As a crisp nip in the air replaces summer’s warm days on the lake, I grudgingly put away my hot short-shorts and happily dig out my camouflage duck hunting one-piece along with my hunter orange moose and deer outfit. The dropping mercury is most often associated with the anticipation of skiing, but during the skiers dreaded and prolonged season of fall that seems to never end, I’m blissfully lost somewhere in the bush, slinging a 12 gauge or 30-06, and preparing for the winter ahead.

The ruthless act of killing innocent animals is an addiction/lifestyle that bears fruit beyond the tangible dinner table; hunting is to skiing what Tai Chi is to Kung Fu. Now before all you tree hugging green-peacers become disgustingly offended and find some other website to waste your time on, relax, take a deep breath or toke, grab a handful of granola, and read on.

When skiing we are required to react instantaneously to our environment, we must avoid obstacles by seeing them but not focusing on them. We need to remain calm and confident. While focusing on the immediate future, we need to have vision further down the line, meanwhile maintaining an accurate spacial awareness and orientation of our position in relation to the mountain. All this must be performed with graceful, efficient, honed, precise, deliberate movements. Now unless your hunting like ‘Little Air Dave’, who only shoots highway deer, the aforementioned intricacies of skiing also apply to hunting, but on a different scale.

Orientation:
When walking a kilometer through pine stands, blow downs, thickets of alders, and marshes it is critical to maintain a sense of orientation. At times, a high clearing will confirm (or confuse) your orientation, but ultimately the built in compass needs to be the guide. (When really confused, the man made compass will point you in some definite direction). Similarly, when skiing by Braille in the fog or snow, through long glades, or on big faces, we need a trained sense of direction in order to stay on course.

Vision and Movement:
If you look at the tree, you will ski into the tree. Know it is there, but focus on where you are going, and your skis will follow your vision. When walking in North Western Ontario, combating a blow-down or alder thicket is inevitable. At times this land can be so heinous you want to crash through to the other side, and give up on the hunt altogether. Instead, with Tai Chi fashion it is possible to tip toe over and under branches and contort the body, creative dance style, through the small openings in the trees, maintaining balance while in these awkward positions.

Movements in Tai Chi are performed slowly, softly and gracefully with smooth and even transitions between them. Tai Chi fosters a calm and tranquil mind, focused on the precise execution of these exercises.
The emphasis in Tai Chi is on being able to channel potentially destructive energy (in the form of a kick or a punch) away from one in a manner that will dissipate the energy or send it in a direction where it is no longer a danger.

These fine motor skills practiced in slow motion when walking through brush become ingrained in the body’s movement patterns, and are essential to moving efficiently and quickly on skis with proper balance and posture.


Pulling the trigger: So you may be a day, a week, maybe even two months into the hunting season, and buck fever is setting in. Your finger starts to itch and your mind gives way to hallucinations of big buck deer and bull moose. You’re tired of walking through bush that slaps your face, pokes your eyes, and soaks your feet. Finally, when your trained eye spots the twitch of an ear or glare of the sun off a moose rack, you might be lucky enough to pull the trigger. Patience Daniel San, patience. The right shot is critical. With the boom stick cocked and cross hairs on the target, it is easy for your heart to pound out of your chest and all breathing to cease. Thanks to that amazing hormone adrenaline, this is the same natural response one might experience when skiing towards a cliff. Relax, breath, and calmly but confidently the trigger must be pulled! Don’t ice up! Channeling this energy properly may make the difference between making the kill shot or succumbing to the wounded chase, which is often unsuccessful.

Now that the season is finished, and our tribe has successfully thrown burning lead through 1 bull moose, 6 bucks, 5 does, and a mutant spiker/doe, we head for the hills with a truck load of meat for winter, and minds and bodies in tune for the adventures ahead.