Freestyle skier tackles Mammoth terrain

Latching on the straps of his ski poles, sophomore Aaron Cho grips his poles as the sun casts down on his goggles. Looking down the long snowy slope below, he pushes his skis outwards and tucks them in side by side, focusing on the ramp ahead. Lifting off, excitement surges through him as he soars through the air. 

Every winter season, Cho and his family travel to Mammoth Mountain twice a month to ski. Always looking to improve and push his limits, he challenges himself to advanced slopes with long and textured surfaces while performing multiple jumps off ramps, pipes and mid-air turns. 

“Every day is a new opportunity to practice or practice something new when I ski, so I try to aim my goals towards that,” Cho said. 

Learning how to ski for the first time, Cho took lessons at Mammoth when he was 4, which taught him basic movements and motions. These included pushing off to build momentum and performing small curved turns that involved shifting weight from both legs to turn.

“I’m always excited to get started, and I try to remind myself to always have fun out there even when it gets hard to mentally prepare myself and make myself warm up to get ready,” Cho said.

A typical day of skiing starts with Cho warming up on intermediate slopes or bunny slopes to prepare his joints and practice small curves and jumping exercises. Then, he makes his way up to the advanced slopes, labeled red slopes. To prepare for a trick, Cho prepares his safety gear, which includes a sturdy helmet and goggles to prevent glare from the sun. He completes a couple of runs to get comfortable with his speed until he takes it to the rails and ramps and performs jumps and 180-degree turns in the air.

“I really enjoy skiing because I feel like I can do whatever I want and experiment. It’s fun to challenge myself and see how fast I can go or how well I can carve and twist my skis, I’ve also made and met a lot of friends while skiing and has brought me closer to them,” Cho said.

To perform a 360–Cho’s favorite move–he begins by gaining momentum by crouching with his skis and tucking his legs and arms together to reduce air resistance. Springing himself up as he hits the ramp, he then uses his arms, legs and head to turn his body around before swiftly landing back on the slope.

“He definitely enjoys skiing as it gets him excited about the speed and the fact that you can learn new tricks. He feels really accomplished when he lands [tricks and jumps],” sophomore Madilyn Ly, Cho’s friend, said.

Throughout his journey, mistakes and injuries have caused him problems and setbacks in his progress. But over time, he now looks back and realizes that every fall, wrong twist and jump taught him valuable lessons about how to keep moving forward. His growth in perseverance and resilience has had a positive impact on his enjoyment of skiing, understanding that no reward comes without struggle.

“I can fall a lot, especially on my face, which hurts a lot, but after it happens I collect myself and start over step by step. I give myself small goals and I make sure not to aim for unrealistic high goals,” Cho said.

Over the years, Cho has skied mountains ranging from Colorado to Lake Tahoe to Whistler, Canada. He aims to join a youth skiing program or competition, but none have been offered nearby or for his age range. For now, he plans to continue perfecting his moves and learning new tricks while traveling to new mountain ranges.

“Skiing has helped me get more confident in myself and my abilities, and I want to continue pushing and challenging myself forward in my [progression as a skier] as it has helped shape my personality,” Cho said.