Buster Highmen]

Maturity? What's that? Surely it's nothing I demonstrate.

BTW my girl is dying to ski together again. Shes' the one that exhorted me to get a pair of bros. She's the one that insists I go because she understands.

[truth]

"Too high of a price" ?!?

I prefer to call it "the November training regimen."

Did it start in August this year?

[girlski0912]

I think about my own dilemma right now as to what should take priority for the next year...finding a job to validate my degree or wait tables so that I can ski more. To wait tables seems like I am throwing away everything that I worked for and will be paying off the rest of my life- my education. To JUST WORK for the rest of my life would be ignoring the part of me that loves to be in the mountains and not working. There has to be balance. I think that the "cost" of skiing isn't monetary as much as it is the consequences of your actions.

In 25 years, where do you want to be and is skiing going to get you there? The decisions that you make now determine your path towards the future, but they also carry a different weight. Taking one year off from being a ski bum to pursue a career goal or do something equally as valuable to your personal development (travel, take care of a family member, pick up a new hobby/sport) versus passing up possible opportunities just to ski one more winter...which one could invariably become the decision that you look back on in 25 years and regret? And as Buster has pointed out, throughout your life your priorities shift and other things besides skiing begin to mean more (kids, spending time with your family, careers).

If it is a dilemma regarding your love life, ask if this person (disregarding how she feels about skiing) is someone with whom you hope to spend considerable amounts of time with in the future (aka THE REST OF YOUR LIF)E and why. You shouldn't have to give up skiing just as she shouldn't have to give up what she loves.

[Max Gosey]

I now have an official "girlfriend" that looks to have potential for serious long term. It's been off and on for a while due to significant time and distance apart, but that is being worked out. The real test is if she falls in love with skiing when I teach her over Thanksgiving break (or an instructor... that may be a better idea). If she hates it... that may be a sign. If she loves it... she's a keeper until something goes wrong (and being that in six months we've never had so much as a skirmish, I don't forsee any catastrophes soon).

It's about priorities. I know that unless I become disabled or victim to an ungodly travesty, I will be skiing for the rest of my life. Hopefully a lot. I think a lot of my life will concern getting other shit done so I can MAKE SURE I get time to ski. Like last week, doing my chem lab on friday night and my math on saturday night so I could ski both days (instead of getting wasted).

Surely sacrifices are to be expected, but isn't it worth it in the end? (Coming from an 18 year old this probably says little to nothing)

[Buster Highmen]

OK, so I miss the erotic bristles.

[The Reverend Floater]

I think about my own dilemma right now as to what should take priority for the next year...finding a job to validate my degree or wait tables so that I can ski more. To wait tables seems like I am throwing away everything that I worked for and will be paying off the rest of my life- my education. To JUST WORK for the rest of my life would be ignoring the part of me that loves to be in the mountains and not working. There has to be balance. I think that the "cost" of skiing isn't monetary as much as it is the consequences of your actions.

We need lawyers here, too!

[The Reverend Floater]

My GF and I are long distance. She is in TV and has an opportunity in Portland. She wants me to move there so that she can reach her lifetime goal of being in the Portland market. I am from Portland. I don't want to move back there, though it's a cool enough city. I have offered a compromise in SLC where she can still work and I can still play but she is unwilling to compromise, it seems. So here we are.

[steve]

When I get fired from my job because I'm spening too much time on skiing message boards..
Hasn't happened yet.. but if it does, I'll know to tone back a bit.