Wendy Fisher's Deeper Kind of Freedom
Sometimes when Wendy Fisher rides a chairlift with a particularly long span between towers, or one that climbs a steep and exposed face, she immediately grabs the back of the chair. She’ll study her ski graphics or strike up a conversation with a stranger—anything to distract herself from the sensation that her body is ready to leap.
It’s a feeling the Olympian and two-time World Extreme Skiing Champion can also experience while mountain biking on desert ledges or dirt biking on a side hill. Even driving winding mountain roads with steep drop offs can trigger it. She refuses to navigate Colorado’s Red Mountain Pass again, after once fighting the urge to drive off the cliff—with her kids in the back seat.
Fisher first felt the sensation while riding the Plateau Chair at Portillo, Chile, where she coached Chris Davenport’s Superstars Camp on and off for almost 15 years. The sudden urge to jump, despite having no conscious desire to do so, confused her—enough to consult a specialist in brain mapping who theorized the reaction was connected to past concussions and Fisher’s fight-or-flight response.
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