Tayla MacPherson
Primary Sport: Skiing
Job: Clinical Social Worker
Favorite Beverage: Watermelon Juice
Sunrise or Sunset: Sunrise
Non-Outdoor Hobby: Sudoku
Go-to Ski Snack: Chocolate
Book Recommendation: Educated
Guilty Pleasure: Organizing and Labeling Things
Pre-Mountain Pump-Up Music: Mac Miller, Jay-Z, Kid Cudi
Three Words to Describe Yourself: Odd, Loud, & Engaged
"I didn't get into outdoor sports until I moved to Bend five years ago. I came from playing collegiate and semi-professional soccer. I liked competing, liked the feeling of moving my body and testing myself, but I did not spend much time hiking, skiing, mountain biking, any of that before moving here.
What got me to Bend was my dad was a ski racer at U of O. I'd had a not great relationship with skiing as a kid, but I knew it was something I wanted to give myself another chance at. And then when I moved here I didn't know anybody. I started spending a lot of time by myself outside, finding little nooks and crannies in Central Oregon I'd never heard about. That was an extremely freeing feeling I'd never really felt before."
"My high school was really hard for me. I was in and out of different homes and didn't always have a lot of routine or what we call, as therapists, protective factors, people you can count on, safe environments. I didn't have a lot of those.
At the end of high school we went to the Yukon. It was the fist time I’d been to an extremely remote place. I'd just been discharged from the hospital after a suicide attempt and wasn't sure if I was going to graduate or what the next steps would be for me .
We went to the Yukon and we slept in yurts. I'd never really made meals outdoors or understood that you could live outside without electricity. I spent probably a couple days, eight hours walking by myself on a lake called Lake Laberge. It's massive and completely frozen and I just wandered. I found a lot of clarity. I was moving my body but not doing anything intensive. I was learning about the space I was in, that it wasn't my space, someone else's space, but it felt really peaceful at the same time.
It started a habit of mine. When things are hard, I just walk. No matter where I am, e very day at work I take a 15 minute walk around 2pm if I don't have a client. That experience showed me a couple of things: that I can do things on my own in a new place by myself, that the outdoor space is welcoming even if it's not your own, it's for everybody. And even if you are not in your best headspace, or you're questioning keeping going, questioning finding a life worth living, I felt really included by myself out there. That was really special."
"Soccer was my outlet for a lot of really hard things. It was the outlet that allowed me to feel peace and space to be really kind of wacky. Be silly, be me. I don't need to be quiet. I don't need to shut down who I am. When that was missing I realized I needed something to help me stay steady. Not only does movement help my mental health, it does the reverse too. It's a two-way street.
And when I am able to get outside, even if it's a trail or a place I go to often, I just look up and it feels new every time. That feeling is what I need to be able to go into Monday, go to the jail, go to the ED, have really hard conversations, and help people when they're in the hardest parts of their lives."
"Skiing gives me a feeling unlike any other outdoor sport. If I could, every day I would be skiing. I have coworkers that make fun of me because during the core of winter I'm waking up at least once a week at 4am to do a Cone lap, a Tum lap, something before work, and then sitting down at 8am with my first client."
"When I am resort skiing I want to be turning over turns as quickly and as aggressively as possible. I want all of my weight and pressure in my shins and the outside of my big toe, and I want to see how far I can get down to the ground without falling.
I love to be playful with skiing, especially in bounds. Widening my turns, narrowing my turns, pretending trees are gates and pretending to punch them. Seeing a wind lip and saying, I am going to go off that from here in this direction, and that is where I'm going to make my next turn once I land. That is really fun to me."
"When it comes to touring, I think the relationship of who you're with is really, really important, and really exciting. Most likely me and the other person are going to be challenging each other in conversation, in what are we trying to prioritize today, and ‘Hey, today's the day I'm ready to push a little more’, ready to go above that line we did last time. That really excites me.
Hitting any new territory is really fun. And then being able to look back up and say, I was there. Or getting back to town and looking back up at the mountain and saying, I was there. That's pretty sick."
"There's so much variation in skiing, the environment, the skis you're wearing, the people you're going with, what's open, what's safe in the backcountry. I'm a very type A, to-do list person, and skiing really challenges me in a good way. It's one thing in life where I never get mad when things don't go as planned. I will ski in the rain."
"I think the outdoors is for everybody. When you get there, no one has control over you. You can make your own choices in whatever capacity. It's silly and simple, but it feels so comfortable, so at home. I really hope that everyone in this world can experience the feeling of freedom that sometimes we don't feel in society or at our home or at our work.
You don't have to look a certain way. You don't have to be a certain type of human or a certain fitness level to go outside and enjoy it. If you accept yourself, the outdoors will accept you."
"I'm proudest of finding time for skiing when, if you looked from the outside, it shouldn't have been a priority. Two jobs, grad school, hard things with family. Almost doing the opposite of what my brain is telling me, and 70% of the time being really glad I did it.
And getting over the mental hurdle that at first it didn't come naturally, and I struggled to get back up and try again when I was younger. Now feeling pretty good about who I am as a skier. I'm not a professional skier, I'm not a sponsored skier, but I like to ski hard. I like to ski in variable conditions and I can get down anything I want to. That feels pretty cool."
