CHILLING IN THE CAIRNGORMS
Snowboarder Lesley McKenna on her mountain home
Igrew up in Dellmhor on the Rothiemurchus estate. I was lucky enough to have a playground on my doorstep – lochs and mountains and forests, as well as all the facilities at Aviemore. It was a very free childhood and I think in many ways it gave me the confidence to pursue my dreams.
My parents moved to the area in the 1960s. A lot of young people at that time were moving here from the cities for the lifestyle and the skiing. They were the first generation to set up the ski schools in Scotland. Back then, all the instructors were from Austria, France or Norway. My dad was one of the first members of the British Association of Ski Instructors and the first professional ski patroller. When I was at school he worked for the ski patrol and after that he drove the piste machine – or cat – that smoothed the slopes at the end of the day. I would get a lift up the mountain and then ski back down in the cat’s headlights.
My mum was a PE instructor and she also worked as a ski instructor in the winter. She encouraged me and my younger sister to start skiing
around the garden when we were two years old. We were up on the slopes with our grandparents from the age of six.
As I got older I would just go up on the mountain by myself – every day if I could. Because my dad was in the ski patrol we had a free pass. I would be up on the slopes from 10am until Dad came back down on the cat.
I was in the Scottish team by the time I was 14. I was really lucky to have a peer group and coach who really loved skiing and sport for its own sake. It was never about just winning competitions. It was all about enjoying the sport and being inspired. I’ve kept that attitude for my whole career, I think.
In the summer we’d jump on our bikes and race around the forests. This was before proper mountain biking had really taken off, so we just found our own tracks, made our own jumps and had fun. We’d also go sailing and were always swimming in the lochs and rivers and jumping off bridges. I can’t remember my parents ever worrying about us. I’d jump on my bike when I was ten and go down to the swimming pool or the ice rink.
When I was 21 I was in the British Alpine Skiing Team, along with my cousins Alain and Noel Baxter who went on to become Olympic skiers. I took the British Giant Slalom title – and then I had a complete change of career. I just suddenly realised that the snowboarders were more enthusiastic about life in general. They were real daredevils. That felt more in tune with my attitude to life at that time. Alpine skiing, in comparison, was quite tightly controlled and, for want of a better word, boring.
Although I loved skiing, snowboarding was new and vibrant. It was a young sport with young people, and it came with a whole culture – the clothes, the music, the DJs. The people doing it were interesting, creative types, but they weren’t dropouts. They were extremely athletic.
Even though I hadn’t been snowboarding for very long, in 1996 I found myself at the British Snowboarding Championships. Within a month of standing on a board for the first
‘Snowboarding was a young sport, with young people, and it came with a whole culture – the clothes, the music, the DJs’
time I had finished third in the British snowboard giant slalom championship and second in boardercross. That was it. A door had opened and I just went for it. I didn’t worry about whether I was doing the right thing. I was having too good a time.
I could have pursued an academic career. I had been accepted to study maths, chemistry or sports science by several universities, but I kept deferring it until my snowboarding career took off, and eventually it became clear I would take a more unconventional route in life.
My whole career path went out the window. I had to work out where to get the money for this new sport and how to progress my new career. There were no signposts. I just had to make my own way.
My parents were pretty brave. They didn’t make me feel I should get a proper job or give up an extreme sport. I always felt supported by my friends and family. In that way I have been extremely lucky. There is a bit more stigma around girls in extreme sports, but bumps and bruises are things you can recover from – girls as well as boys. I never grew up thinking I I couldn’t do something because I was a girl. I just believed I could do it – and I did.
During the summer I worked as a waitress and a cleaner and taught aerobics – anything to raise money for the snowboarding season. I
had to keep up my training too, exercising for three to four hours a day on the cross trainer or running. There was little support then for Scottish sport and my parents couldn’t fund me.
In 1996, Melanie Leando and I took a tiny apartment in Sainte Foy in the Alps. We were in our early 20s and we had a crazy time.
We took part in the Snowboard World Cup and did so well that we managed to get an equipment sponsor and little bits of funding from the government. In 1997 I joined the European Roxy Snow Team as a professional, making films and photo-shooting with the other girls.
By 1998-99 Melanie and I were among the top female snowboarders in the world. At first I did everything – freestyle, cross and halfpipe – but by 2000 I decided to concentrate on halfpipe. It requires the athletes to perform aerial acrobatics while zigzagging down what appears to be a giant snowy drainpipe. It is judged on style, like ice dance, rather than speed.
I am proud of what Melanie and I achieved. It was hard work but we just got on with it and had fun. We used to joke we were like a threelegged donkey at the Grand National. There is a lot to be said for that attitude.
For a while I was in the top five female halfpipe snowboarders in the world and was on the podium six times at the World Cup tour. In 2002, when I was 27, I competed in
‘I never thought I couldn’t do something just because I was a girl. I just believed I could do it – and I did’
the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics – the first Briton ever to compete in the Winter Olympics on a snowboard. I went there in a strong position, but I couldn’t handle the pressure and unfortunately crashed. I went on to compete in Turin in 2006, but I was injured and it was a big ask even to get there. By the time the 2010 Olympics came round, I was surprised I had qualified. I was already coaching and just went there to enjoy it and do the best I could.
Although none of my three Olympic Games came together for me on the day, I learned something from each one. And I’ve always competed for the joy of it rather than the reward.
In 2010 I decided to retire and take up coaching. As you get older, your perspective on life changes. I was getting more out of coaching other people than riding myself. I am now the team manager for European Roxy Snow Team. I am also programme manager for the British Ski and Snowboard Squad. I like seeing people improve and I hope I can help others to avoid some of the mistakes I made.
Snowboarding is such a fast-paced sport – it has changed so much since I first started 15 years ago. It’s an exciting time: we have a great crop of young athletes in Scotland at the moment. If we keep improving, we’ll do well at the 2018 Olympics to be held in Pyeongchang.
I’d advise anyone to give snowboarding a try. You are nothing but what you make of yourself.
A lot of my confidence to do the stuff I’ve done comes from my upbringing – all that time I spent as a child outdoors, learning to challenge myself through sport. Being outside and pushing yourself is something everyone
should experience. The Spey Valley has more Olympians per head of population than anywhere else in the UK – and the one thing we all have in common is being outdoors.
Active Caingorms is encouraging people to try some of the amazing sports and outdoors pursuits you can do in this area. It’s not just skiing and snowboarding; you can try kayaking, water skiing or swinging from the trees.
I lived a pretty unconventional lifestyle when I was on the road, and I tended to go out with other people in the snowboarding scene. Now I’m back in Aviemore, I’m more settled down. I met Euan, who’s in the ski patrol, eight years ago, and we have a daughter, Coira.
It says a lot for Aviemore that I have travelled around the world and I end up back here. It has everything. It went through a bad patch in the 1990s when the infrastructure was a bit out of date, but people are rediscovering how much there is to do here and investment is coming back. The ski resort is still great. You can learn a lot of skills somewhere like Glenmore Lodge and there are some really cool places to hang out, like the Bridge Inn. I feel at home here – not just because of the environment but because of the pioneering spirit. I might live in other places but I think I’ll always want to come back here.
The spirit of Aviemore is similar to the spirit of snowboarding – that passion and spirit of adventure. It is a great place to bring children up too. I hope my daughter can enjoy growing up in the Cairngorms as much as I have.
‘It says a lot for Aviemore that I have travelled around the world and I end up back here’