‘Even pregnant I still went off-piste skiing’

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Sanne de Jong (37) is married to Boaz (39) and mother of Filippa (4). Because of their love for snow and the mountains, they moved to Austria in 2017, where they run a lodge.

“A piste is trampled by snowplows, but off piste the terrain is different every day. So you really have to ski by feel. As I slide through powder snow that springs up to my hips, I feel butterflies in my stomach. Away from the crowd, free as a bird, I am one with nature. I even enjoy it when the weather is bad.

Of course, on a mountain top, nauseated by the cold and with tingling hands, I have sometimes thought: why am I doing this? But when I make the first tracks on that very white slope, I feel queen of the world.

Read also – Skiing with your child in Austria: 7 tips >

Ski fanatic

For years I drove from Amsterdam to the Alps almost weekly. In addition to studying sports, management & entrepreneurship, I participated in freestyle competitions, where you jump off ramps and do tricks. Freeriding competitions followed later; skiing off piste. I left on Thursday evening and came home on Sunday evening. Crazy, but family and friends knew how big my passion is and when I want something, I go all the way.

Boaz is just such a ski fanatic. We met at a ski event and moved to Austria a few years later. We were tired of traveling back and forth and wanted to organize our lives differently, to be outside more. Since then we have been running a lodge in the Kleinwalsertal and if we want to be on the skis before breakfast.

“Since then we can be on our skis before breakfast if we want”

From the north we are the first mountain range, so we have a lot of snow – ideal for freeriding and ski touring. With the latter variant you don’t take a lift, but you walk up the mountain yourself with skins under your skis, a kind of carpet that prevents you from sliding down. Once at the top you take them off and ski down off piste.

Even when I was pregnant I did that for up to six months. My parents thought: is that necessary? But when you ski that much, you know what you’re doing. In addition, I avoided too steep mountain slopes and took a step back in terms of speed. There were never any doubts, another pregnant woman jumps on her bike and can also fall.

Together on the mountain

Filippa was born in July – lucky me, because that way I didn’t have to miss the winter season. Five months later we were back on the mountain together, now with her in the baby carrier. She was not yet one and a half when she made her first meters on skis. Nowadays, she effortlessly comes down all slopes, only to ask with red cheeks at the end of the day: ‘Are we going again tomorrow?’”

Follow the adventures of Sanne and her family on @KWTlodge

This article is in the Kek Mama Winter Book 2022.

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