Some possible stressors when skiing could be:
- Pre-ski trip stress and the trip itself.
- Arrival and accommodation at the ski resort.
- Preparing for the first day (lift tickets, equipment rental, instructor hiring, etc.).
Once on the slopes, the most common stressors may be:
- Going up an unfamiliar chairlift for the first time and/or persistent fear of altitude.
- Ski boots discomfort.
- The anxiety prior to our first descent of the season by asking questions such as: Will I remember? Will I be able to?
- The feeling of having forgotten everything.
- The descent on an unfamiliar trail.
- Adverse weather.
- Icy snow.
- Intensive and/or accelerated traffic that generates the fear of being run over.
- Slopes that are too steep or too narrow.
- The fear of sliding on an icy slope without being able to stop.
- Group demands which may include exceeding our personal speed or descending slopes that exceed our own technical level.
- Goggles that fog up and make it difficult to see.
- Fear of falling and hurting ourselves or someone else.
- Not being able to control speed.
- Not being able to stop at the intended time and place.
- Others passing by too close.
- Our own or other people’s edges scraping on the ice.
- Skiing in heavy fog.
- Preparing for the return trip to resume the daily routine.
Body stress
Certain conditions not only generate psycho-affective stress but also bodily stress. According to physician and psychotherapist Alexander Löwen, gravity causes stress. Gravity presses us from above and pulls us downwards and, in order to adapt, we have to use energy by pressing down to the ground to stay balanced, so that it can be said we go through a stressful bodily situation.
According to this author, the lumbar area tends to suffer physical stress during the maintenance of balance when sliding. In that area there is a conflict of two opposing forces that generate stress due to the requirements it faces: one force is gravity acting from above and the other is the opposite reaction coming from our feet through our legs that act to maintain an upright posture. The conflict arises when our legs do not give way by adapting to the terrain so our back succumbs.
The knees are another part of our body that undergoes physical stress. Their function is to absorb the contours of the terrain through flexibility. Due to the pressures they suffer, when these are unsustainable we fall. Without flexibility in our knees, the stiffness caused extends to the lower back generating more stress.
If our personality is rigid there may be a constant concern not to fall, so our knees lose their flexing function. We may exhibit a blockage by tensing the muscles of our legs and our back because, for us, falling is equivalent to giving in.
The stressed beginner
For most beginners, skiing is an intense experience within a framework of an urgent need to adapt to the environment.
The main stressor for the beginner occurs when, being used to walking on firm ground feeling a certain stability, while skiing his whole balance system is affected then he experiences mental and bodily stress trying to quickly adapt to the imbalance caused by sliding. For the apprehensive individual, sliding on snow causes a sensation similar to that of free falling which generates a stressful feeling of danger.
In addition, it should be taken into account that anything that breaks our routine activates the state of alertness because it is an unfamiliar situation that forces to change our habits, which is why stress is known as a ‘change disease’.
The beginner skier makes a constant overexertion paying simultaneous attention to the changing stimuli of the context, which tends to exceed his/her processing capacity and, as these accumulate, may cause interference in the brain making it difficult to decide. It is known that in order to adapt to changes, constant decisions must be made and this also entails a certain degree of stress.
On the other hand, at this level more than at any other, there is the temptation to give up because of not being able to solve the circumstances by not knowing how to do it, or knowing how but not being able to do it, then doubt and lack of confidence in one’s own abilities appear.
For some, giving up is out of the question due in part to the current culture of self-improvement and/or fear of failure. For them, this apprehension is such that their Self refuses to give up and, of course, maintaining this attitude generates a certain amount of stress.
Those skiers who have fewer tools to manage mountain situations tend to suffer from recurrent states of stress than those who can act with confidence in their own abilities. Therefore, when faced with changes, the beginner skier must unquestionably adapt and, if this capacity is not developed in a short period of time, he will most likely feel stressed and be inclined to abandon the activity.
Stress generators and indicators
Sonia Lupien, a doctor in neuroscience and writer, and previously physiologist John Mason speak of four factors in a stress-generating environment:
- Novelty
- Unpredictability
- The feeling of not being able to control it.
- The representation of a threat to the personality or to self-preservation.
The higher the level of stress, the more factors occur at the same time.
Stress-generating contexts come from three sources: the environment, our thoughts and our body itself. The mountain physical and social environment as stressors demand continuous adaptability. By having to adapt to the demands of the environmental and group surroundings, we, almost without realizing it and with urgency and energy, take on an overexertion that over time can lead to a decrease in motivation.
A very common source of stress is to demand more from ourselves than our own abilities or to set very high goals that are difficult to achieve thus incurring in stressful states due to frustration. Our own negative thoughts induce chronic stress since thinking about dangerous situations, to our brain is equivalent to living them. These thoughts generate physiological changes that are suffered by our body and are considered stressful in themselves.
Indicators that we are under stress are:
- Physiological: sleep disturbance, muscle tension, headaches, tremors, altered appetite, shortness of breath, or teeth grinding.
- Psychological: anxiety, moodiness, low self-esteem and self-confidence, irritability, recurrent frustration, negative inner dialogue, and loss of interest.
- Cognitive: concentration difficulties, errors and omissions, restriction of evaluation, low level of attention, difficulty in making decisions, and distractibility.
- Behavioral: loss of motivation and performance, reduced alertness, sluggishness or hyperactivity, avoidance or withdrawal tendencies, and nervous laughter, among others.
