How one rad dad is making the most of his newest chapter in life
I’m standing at the top of Six Blanc, a mountain face in Verbier, Switzerland. I’m shivering and nervous as I wait for my turn to drop in for my run at an important Freeride World Tour Qualifier event. They are calling my name on the starter’s walkie-talkie and I’m frantically doing a final check of my pack. Inside, all my important gear shuffles around as I double check it; avalanche probe, shovel, tightly packed airbag and canister, a Swiss chocolate bar, lip balm, phone and a Size 1 Kirkland brand diaper. At that moment, my brain struggles to decide if the feeling of the diaper in my pocket calms me or freaks me out even more, but it undoubtedly serves as a reminder of what awaits me down at the village in the valley floor: my partner, Tracy, and our two-month-old baby, Mae.
I was definitely a hold-out on having children. I was 34 when we decided to try and, if you asked me if a baby was on my mind when I was 33, the answer would have been a resounding “No.” Life was pretty good at the time: Six months of the year I was focused on running our bungee jumping company in Quebec and the during the winter months I would hit the road, chasing powder, freeride comps and pro skier dreams. When I turned 34, and Tracy turned 35, Father Time was starting to call our bluff and after some soul searching, the two of us agreed that the timing was right.
Our commitment to each other was that we would try to stick to our current lifestyle—the life we love to live—as much as we possibly could. People usually scoff when you reveal this to them and offer up a sarcastic “Good Luck,” but we remained quite committed to giving it a shot. With our daughter arriving at the beginning of the ski season, it was evident that our plan was going to be tested right out of the gate. Freeride comps were already stacked on my schedule in both Europe and North America and, with Tracy being on maternity leave from her job for a year, we found ourselves hitting the road, towing car seats, strollers and a tiny baby along with us.
The first place we took Mae was to British Columbia and the Rockies with a plan to road trip around, visit friends and family and to get the early season ski legs going. Car rides seem to terrorize some babies whereas for others it seems to be the ultimate in relaxation and calming; luckily, for Mae, has been the latter. We drove to Golden, British Columbia, where I met up with my friend Martin Labuda, Slovakia’s highest ranked freeride skier and now a permanent resident of the town.
Martin and I skied a bell-to-bell powder day at Kicking Horse and the whole time I was patting myself on the back for my ability to rip around on skis during the day and change diapers at night, as if it had never been done before. Then a funny thing happened…
At the end of the day, we were skiing deep in the trees searching for the last bit of untouched snow at the resort and we came across two other skiers working their way through the same zone. It was two well-known freeski athletes and fellow Peak Performance ambassadors, Henrik Windstedt and the late, great Dave Treadway.
Both Dave and Henrik are legends in skiing and both of them have become quite well known as skiing’s great pro-skier family men. Chatting with them on the hill that day about skiing and family made me realize a couple of things. One, get over yourself, you’re not the only dad on the hill. Two, watch guys like this carefully and try to learn whatever you can from them.
Dave, in particular, will be forever recognized as one of the greatest examples of a rad ski dad, a person that everyone admired and who infused his spirit of chasing life and the mountains into his kids everyday. He will be missed dearly by the whole ski community. Running into him and getting the chance to chat with these two legendary pro skier-dads on my first day out skiing as a father was one of those peculiar coincidences you encounter in life—and it really fired me up. We skied the rest of the run with them and I left the hill with an even more heightened sense of excitement towards fatherhood and the adventures up ahead.
Back in Verbier, I’ve made it down from my first competition run as a father in one piece. As I ski down to the valley floor, I know that my result in this event will be mediocre, but I’m not overly disappointed; in freeride competitions any day without a crash is a day that could have been worse.
I meet up with Tracy in Le Chable, the village at the base of the Four Valleys region, where she had been pushing Mae around in the stroller. As we load her into the car seat and start driving to our chalet, I start breaking down my run to Tracy who listens excitedly. Her enthusiasm highlights to me how her support is the key to what makes this fantastic journey work the way that it does. It makes me assume that this type of partnership, support and love for adventure and motherhood is likely a common denominator amongst other well-known ski dads out there.
A year and a half later, Mae is now 19 months old and has traveled with us to multiple ski destinations—places like Kirkwood, Taos, Colorado, British Columbia, Alberta, all over Switzerland and the Adirondacks. The packing and logistics involved in traveling with ski equipment and multiple pieces of baby gear is borderline a sport in itself. Being on the road with a toddler, you get used to going without things like après ski, sleeping through the night, relaxing meals out, peaceful flights and time to yourself at the hotel. However, a different world opens up, one of adventure and discovery of a different kind, through a child’s eyes. I never could have anticipated how much pleasure I would find in watching my daughter get bundled up and coming out to brave the winter with her crazy parents, riding in strollers, sleds and ski touring in her dad’s carrier backpack.
We are still doing our best to honor our commitment to preserving our lifestyle, but, admittedly, as babies become toddlers, they go from being immobile passengers to full on active participants in this life, which can make things quite busy. This doesn’t imply a tragic need for me to put my skis away, but it does foreshadow what comes next, which will be finding her a pair of skis so we can enjoy the skiing life together.
About the author: Nick Steers is a Quebec-based, big-mountain freeride skier who has skied and traveled on five continents. He competes internationally in Freeride World Tour competitions with some of the top athletes in the world. This year, he became a father yet still commits his life to the mountains and sharing those experiences with his family.
