SNOW BASIN — "Out on assignment." That's what the schedule said. For the first time in 24 years, I was actually out of the office during the workday.
As the director of the design department, there aren't many opportunities for getting outside. But sports writer Amy Donaldson was putting together a feature about Utah ski manufacturers that, it just so happened, involved some friends of mine. She wondered if I might be willing to tear myself away from the computer for a day. She didn't have to wonder twice.
I've always loved skiing. For as long as I can remember, it has been my life. And I was going to Snowbasin, the resort where I grew up.
My parents had us on skis as soon as we could walk. My father, Butch Hoffman, was a former ski racer and later our ski coach. For many years he ran the Utah Racing School, which is now the Ogden Valley Ski Team. My mom, Linda, was our support group. As their real job, they own and, to this day, run Hoffman Cleaners in Ogden. But their passion was their kids — and skiing.
With a lot of encouragement, training and dedication, we worked our way up the ranks. At 16, my brother Scott was on the United States Ski Team and traveling all over Europe to World Cup races. By the time I was 16 I had won the Junior Olympics in slalom and was named to the U.S. Development Team. My sister Kathy was one of the top skiers in the Intermountain division.
As with most sports, ski racing had its ups and downs. I was plagued with knee injuries. To date, I've had five surgeries, all on the same knee. I've had two ACLs replaced and an osteotomy. An osteotomy is an alternative to a knee replacement. At 48, I'm too young for a knee replacement, even though I have the knee of a 70-year-old. I wear a brace just like the NFL guys you see on television. I hang in the same club as Mark Sanchez, the Jets quarterback, and all the Bills offensive linemen. Even with that, I wouldn't change a thing.
I was worried my bum knee would hurt my chances of a college scholarship. But, in 1981, at age 18, a senior in high school, I was lucky enough to earn a four-year, full-ride scholarship to BYU to be a member of its ski team.
My goal was to become an All-American collegiate ski racer. I became obsessed and I spent the next four years doing just that — four All-American honors and a couple of national championships.
A bonus of my time there was a coach named Ford Stevenson, a wonderful man who enriched my life on and off the mountain. After all these years, my college teammates and I still stay in touch and still share the love of skiing. Getting a college degree was the icing on the cake.
In 1986, after graduating from BYU, I started working at the Deseret News. Not able to give up ski racing altogether, on the weekends I coached young athletes on the Snowbird Race Team. One of the coaches, Gordon Perry, a former Canadian National Ski Team member and a University of Utah All-American ski racer, became my husband. You can only imagine a Cougar and a Ute living under the same roof. Ironically enough, he is now the program director of the Ogden Valley Winter Sports Foundation, the program my father was involved in his entire life.
At Snowbird we coached many fine young athletes. Two in particular are building skis in Salt Lake City and own a local ski company called Viice. They've both been skiing at Snowbird for more than 20 years and have been building skis for different companies for 15. Scott Berry designs and builds the skis while Anthony Walker creates the cool graphics and markets them.
With their local knowledge, who better to build a ski here in Utah?
Scott spent five days building the perfect ski for me to test on our ski day.
Also joining us for our feature story ski day was Kirk Langford, a perennial fixture on the slopes of Snowbasin who grew up racing for the Ogden Valley Ski Team and the University of Utah. He has been a top ski industry executive for many years and recently became VP of sales and marketing for Goode Skis of Utah. He clipped into a pair of Goode skis to put them to the test.
It was the perfect day to be out on assignment. It had snowed almost a foot overnight and the skies were blue. All the pressures of work disappeared when I got on the slopes at Snowbasin.
When it snows overnight, skiers spend their day searching for untracked powder, hunting down the deep stuff, craving the face shots. Our day was no different.
We found section after section of untracked snow; it was like floating on air. The Viice skis I was testing made it effortless to ski the powder.
As always, Deseret News photographer Tom Smart knew all the secrets of getting the perfect photos. It was just like the good old days, skiing with former racers Kirk Langford, Scott Berry and Trent Wignall.
We sat out on the deck and had lunch at Earl's Lodge while we caught up on each other's lives.
At the end of the day, Kirk took us over to Strawberry Bowl in search of one last mother lode. The four of us stood on the ridge looking down, choosing our path. Scott and Trent went to the left, Kirk skied off to the right. I paused on the ridge alone for a moment to take it all in. I was reflecting on how lucky I am to be able to ski with my family, my two kids, Ciera and Hunter, who have also inherited a passion for skiing. I was thinking about my 72-year-old-dad who can still rip it up and was so grateful to him for introducing me to skiing and the great outdoors.
I saw a narrow opening of perfect powder down the middle. I took it. Once again I was happy with the path I chose. The world was right again, spinning properly on its axis, the office about a million miles away.
e-mail: heidi@desnews.com