Plus ca change plus c'est la memes chose

Some quotes to ponder over:-

'For believe me! — the secret for harvesting from existence the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment is: to live dangerously! Build your cities on the slopes of Vesuvius! Send your ships into uncharted seas! Live at war with your peers and yourselves! Be robbers and conquerors as long as you cannot be rulers and possessors, you seekers of knowledge! Soon the age will be past when you could be content to live hidden in forests like shy deer! At long last the search for knowledge will reach out for its due: — it will want to rule and possess, and you with it!'

Friedrich Nietzsche

And an other, also from Nietzsche:-

'What doesn't kill us makes us stronger'

Once again, I lie on the same Canadian hotel room bed with the same knee raised and under ice!

So, what has changed? 

As my title says, everything and nothing.

I've experienced and witnessed the highs and lows, the competitiveness, the comradeship, the support, the game playing and political intrigue of everyday life squeezed into the pressure cooker environment of an overseas off-piste ski camp.

I've also seen the smiles and laughter of connections, the joy that comes from discovery - both physical and emotional.

What do I mean?

Well, I reckon that everything in life revolves around connections, the contact and interaction between people. Relationships. Good or bad,  they're what makes the world go round! And they are changing all the time.

For example, despite my limited time on the snow (more of that later) there has been a strong relationship developing with our instructors Ryan and Ronin. We have started to understand their language, both that of their international accents and the language of the ski coach. And they, us.

It's been great to watch everyone in our groups begin to look like, to change into "proper skiers". Our stances are improving, our hands are up (at least some of the time!), I think we are starting to display true commitment to stay centered on and really drive the downhill ski. We are learning to let our bodies fall out of the hill into the new turn, to have the  patience (and trust) to let our skis run down the fall line before finishing our turns beautifully centered and weighted.

(Yeah, dream on Sprucey!)

Drills practiced on the groomers, developing muscle memory have been taken to the steep and deeps (and there's a lot more of those than groomed pistes out here in Fernie!).

What may be straight forward on a steep groomer takes courage on a double black diamond, non-groomed run through the trees. Trust in our coaches, trust in our improved skills makes it happen, most of the time pretty successfully. Building our connections and relationships. We are changing.

We all watched a harrowing video of a real back-country avalanche event with life ending and life changing consequences for those involved. I don't think there were any of us not moved by the film and the seriousness of what we will be doing in just a few weeks. We've learned how to search and companion rescue each other if caught and buried under an avalanche. For that, you need trust, a strong connection and strong relationships.

It's all down to connections and relationships - coaches and fellow students - the mutually supportive relationships built from a shared passion and challenge.

Off the snow, off the hill, I've seen relationships develope, change, evolve, grow and change again.

Take a group of strangers from three different continents, different age groups, life experiences and backgrounds and chuck them in a hotel in a Canadian frontier mining & ski town and see what happens! Wow, if you didn't make the reality TV show there would certainly be enough material to keep the psychology department of a major university going for years!

Seriously though, I think our relationships and connections are working. Some are strong, most are good, very very few are poor. All have changed and continue to change, evolve, mature especially after a crazy first two weeks.  What hasn't changed, I think, is a common desire to make things work, to be able to live together, to respect each other so we can all achieve our similar but not identical personal goals during this 6 week course. I think we are building a Team!

OK, I'm rambling!

Back to Saturday night, the Canadian hotel bed, the ice pack (God, I really know how to live!) and the title of this post.

What's changed?  Plus ca change...................
After multiple physio appointments, an improvement to the calf muscle and tendon damage and a very slight reduction in swelling around the knee and lower leg, I now have a different diagnosis. It's pretty clear that I have completely buggered (sorry but there's no other way to describe it) my Anterior Cruciate Ligament(s?) ACL - the classic skier's over extension knee injury!

plus c'est la memes chose.....................?
Nothings really changed, I simply now have a name for it, a diagnosis! It still hurts like f#@k, it's limiting and I will have to manage it. Walking is not great but I can at least ski on it. Plenty before me have skied on with this injury and I will have to control the pain and carry on. In a perverse way, it may force me to pay more attention and ski technically better? 

I may have to change what I do in a few weeks time (there's that C word again!) but right now, nothing changes!

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger!
(Good old Friedrich!)

So why the big long quote from Nietzsche at the head of this post? Well, I'm not sure?
It was sent to me by a good friend. He's a deep thinker, always a bit cryptic, I think he wants you to discover and work it out yourself.

I'm certainly not content to hide in the forest like a shy deer.
I want to harvest the greatest fruitfulness and greatest enjoyment from life, it is after all, while I'm out here in Fernie.
Living dangerously, robbing and conquering, seeking knowledge - the stuff of life for me!
Maybe this is the search for knowledge reaching out and claiming it's due?
Hopefully RP will let me know one day?

So, I did warn you that this blog was written about me, for me and my benefit. Maybe it will help those who read it understand me a bit better. No? I thought not!

Let's see what the next one brings 🙂

Sprucey