While Australia's Winter Paralympics campaign is in full swing, some of the athletes have had to wait a while to hit the slopes.
The only two women para-athletes on the team, Melissa Perrine and Rae Anderson, will compete in the slalom and giant slalom later this week.
And alongside chef de mission Kate McLoughlin, the female core of the Australian team is small but mighty.
Co-captain Melissa Perrine still finds 'indescribable joy and freedom' in skiing
Para-alpine skier Melissa Perrine is competing in her fourth Paralympics, in the vision-impaired category.
The 34-year-old is the co-captain of the team alongside para-snowboarder Ben Tudhope, and she carried the Australian flag at the opening ceremony.
"It's so satisfying to be here," Perrine told ABC's Summer Grandstand program.
"I never expected my career to run this long to start off with, and then [after] all the challenges that the team has faced over this past quad with COVID, we're here and we finally get to perform at this event that we've been looking forward to and dreaming of for the past four years."
Perrine started skiing as a young teen when she was invited to a recreational ski camp.
"It was the old cliche: First run down, you're hooked for life," she said.
She has been competing internationally since 2009 and still has the same enthusiasm for the sport.
"It's the most indescribable joy and freedom that I have ever had," Perrine said.
"It's just breathtaking. There's nothing quite like it on the face of the planet.
Perrine won two bronze medals in PyeongChang, but she has a new guide this time around, Bobbi Kelly, who is making her Paralympic debut.
"Basically, all the time that I spend on snow, I spend with Bobbi, and we spend a lot of time off snow together as well. She's truly just a great friend of mine," she said.
It's a partnership built on incredible trust, with Kelly leading Perrine down the hill, and the pair communicating via Bluetooth headsets.
"Everything Bobbi sees and then would have to adjust to, to ski at a high-performance level, not only does she have to see that — whether it be a roll in the snow, bump, a gate that we have to turn around — she has to see that, ski it herself, and then call that back to me at the exact right time," Perrine said.
The duo has already had great success on the international circuit in the past few years, and will be hoping to top it off with a Paralympic medal.
Rae Anderson trades track and field for the slopes
Rae Anderson says she could ski before she could stand.
But it was always a recreational activity — a bit of fun with family and friends on ski trips.
So she focused on athletics and made it all the way to representing Australia in javelin and discus at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
But now she is on the cusp of joining a very special club.
The 25-year-old will become just the seventh Australian to compete at a summer and winter Paralympics, and the second woman behind Jess Gallagher.
Anderson, who has cerebral palsy, was on a family ski trip when a chance encounter with Australia's para-alpine skiing coach kick-started her winter journey.
He encouraged her to attend a talent identification camp, and she was offered a scholarship to train overseas.
"I fell in love with it," she said.
"I love the atmosphere, I loved the athletes involved and just the amazing support network and environment that you're in.
"But after that, I realised that the financial costs involved with doing the sport were just a little bit beyond me and my family."
She took a year off and then, as fate would have it, she met another coach who drew her back to the sport.
"[He] offered me the world — a place to live down at the snow and a job and ways to support myself so that I could go and train with him.
And the dream became a reality again in 2019.
Despite her relative inexperience at the elite level of winter sports, it's in Anderson's blood.
"Athletics is my first international love of competing, but certainly skiing was always a sport that I loved recreationally," she said.
" So to be able to do both at that level is really exciting."
The NSW Central Coast local recently completed her second full international season, in Europe and North America, to secure qualification for the Games.
And she has realistic expectations.
"It's one thing to compete at the Summer Games and to throw as far as you can, but anything can happen on snow. So really, I'd just like to put down a good time and see how I compare to these girls."
Chef de mission Kate McLoughlin on uniting the 'mob'
Kate McLoughlin is the first female chef de mission for an Australian winter Paralympic team.
She had the job at the 2016 and 2020 Summer Games, but this one is extra special.
"I was supposed to do it for Sochi (2014) but needed to pull out at the last minute for family reasons and that's always sat with me," she told ABC Sport.
"So to be able to finally get to a Winter Games is just brilliant. I've grown up as a skier from a very young age so that mountain environment is very close to my heart."
McLoughlin is a well-loved and respected figure in the Australian Paralympic team.
She has been responsible for creating the "mob" — a positive, inclusive team and culture that aims to bring together Paralympians past and present.
"We're trying our best to try and create that link between the summer and winter mob," she said.
"In the past, I think they've been very separate teams.
"And it's really important [to know] that whether you're a summer Paralympian or winter Paralympian, there are a number of amazing athletes who've paved the way, particularly in disability sport.
In Beijing, there are only six athletes, plus two sighted guides, contesting the para-alpine skiing, and one para-snowboarder.
McLoughlin hopes to expand Australia's winter presence in the future, including fielding a Paralympic ice hockey team.
And she is also committed to getting more women athletes involved.
"Attracting women to winter sport has always been problematic but with that expansion of Paralympic Winter sports over the next couple of years, it will be an area that we'll also look to try and help remedy," she said.
Perrine and Anderson will get their first taste of the action in the giant slalom on Friday.
