Winter is one of my favourite times of the year! I do feel like I say that as each season approaches but winter has a special place in my heart.

{Update on my niece Ava: surgery was a success!!!!!}

I used to work outdoors {5 winters}; teaching cross-county skiing, snow shoeing, winter camping, ropes course – yes in the winter and more. You can probably guess my favourite winter activities by now. I’m joining Mar on the Run, Cynthia and Courtney on the {Friday Five Link Up}. 

Favourite Winter Activities

1. Downhill Skiing

I grew up downhill skiing and am pretty sure I was around the age of three when I started {same age as Hilary}. I spent a lot of time on the bunny hill before moving on to the big one. I even remember the first time I took the chair lift and cried the whole way to the top!

I would ski double back diamonds, moguls and sometimes through the trees. I’d go on every school trip and sometimes would skip my school to go skiing with my Dad’s school – best times ever! When I was a teenager I took my CANSI Level 1 to become a ski instructor but never ended up instructing.

Downhill skiing is as challenging as you want it to be. I love the fast pace, the freedom and zipping down the hill in control of course. I also love the fact that our daughters are getting into skiing now too!

2. Cross Country Skiing

I didn’t start cross-county skiing until I was in my 20’s, mainly because we were always downhill skiing or I was playing indoor soccer. When I first started working in the outdoor recreation field, I had to teach cross-country skiing even though I had never skied before!

Don’t worry, I was given proper training and managed to pick it up rather quickly. And……I loved it! This became my absolute favourite winter activity to do. I love that I can go on my lunch break on local trails or hit up the hill before/after downhill skiing too! I can’t wait to teach the girls in a few years.

3. Snowshoeing

Another love of mine! My snowshoes usually stay in my car so that I can take them out at lunch time as well. I’ve yet to try “snowshoe running” but have a feeling it’s super hard and intense!

Snowshoeing is a fun activity that I can do on my own, with my husband or friends/co-workers and even our girls have little snowshoes. There snowshoes are MUCH cooler then mine as they leave footprints behind.

Also, my husband proposed to me while snowshoeing on a lake one winter.

4. Winter Running

I do love running in the winter. Even with the extra layers I love the feeling in my lungs and the crunchy sound under my feet.

The best sound in winter is the snow crunching under your feet but you can only hear that if it’s super cold or running. I also feel a little more bad ass running in the winter. I’m sure people don’t look at me and think, she’s a bad ass for running in the snow…they look at me and thinking WTF, she’s crazy!

5. Tobogganing

Tobogganing is something I did as a child every single day! My parent’s house is on a hill and we could shovel snow on the road so that we could slide down our hill, cross the street and see how far onto the neighbours front lawn we could make it. And of course, we’d always have someone watching for cars.

Pulling a toboggan of kids is another story but I do give it my best shot. The above picture was taken two years ago. Hilary thought this was hilarious and Lilly loved it!  I can’t wait to take them to a big hill!

What’s your favourite winter activity?

Ever go snow shoeing?

If you had to pick: downhill skiing or cross country?