One Girl One Mountain
Anna Farrow discusses her lifelong passion of Alpine Skiing
with staff reporter Rhiannon King
Standing on skis that are 183cm in length, Anna Farrow’s claim to fame is on the slopes. Over the past two years, this junior has picked Souhegan’s Alpine ski team up by its bootstraps and helped them climb the rankings. After coming in the top ten for almost every race of the past two seasons, Anna is now ready to take the team to the top.
Her laid back, bubbly personality leads her to have fun both on and off the slopes. While still racing with a competitive edge, Anna’s sportsmanship always shines through making friends with even her biggest rivals. “I’ve raced with Anna since I was five years old so she’s one of the people I’ve known basically my whole life,” says her teammate Rhiannon Allison. “When we compete against each other it’s a mix of feelings because sure, I want to be faster than her, but I would rather see her smiling at the end of a race.” The essence of Anna Farrow is a lively one; she takes risks and isn’t afraid to fail, knowing that it will only make her better.
Anna’s face lights up even after a passing comment about skiing. Racing since the young age of six years old, the soon to be seventeen year old takes the time to reflect on her past and her future as a skier. “I don’t remember learning how to ski, but I remember being little and racing my mom down a dual course that was set up at Crotched [Mountain],” Farrow told me. Her passion has been strong since she was a little girl, originally joining the race team for the purpose of winning, Anna now says that it’s for the love of the sport.
Being a junior at Souhegan, this is her third season as a high school racer. She’s a girl with many responsibilities, but one of her top priorities is to have fun. This year she’s juggling being a coach, a captain, and a skier herself. When asked about her captainship Anna said, “It helps me pick out the little things that I do wrong. It’s obviously easier to pick out what other people are doing wrong so when help them correct it I think ‘maybe I need to correct that too’ so it helps me with my own skiing as well.”
Farrow has many individual, as well as team goals for this season. Last year the girls team roped in the Division 2 Runner-up title. “It was pretty successful. We were behind Kennett, and they’re like, the top girls in the state. I expect the same for this season if not even better. We have a really strong team.” Individually, Anna hopes to go on to the Meet of Champs, just as she has in past years, and place even better than before. While hoping to get in the top 20, she tells me, “I’m just going to shred. Push myself more than I have in the past, focus during practice and take the advice my teammates and coaches are giving me.”
Anna holds nothing back. When she’s on the course, she’ll let her skis take over and just ride it out. This mentality is what brings her to the top. As a girl with many quirks, before she hits the slopes on race day she refuses to talk to anyone. “I don’t like people coming up to me and talking to me or telling me what to do. I think everyone on the team and most of my coaches know that by now. I like to focus and get in my own head. Oh, and with my skis, I normally have someone put them on for me. But once I’m in the start I take them off and put them back on myself, I think its a superstition thing,” she pauses, “I think you’re the only one I’ve ever told that,” she said with a smirk.
Just as everyone does, Anna can get a little nervous from time to time. Although on the outside she manages to keep it calm and collected, on the inside she may just be freaking out. She tells me, “[before I race] people usually come over to me and tell me that I’m going to be okay and that I’m not going to throw up or anything. Once I get in the start gate I try to psych myself out so I can just go out there and get it, once I get down the mountain its like nothing ever happened.”
You’ll never find Anna on the snow without a smile on her face. Her love of the sport is so evident that even when she takes her hardest falls she pulls herself up and gets right back at it. “Being able to turn my skis is probably the hardest aspect for me. Sometimes I feel like they’re too big and powerful for me. Half the time I just fall over because I try to turn too hard.” As any great racer has, Anna has taken quite a few spills in her time. During our interview she paused to tell me her funniest race moment, “ It was my fall, maybe last year? Yeah. Last year. I was at loon, theres a video of it on the crotched race website. I was going around one of the gates and I had so much pressure on one ski that when I hit a bump I completely launched forward and did a full split, sliding half way down the mountain, going through another gate. It was really funny I guess, but at the time it did kinda hurt…” Now, all she can do is laugh at the memory.
It’s apparent that Anna has found her passion. She’s out there on the mountain to enjoy her time as a skier as much as possible. Farrow tells me, “no matter if it’s racing, coaching, or freeskiing or whatever, I’m going to be skiing until the day I die… it’s my passion. Wherever the world takes me, I plan on skiing everywhere I can.” So even as a little old lady, Anna will probably be hitting the trails harder than ever.
"Wherever the world takes me, I plan on skiing everywhere I can.”
