Skiing is my favorite thing to do in this world and I think about it at least once a day. At 10 years old I fell in love with that rush down the mountain and I continue to be smitten. Two years ago, as I was fast approaching 50, I realized I had only skied at 15 resorts. Being on skis for almost 40 years and only skiing at 15 resorts – that was definitely a crisis!! I’m not one to have a real mid-life crisis but I was having a serious mid-life SKI crisis. I needed to hit more slopes!!

The 16-17 season, I skied 6 new resorts and the 17-18 season, I picked up 9. I will be 50 years old in February (5th and my birthday is another love of mine!!!) and need 20 more before turning 51 reaching 50 slopes in my first 50 years.

Working on this goal has been a fun adventure. I am visiting new places, sightseeing, and meeting lots of people. Skiing is social, we talk on the lifts, in the lift lines, at lunch, at the bar apres ski (or maybe it’s just me who likes to talk). As I tell people about my self-imposed challenge I am asked about a blog, so here it is.

This challenge is forcing me out of my habits and waking me up to new things. One of the perks of being in a mid-life ski crisis is if I do any traveling in the winter I look for places to ski along the way. Instead of stopping at a rest area, I stop at a resort. One of these places was in Michigan and it was a fabulous detour. I was on my way to Chicago for a wedding and found Swiss Valley right off the highway. When the GPS said in one mile turn left, the landscape was flat without a mountain in sight. After a half mile, the road turned down into a valley and everything was covered with snow. Parked in a lot with one other car, a truck filled with teen boys looking at me with puzzled looks, I realized I was an out of towner and this resort didn’t see many new faces. Swiss Valley’s buildings look like Swiss Chalets and the rental area is mostly filled with benches for small children. I skied down one slope, went up one lift, down again, up the other lift, and then “down up and in”. I was in heaven!! It was the best break for a long car ride.

This challenge is about the Swiss Valleys out there. Little gems searched out that would have been missed just traveling through life content with habit.