When the snow starts falling, most people dream of sugar plums dancing in their heads, but it is visions of skiers racing down the slopes that crowd into junior Darby Lacey’s head this time of year.
Lacey is packing up and heading to Vail, Colo., over Thanksgiving break to hit the slopes and train for her eighth season of competitive skiing.
Recently she has become Team Noodle with her dad, proudly dawning the colors of hot pink and black.
Her dad coached skiers back in the 80’s, and her mom was a ski instructor. “It was just natural for me to start skiing,” Lacey said.
And it seems that skiing is all she has done since her first day. In Vail she will train on manmade snow crossed off from the public so that the skiers can train on hard packed, clean snow.
“I get to train next to people like Lindsey Vaughn,” Lacey said. “I’ve met her, but they’re all just there.”
However, she doesn’t get distracted by the celebrities on the mountain; she keeps her head in the game. “I’ve placed quite a few times,” she said. The whole season is spent trying to lower points by placing higher.
She’s competed all over the West, but her two favorite places to race are at Whitefish’s Big Mountain and on Schweitzer Mountain in Idaho.
While she may have met Lindsey Vaughn, the celebrities aren’t her favorite part. Lacey said she enjoys getting to know the kids just like her who love to ski.
“Most of my best friends are people I’ve met through skiing,” she said. The whole experience is just a “real adrenaline rush type of deal.”