Philosophy and Life

Success in skiing doesn’t necessarily translate to success in life. For Collinson, life is a much bigger picture than skis, boots, bindings and poles. Skiing doesn’t define her. And yet, her success in skiing has weighed heavily on her mind, and has been something she’s had to come to grips with.

“I struggled last year, when I won Best Female Performance. I felt like it was pretty quick out of the gate [after I started] filming and all of a sudden I was like, ‘what’s next?’” she explains. “And I had these series of events where my car got stolen with, like, $30,000 worth of equipment inside and it was this whole sort of snowball where I just had a mini ‘come to Jesus’ moment, where I said ‘what do I want from life? Who am I? What is life all about?’”

“There’s so much in life that is really interesting and for me it doesn’t all just lie in skiing or being a pro skier,” says Collinson. “Skiing allows me to live a well-rounded, holistic life, where I can do all of these other things, and that’s the real blessing for me.”

Collinson is smart. When she began her big-mountain career, she was reaping the benefits of a full academic scholarship at the University of Utah. Her goal was to get into environmental policy—something synonymous with her life since the beginning. That dream isn’t retreating into the shadows of her pro skiing career, however. Her skiing is the catalyst that sparks involvement in organizations like Protect Our Winters, and Collinson still wants to finish out her degree with a double major in Philosophy and Environmental Studies.

“I definitely want to finish it because it’ll help to [provide opportunities] and it’s good to see things through,” says Collinson. “In the future I would like to go into environmental work and I think a lot of doors open in that field from skiing. It’s interesting to use it as a back door approach to get into what I always wanted to do with school.”

Equally intriguing as her environmental goals is her fascination with philosophy and how that pervades her everyday life. According to Deb, she’s influenced by Don Miguel Ruiz’s book, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom. Those four guidelines are: Be impeccable with your word, don’t take anything personally, don’t make assumptions and, most importantly for Collinson, always do your best.

“Reading and practicing those agreements—saying ‘all I can do is bring my best to whatever it is I’m doing,’” explains Deb, “she followed that within herself and began realizing her own patterns to be able to know that you can’t control what other people think. Now into her twenties she’s gotten comfortable with Angel.”

Collinson also draws inspiration from Hawks’ philosophies. “I’d always favored a sunny disposition and positive outlook but he really made me realize that we have the choice to look at things as good or bad.”

“I just had a mini ‘come to Jesus’ moment, where I said ‘what do I want from life? Who am I? What is life all about?'”

Her tendency to look at the glass half full is supplemented with her incorporation of humor into everything she does. “[Humor] is like a drug, but a very healthy one. It’s my main tool,” she says. “You can talk about more serious things if you involve a little bit of humor. It also really works well with group dynamics. I think it’s one of my strongest traits. It helps a lot of things in life become more enjoyable.”

And so, during arguably the most pivotal moment of Collinson’s career—when she was coming to grips with her sudden thrust into skiing’s spotlight, when her car was stolen, her belongings hijacked—she began to ask life’s grand questions. And back home, in Little Cottonwood Canyon, she found herself.

“I took two weeks off and pretended that I didn’t ski for a living,” she details. “I baked cookies and went skiing for fun with my family, I didn’t try to drop cliffs or anything. It was a good learning experience and a practice and mentality that I’ll have with me for the rest of my life… It’s about doing it for you and when you’re having fun that’s when all of the best things happen anyway.”

What is certain is that Collinson will continue to live life her way, continue to laugh, continue to bring a positive, trying attitude to everything she does. Whether it’s on a pair of skis, in a classroom or just walking out the door of her house at the beginning of a new day.

Collinson’s approach to the world, built through the adventures, relationships, triumphs, hardships and revelations she’s endured throughout her 25 years, will culminate in further prosperity.

“There will always be more successes, it’s sort of a never ending false summit,” she says.

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