By Stephen Dawkins
“Chill” and “shred the gnar” are words that don’t get used much by Chilton County natives.
But Michael Gilliland, Hal Harrison, Noel Harrison and Donithin Messer know what they mean, just like they know that a “toboggan” is not a hat but a sled used to coast downhill over snow or ice, while a “beanie” is a close-fitting wool hat usually worn in cold weather.
Before you dismiss the word play, know that the four locals think it’s an important part of the snow skiing experience they’ve come to love.
Along with Al Babcock, Gilliland, Hal Harrison, Noel Harrison and Messer make up the Central Alabama Ski Team, a group of friends that takes an annual ski trip—and looks for opportunities to share the activity with others.
Noel Harrison, considered the team captain, was the first to learn to ski, with trips to Colorado and West Virginia.
“I used to live in Demopolis, and there was a group of seven of us that went,” Noel said. “We all went on the bunny slope. From then on, it was just trying to learn on my own.”
Noel quickly got his technique down and would later teach the other Central Alabama Ski Team members to ski.
Noel’s brother, Hal, visited Park City, Utah in 2003. The first trip for Gilliland and Messer was in 2012, to Colorado. This was when the Central Alabama Ski Team was officially born.
During this first trip for Gilliland and Messer, the more experienced Harrison brothers showed them the ropes—and didn’t take it easy on them, opting for a difficult night run instead of an easier one to start things off.
“We’re going to find out if you can ski or not,” Messer recalls the brothers saying. “It clicked after I fell 20 or 25 times. From that point on, we were skiing.”
The team members are quick to offer encouragement and advice for anyone considering taking up the sport.
The biggest drawback, they say, is the expense involved with the trips: plane flights, rooms, renting equipment and purchasing tickets for the lift to take you to the top of a run.
For beginners, team members recommend taking lessons, or at least visiting somewhere such as Cloudmont Ski and Golf Resort in Mentone, before shelling out big bucks for a trip out west.
“If you’re not going with somebody who knows how to ski, you better take some lessons,” Noel Harrison said. “If you can stop and fall the right way, you can get down anything.”
Don’t think experience water skiing will help you on the slopes. In fact, the two activities are often opposites, including how to turn and how to stop.
Mostly, expect to fall—and fall often.
“You kind of have to leave your pride at the door when you start,” Hal Harrison said. “The good news is that you’re usually falling on snow.”
There’s more to learning to ski than the technique, team members said, such as the lingo.
“How you speak is just as important as what you look like,” Messer said.
Team members are always willing to help someone get started skiing. They even welcome new members to their group and encourage those interested to find the “Central Alabama Ski Team” Facebook page.
“The only rule to be on the team is you have to go on a trip,” Hal Harrison said.
Trips are usually taken toward the beginning of March or end of February, as it was with the team’s latest trip, to Big Sky, Montana.
To make each trip memorable, Hal Harrison buys each participant a commemorative gift—which have ranged from beanies to T-shirts. Also, Messer puts together a video with highlights, which is set to music and posted to YouTube.
“It’s kind of a neat way to remember your trip,” Messer said.
Messer and Gilliland graduated from Chilton County High School in 1994, while the Harrison brothers attended Maplesville. The four knew each other long before they started skiing through various sports they participated in.
The group has improved to the point that they’ll ski runs designated as black diamond or double black diamond—the most difficult runs.
The skiers have made use of smart phone applications that track everything from distance covered to speed. A common competition is to see who can reach the highest speed (Hal Harrison holds the team record at 62 miles per hour).
Things don’t always go as planned. Noel Harrison remembers a trip to Utah that included so much snow that the runs were closed.
“It’s pretty serious at a ski resort to not let people ski,” he said.
Cannons were fired to loosen the snow and prevent avalanches, and cars in the parking lots disappeared as the snowfall amount reached 8 feet.
Still, there are many more positive experiences than negative ones.
“The ‘team’ is just a group of friends that share a passion for skiing and use this as our annual escape from the real world,” Messer said. “There’s nothing for us to compete in, but we do enjoy pushing ourselves to the limits.”