FEATURED JUNE 2008 GUEST: Kit DesLauriers
THE POWER OF ONE

"There are high spots in all of our lives and most of them have come about through encouragement from someone else."

- George M. Adams

THE POWER OF ONE

Some people just exude calm confidence while being quiet and humble. Sue Nott was one of them, rest in peace. I met her in Indian Creek, Utah, the crack climbing paradise that was a three hour drive from my home and had become my weekend ritual getaway. Evenings were spent listening to and telling stories around the campfire with new and old friends from around the world. Everyone was there for the same reason, the personal challenge and love of climbing the famously steep and long splitter sandstone cracks.

It was a good retreat from my weekday life that was full of long hours working as a stonemason and daily morning runs in the woods with my wolf. I had to run in the mornings because after a day of work lifting rocks I was too tired to do anything but take a shower and eat dinner. Neither of which was easy in itself since my wolf and I lived in a yurt a couple miles from the closest road and I had to carry water and chop wood each evening, too.

Word around the campfire was that Sue had a sponsor. Not your ordinary outdoor clothing and equipment company which she eventually did secure some time later. But when I met her, her sponsor was more of an enigma. A friend of her family was how the story went, who believed in her and wanted to help her pursue her dreams of climbing. This someone must have recognized her raw talent as a climber as well as that calm confidence, quiet mind and kindness that were some of Sue's traits. An unconfirmed number was something like $35,000 per year plus the nice pickup truck that she lived out of. To someone like myself who worked really hard to make $25,000 per year and had a not so nice pickup truck, this seemed like a perfect set up.

In fact I remember thinking,"I hope someone someday sponsors me like that".

The years go by. I switch my focus from climbing to skiing and move from Colorado to Wyoming. I keep working super hard to afford one big international climbing/skiing trip per year. It's an inordinate amount of money to spend on one trip, sometimes $5,000 per pop, while still sleeping on the ground and going weeks without a shower. But it is what I love to do. I work whatever jobs I have to in order to ski enough to improve my skills and try harder and higher peaks. I'm sure I remembered the dream of wanting a sponsor like Sue Nott had, but it was on a cellular level. I didn't obsess about it. How rare to hear of that kind of opportunity. I thought it was just a fairy tale.

So life went on. In a fulfilling and tightly budgeted way. Every day that I woke up and put my ski boots on was for me. Because I love it and there is nothing else I'd rather do. In 2004, I was 34 years old and decided to compete on the World Freeskiing Tour because I wanted to take my skiing to another level and because I had never competed in skiing in my life. Maybe I'd meet some great people and have another avenue in which to see and ski new places.

I won.

In the first few days of 2005, I was within moments of having to decide if I was going to compete again. Truth be told, although I was the Women's Freeskiing World Champion, I had hardly covered my costs with my winnings and barely had any industry companies interested in sponsoring me. I had just turned 35 and some younger people competing on the Tour loved to remind me that I was 10 years older than them. Moreover, I had done it. I had shown myself that I was capable of skiing at that level, wasn't that enough?

On Thunder chairlift at my home mountain of Jackson Hole, I shared the ride with a friend of a friend I had never met before. He asked me if I was going to compete again. Surprised that he knew enough of me to even know that I had competed the year before, I told him how I had to decide really soon as the first event was right around the corner. I told him how I'm not sure if the hardships were worth it for another year. What I didn't tell him was how difficult it would be for me if I lost that season after winning the previous, and maybe I should just go on to the graduate school I had been contemplating.

Steve said,"You have to compete again. I have never seen another woman ski like you. I'd like to sponsor you."

Flashbacking to the Indian Creek campfire, I remembered Sue Nott and her calm confidence. Smiling and feeling faint, I asked,"Can we put the safety bar down?"

During the competition season that year, I had dinner with Dick Bass at his Snowbird Ski Resort and listened to his stories about climbing the Seven Summits after which he gave me a copy of his book about being the first person to climb the highest peak on each continent. I wondered that if Dick could climb them, maybe I could climb and ski them?

After a decisive victory in 2005, I became a two-time World Freeskiing Women's Champion. I had some of my sponsor's money left over and someone who believed in me. While those elements were entirely crucial to my success in my next endeavor to ski the Seven Summits, they were a part of the universe responding to my commitment to live my truth. Pay it forward with kindness.

@2008 Kit DesLauriers