ABSTRACT
Skiing is a very difficult sport to master, especially if one learns to ski at an older age, like the author did. Skiing is ripe with opportunities for adaptation, as one must master diverse contextual factors beyond the skills required to perform well. Skiers are not always the most welcoming individuals to those considered outsiders, particularly when the gatekeepers believe outsiders will ruin the skiing experience, such as destroying fresh powder on a powder day. Further, given that snow conditions change from moment to moment, and as such no two ski runs are the same, adaptation is the rule not merely an ideal. As such, to succeed in the sport, one must learn to adapt to a wide variety of contextual constraints. In this chapter, the author provides examples of how to do so and prescriptions for success at all levels of skiing. These insights will benefit skiers, instructors, and researchers intending to better understand the processes underlying the learning and mastery experience.
