Magic is just outside where the crowd will go
In what area of your life can you walk just a bit further than most?
I've been on holiday this month - taking time to connect with my family and remind myself what life is truly about - the people around you and exploring this wild, beautiful earth we live on.
We've been skiing and snowboarding in St. Anton, Austria.
My family has been doing it since I was 6 years old.
It's a special time for us all to connect - outside the routine of daily life in a majestic place filled with the potential for adventure.
As I've grown up and gotten to know the mountains better, we've started to venture further. A few cousins and I now use the groomed slopes more as a means to an end - the backcountry.
We got lucky on this trip with a day of 30-40cm of fresh snow. However, the season was relatively dry until this storm - meaning many in the town were as hungry for fresh tracks as we were.
We had an incredible day - riding the more accessible powder runs on the mountain. So did everyone else, though - the mountains got shredded quickly.
It's been four days since then. My cousins and I thought our chances of fresh powder were similar to having well-rested legs on a trip like this - unlikely.
We ventured out, seeking the shadier side of the mountain, which preserves the snow quality for longer. There were tracks everywhere - well, almost everywhere.
We traversed a slope as far as the tracks went. Typically, we would have accepted defeat and snowboarded down amongst the tracks below us, but we had learnt a lot this trip and gained some confidence in ourselves to venture further, safely.
I looked back at my cousins following behind me, looked up to the peak above us, the fresh, untracked powder flowing perfectly down its side, and started hiking up the hip-deep snow.
We had some of the best runs of our life yesterday - because we were willing to walk, not far, but just slightly further than anyone else - and the payoff was magnificent.
This experience got me thinking - a lot of areas in life are like finding fresh powder. The rewards are exponentially better if you walk a bit further than most.
In what area of your life can you walk just a bit further than most?Â
Magic is just outside where the crowd is willing to go.
Until next month,
Dev