Winter is my favorite time of year. Without the bother of mosquitoes or ticks, winter is when I most often spend time outdoors, and that has been true for most of my life. Growing up at the base of a ski mountain in a family of skiers almost single-handedly defined my childhood, and that enmeshment in the culture of skiing continued on into my adult years, where I spent almost all of my 20s working in the world of ski racing.
In the last few years, I have pulled away from skiing, mostly by my own choice as I look to redefine how it fits into my life. My love for the sport began to fade, rather quickly, and as it did, I started to question what that meant for my relationship with the place I've called home my entire life. So much of our existence in the nort...