Skiing and Memory

I just had a thought while I was sitting here listening to Dave Matthews and I thought I would share it (since you're all dieing tho hear).

I was a ski racer for six years through middle school and high school and the sport contains more memory involved than I gave much thought to for that entire time. What could we possibly have to remember? Well we had to remember to bring out skis, boots, poles... I'm just kidding.

Actually, before every run the racers spend time inspecting the course, that is memorizing it. We were responsible for memorizing every nook and cranny of the run so we would have fewer surprises during our run. This would beg the dedication of three to five runs in which we stop at every gate to inspect and memorize the pitch, fall line, distance between gates etc.

This was especially important in slalom races (short, tight turns down a steep pitch). We were accountable for every gate, which we numbered one through the last. We kept them in mind and counted them as we made the run, not because the number of the gate was particularly important, but the terrain around that gate or the coarse feature was.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6-7-8 are a hairpin, 9, 10,11,12, 13 and 14 are a corridor leading into a roller, 15 leads into a significant change in pitch, steeper so we crank on the edges more... 16, 17, 18... and so on.

We reach the bottom out of breath and with the numbers echoing through our heads, only now instead of just features we remember our own performance at each gate... Its our very own "memory trail".