Chasing.Sage

That first turn at the top of ‘Tunnel Vision’ chute at @Kicking Horse Mountain Resort was easily the most important and high consequence turn of her life and I’m proud of but not surprised to see her safely and calmly navigate this double black diamond no-fall zone. As we strapped into our snowboards and rode a heel edge track out CPR ridge I could see people migrate to the gondola windows as the cabs zipped by, likely wondering what a little 7 year old girl in a tutu was doing navigating the precarious ridge between the black diamond terrain that fell East into the morning light and the double black diamond terrain that fell West. But this little 7 year old has 7 years experience and we chose to descend through this cool double black diamond chute called ‘Tunnel Vision.’💃 This actually happened a few runs prior to us heading up Stairway to Heaven and doing the longer (and equally steep) Whitewall (see previous post) on the same day and to see her tick off a couple KHMR double black diamonds in a single day is super impressive. Runs like this aren’t just about snowboarding. It’s about descending safety by all means necessary. It’s about communication and trust building. It’s about working through fear and realizing the power of emotional regulation in high pressure moments. This is about celebrating the small moments and steps that eventually lead up to a completed picture and yes there’s even fun to be found in these sometimes daunting processes because if you’re not enjoying it and laughing at the end then why are you even doing it? People wonder where she gets her ‘I can do anything’ mentality and it continues to be bolstered in moments like this where her fear and caution are rightfully validated but not given complete control and with some support she’s able to step just beyond what she previously thought possible. These moments are empowering if conducted with respect and intentionality.❤️

Little man trying to take responsibility…🥹 Surprisingly this is the first time anything like this has happened while co-riding together but he took it like a champ and we had the mood back to positive, silly conversation in no time! We’re at @Snowbird for this weekends @Subaru of America, Inc. Winterfest and the conditions and vibes have been all time! 🙌#AprilPowderDaze

That final shot though…🙈 #roofboxtransport #pondskim I don’t always devise elaborate pranks but when I do I go all out and in this case had an audience on the edge of their seats as I ripped down towards a 100’ long pond with what appeared to be our toddler…😬 A ‘pond skim’ is a fun spring event at many ski resorts where participant’s often times dress up in silly outfits and try their luck crossing a body of water on their skis or snowboards. It is a sanctioned celebration of the impending end of the season with professionals on the edge waiting to help those who fall out of the water. At our home mountain all proceeds go to our local ski patrol.

“This is the coolest thing ever!” and is North America’s only ski and snowboard friendly subterranean tunnel! This one-way conveyer belt surface lift takes skiers and snowboarders through the mountain from the top of the Peruvian Express chair lift to the Mineral Basin terrain at @Snowbird and it’s such a cool experience for kids and adults alike! Anyone else ridden this unique ‘lift’ !?

I absolutely LOVE this moment and don’t think she will ever forget it! It’s the perfect example of how all the support in the world may help get you close to your goal but ultimately only you yourself are capable of fully committing and officially earning that goal on your own, and that is exactly what happened in that split second when I glanced away and she fully committed and officially landed her first backflip. This is such a big deal because doing this backflip was a mental challenge and not a physical challenge for her which can be the hardest hurdle to overcome. She had been more than capable of backflipping for months and had been doing front flips for a long time but as anyone who’s learned to do a backflip will confirm, that very first one is terrifying. It’s an equally challenging scenario to ‘teach’ as a parent who knows their child is capable but afraid. My approach has always been about support rather than pressure. I believe they need to find it within themselves. In this instance I previously created a tethered harness system to allow her to safely work on technique and become familiar with the motion but at the end of the day she had to subdue the fear, trust her self and the time and practice she had put in and just go for it. And that’s exactly what she did in that split moment when I wasn’t really paying attention. She felt something that told her she was ready in that moment and without any notice committed fully to a goal she had. The reason I know it was a mental challenge and not a physical one is because the second she did the first one, she immediately started doing them over and over with no hesitation and when mom came home she ran out and tossed a few in the dark to proudly show her too!

Went heli-boarding, made a snow angel.👌 This moment was a great reminder that this little shredder is just 7 year old child. While dad has endless logistics spinning in his mind to make these experiences possible and safe and fun, she has the freedom to focus on the simple pleasures in life like snow angels on a mountain top 8,500’ above sea level (and then riding an entire mountain face of untouched powder but we’ll save that for another video!) I hope I’ve conveyed how amazing our time at @Purcell Lodge BC Backcountry has been but it’s worth mentioning this rather informal perk which is when conditions align, including a stable snowpack, low avalanche risk and clear skies there’s a chance you can catch a ‘heli-bump’ to a nearby location which once again became an experience of a lifetime for A.Sage and I.

I’m always down for some ‘adventure riding’ and this steep gully we found was the perfect moment to learn and practice her pivot turns that allow you to switch from heel edge to toe edge and back in tight spaces when getting back on your edge asap after a turn is important. When we get into adventure terrain like this I’ve found it helpful to simply lead with honesty and talk through the process out loud the good the bad and everything in-between! Good communication can transform a ‘sketchy’ experience into a fun trust building adventure!

Quick Look at this mornings commute to @Purcell Lodge BC Backcountry! I rarely edit quick reels and share on the fly but this epic is unfolding in spectacular fashion and the story is writing itself. If you need us we’ll be basing out of this epic lodge at 7,000’ in British Columbia, Canada for a while!

We bought a house!🎉 It all happened incredibly fast and a few years early but when you know it’s the one, you just know I guess… This experience mirrors that of buying our first home in many ways including it being the first and only home we would view before purchasing and their was a powerful feeling of belonging as we walked through it. Most notably though it was how once again the conversations with nearly everyone we spoke to about the house were laced with undertones of skepticism and worry and warnings about how much of a project the house would be. But here we are, heeding no words of caution and going full steam ahead into our next adventure. I see buying a house like this less as a financial investment and more as an invaluable experience. I don’t see myself as an owner, I see myself as a steward of the premises until like all before me, I too am gone for one reason or another. I am an architect and when I walk into a house I’m not judging it based on resale value. I’m identifying potential. I’m feeling the light and the character and the proportions and flow and it’s siting and identifying how they all make me feel. I’ve always been acutely and immediately in tune with how spaces and light and landscapes and materials and details make me feel. When I’m looking at a potential personal project and it feels right, years and decades of memories begin playing out in my mind. It doesn’t have to be perfect at that moment, it needs to have potential and this house has multiple lifetimes worth of potential… And don’t let my tempered enthusiasm fool you, I haven’t been this excited about anything in a long time! I am fully invested and infatuated with this property and all of the incredible potential it possesses and can’t wait to turn that into our reality. It’s going to be a lot of work but that’s never been something we’ve shy’d away from. This marks the beginning of the biggest project of our lives: the renovation and occupation of a historic home built in 1908.

“Will you catch me?”🥹

Sometimes you leave the trees with a little more than you bargained for! #tututroubles #snowboarding

Balance; it’s so simple but it’s so impactful. @REVBALANCE discount link in bio!

I tried to make her very first pond skim a little more interesting and fun by also trying it on the same size board as her! #fatherdaughter Strapping into your snowboard and staring down 80+ feet of water at 7 years old and actively riding full speed towards it is another level of commitment and I couldn’t be more proud. She sank as expected and she did it with a smile.💪 True courage is trying something despite knowing the odds of ‘success’ are slim-to-none. I had multiple conversations with her that explained there was a VERY good chance she was going to be swimming at her first ever pond skim and she proudly committed to doing it anyways. I think this was a great example of her mindset that it’s not just the final outcome that matters, otherwise the reality that her light weight and tiny board almost guaranteed she wouldn’t make it would be enough to deter her. But she saw past the end result and embraced the experience, knowing this event was about having fun and celebrating the impending end of our snowboarding season with our local mountain community while raising money for our ski patrollers. Her style and swagger walking back to the car screams personal success though as she overcame the obvious nervousness such an event can produce and she can now claim ‘been there done that got the t-shirt’.

What a difference a couple months makes! 🏂 #4yearsold

That passive aggressive offer to let him go first though…😬😂 #Siblings