Pramod Lama has an entirely different way of meditating. To unshackle his mind, he skies down very steep slopes very fast.

"It's just great. Every thought leaves my mind, it is only the next turn that I think of when coming down a slope," says the 33-year-old Ohio-based software engineer who represented Nepal at the Salt Lake Winter Olympics, and later at Aomori in Japan.

He didn't win any medals, but Pramod did become the first Nepali ever to compete in a slalom event, one that requires 56 turns in the course of 1km with an average steepness of 30 degrees.

Pramod is into all kinds of adventure sports: mountain biking, rock climbing and roller blading, but admits he was not all that prepared for competition. "My limited skiing and the extensive media coverage played tricks in my head. I was close to panicking and even closer to quitting," says Pramod. But his Japanese coaches persuaded him to persevere, and so he ended up racing slalom on a pair of borrowed skis.

Pramod, now a permanent resident of the US, is looking forward to joining the US Ski and Snowboard Association, a big organisation that offers competitive races. With coaching he will be in for tougher competition in the coming skiing season.

Pramod started skiing in 1995, but money, school and work kept him away from the slopes until 2000. But the constraints did not end his fascination with the sport. As soon as he could afford it he bought mountain skis and a season pass to the slopes. But determination alone was not enough-ski injuries again kept him away from the sport most of the following year. Recovery was painful, but he was back on the powder before long. Through summer he dreams of fresh snow and he couldn't help celebrating the unusually high snowfall in Ohio this February.

His wife Moini supports his love for skiing but would be happier if he took up a less adventurous sport. "Like golf," she says. Pramod thinks he has become a more careful skier after learning he was a father-to-be. But it is not his skills on skis that he looks forward to sharing when he comes home to Nepal. "I want to educate Nepali children," Pramod says. "It is what they need most."