My family and I have just returned from our annual ski trip out to Utah. We’ve been heading out here at least once per year, usually around Christmas, since the first COVID year. We couldn’t find ski lessons for our then-four year old, and we’d already sunk the money into annual passes, so we decided we’d head to the mountain West where we could. (It also helped that fellow race director and USA Triathlon coach Jo Garuccio is an instructor at Snowbird.) That trip was the onus for our original article about traveling during COVID.

This year’s trip took us to our original Utah destination of Snowbird once again. But, for the first time, we didn’t wind up with multiple days in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Instead we wound up at Deer Valley and Snowbasin twice, respectively, and we skipped out on Alta altogether. Part of that was simply logistics; our Jeep SUV rental shockingly did not have four wheel drive (sidebar: who knew that Jeep even *offered* a non-4x4 Grand Cherokee), and with snow moving in, we would have been prohibited from driving up the canyon to get to Alta or Snowbird.

But, more significantly, it was because Deer Valley offered something unique: free NASTAR racing. And Ivy, who is on the racing team at our home mountain, really wanted to run the GS course.

Again.

And again.

And again.

For the non-skiing reader population, think of NASTAR as the US Masters of swimming, versus US Ski and Snowboard / USA Swimming. It’s the rec league of skiers. That’s not to say it isn’t competitive; to the contrary, daily there is a “par” time set for the course, and then times are age-graded and calculated into the time standards of platinum, gold, silver, and bronze. And you “run what you brung” for equipment. You see everything from giant powder skis to pure race carvers and everything between.

It also happens to be free at Deer Valley to race the course. Well, almost free. You need to have a valid lift ticket / pass. But it’s not anything additional to race.

It’s also, admittedly, stupid fun. Especially for someone who’s total experience of running gates was a random beer league night at our local Connecticut hill almost a decade ago.

At first I was just running the gates so Ivy would have someone to chase (there are two courses running at the same time). But then I found out that I was dangerously close to making the time standard for bronze, so now I was just as invested as Ivy was in times. (Kelly, a former ski racer herself, took the photos you see here.) We all talked to fellow ski racing families with small people who enjoyed the gate time. And we all kept trying to get faster.

I finally managed to break into the bronze standard. Ivy, a mere half second behind me, took gold for U8 girls. And we all had a blast the remainder of the day, skiing in the sun. From groomers to bumps to trees, we hit a little bit of everything.

It reminded me a lot of the variety that our respective sports offer. We have so many different options to scratch the itch of training or racing. And I think we often forget that when we’re building out our schedules, picking some of the same annual events to build around and trying to not get bored by that same routine.

My takeaway, and my resolution, is to keep trying new things. Yes, I’ve got one of my normal haunts on the schedule for this year (some would argue that *finishing* IM Lake Placid would be new for me, so there’s that). But there’s joy to be had in things that are different. Maybe it’s a Masters swim meet, or a gravel race, or even as simple as a new group ride for you to join. Whatever it is, let’s remember to have fun out there.