My first downhill skiing experience
How this trip came about.....
This is just a warning: I am going to write a lot about this for journal purposes. I had a ton of fun, even with a rough start, and want to remember it all as I might not have a chance to ever go skiing again or at least not in the next few years. Feel free to skip this post as it may be long. Stay tuned for my next post that will have some pictures from the ski trip and even a fun video C took of me and Ange skiing while he was snowboarding, it's pretty funny and more interesting than this long post.
How this trip came about.....
My awesome sister Kim worked hard to plan a sibling (and spouses) snow board/ski trip. She was so determined to get ALL of us siblings to go, two of which had never skied/snow boarded before, me being one of them. After much persuasion on her part and after much persuasion of my other sister Angela's part (persuading Wendy who had never been either), we all made out to the hill (except my brother, he is on his mission still). The only reason I was nervous about going in the first place was because I was pregnant and thought it wouldn't be such a good idea and since I had never been skiing before I might "biff it" lots (which by the way I did) and could posibly hurt myself or my unborn child. But when I found out this pregnancy was no longer and I was feeling fine I decided to give it a try. I am SO glad I did, it was so fun!
We planned the trip for the day after Christmas so that all of us could go, as my sis and her hubby were leaving that Monday we had to do it while they were in town.
How we started the day off on the hill....
We first hit the bunny hill with our appointed teacher, Angela, for a few times down only to realize we needed a big hill to actually learn how to ski. We headed off toward the ski lift and that is when I got really nervous. I had never been on a ski lift and apparently these are very old ones (ya know the small two seaters that feel like you are gonna slide right off the edge). I was getting a little panicked but had two sisters there and ready to help me. Well the ski lift was braved and the ski lift conquered, but it wasn't me that was taken out by the ski lift. I felt awful and even more scared after I witnessed my sister (who had never been up a hill either) attempt the fast moving ski lift only to be smashed to the ground having it hit her head on the way down. It was scary especially after some one in the crowed (who knew nothing by the way) yelled out "she's knocked out!" I really panicked after that and ran to the front to see if she was alive. Thankfuly she wasn't dead or even knocked out, but had the largest goose egg on the back of her head that I have ever seen and a masive head ache to last the rest of the day, and then some.
She was awesome about it though, they took her off to the first aid lodge to check her out and she was so cool and said to Angela and Me "you guys just go and have fun, I'll be okay." I couldn't believe it! She was just knocked down by the lift and just wanted us to enjoy the day, I love my sisters they are all so awesome! Since she had a massive headache and did not want to attempt skiing for the first time with such a headache she asked for her money back, they gave her a "rain check" which she then sold to my little sister. She hung out and stayed nice and warm in the lodge and visited with us as we came and went. It all worked out in the end, what a relief!
How we spent the day after the scary insident.....
We split up into groups and went our separate ways. Kim, Tyler and C went off together. They have fun together since they all like to hit the jumps. Whit and Allie were snowboarding and were about the same skill level and went down together. Ange was so nice and stuck with me THE WHOLE time to teach me, and we were the only two skiing any way. Even my cousin and her hubby made it out and they stuck together and then we all met up for lunch.
How I did my first time skiing down the hill......
My first time down was not long after the scary insident and I was a bit panicked to say the least. I was mostly scared to brave the lift that took my sister out as I watched helplessly. I did the lift just fine but almost had a panic attack when I saw how I was supposed to get off the lift. Thanks to my sister Angela who yelled "DO NOT freak out on me now!" snapped me in to reality and I exited the lift just fine. I laugh about how silly I must have looked/sounded now, but that was the one thing that freaked me out the most about skiing, doing the ski lift and to see my sister get taken out by it made my fear worse. After the first time up and off the lift I was fine with it after that.
Let me just tell you how AMAZING my sister Angela is, especially when it comes to teaching some one how to ski. She took me down the easiest run (since this wasn't a big mountain they only had one easy run) and what takes most people about 10 minutes or less to get down this run took me 35 minutes the first time. I fell, A LOT! But only on the first half of the run. Ange was so patient with me, and I slowly got the hang of it and by the end of the first run I was carving it like a pro. Okay I'm bragging a little too much but I did pretty good the second half of that first run down if I do say so myslef. Since I got the hang of it so quickly I was pumped to go down again and hopefully perfect my skills a little more. We went down again one more time before lunch and I did a lot better this time. Since I now knew what to do and I still had energy left in me, I will call this run my very best one. Still falling, but only three times this time down. My only problem was that I did not know how to ski slow or stop with out falling. I would fly down the mountain because I would carv so wide, which made me gain speed and then I'd get scared and want to stop so I'd just fall. Instead I needed to learn to carv sharp small ones to controll my speed and then learn to stop with out falling. I'm sure it was very amusing to those watching me, see me "look" like I was good and knew what I was doing as I flew down the hill with such speed only to get scared and biff it hard! I kind of got the hang of it by the end and was carving a lot better and even stopped a couple of times to rest (as I am very much out of shape) with out falling, yay for me!
How I did the second half of the day......
After lunch I was excited to go again, though I could tell I was REALLY tired and going to be so sore. I wanted to get as many times in down the hill as I could. This time my sweet hubby came with Ange and me so he could watch me and take pictures of my first experience skiing. I think the best part about this time down the mountain was when I looked at my hubby watching me ski and saw how proud of me he was, it was so sweet! This was run #3 and I was so tired, I could feel my legs trying to hang on but their strength was disappearing quickly. I held on long enough for C to get some good pictures of me and then began to fall, a lot again. I think I was also a little nervous having my hubby there watching me. He has known how to ski/snowboard since he was like 5 years old or some where in that age range, he was young when he learned, so it was intimidating to have him watch me learn this sport he has known for a long time. But like I said I saw the pride in his face and that made me relax and do my best. We decided to go down a fourth time and this is where my legs said "NO MORE!" not only my legs but my whole body was saying "what are you doing to me?" It's sad to think that is how "out of shape" I really am. I attempted a fourth time down and ended up stopping a lot because I was so tired. At one point I was thinking as my leg muscles were burning "just keep going you're almost done" when suddenly I fell for no reason. My legs just gave out, it was pretty pathetic!
I'm so glad I decided to give this new (for me) sport a try, I had so much fun and I'm glad I got to go several times down the mountain before my body gave up on me. I learned a lot and hope to remember all of it next time I get a chance to go skiing again. By the way, I was SOOO sore the next several days, but surprisingly not really in my legs, but my arms and upper body, I'm assuming from pushing myself up out of the snow so many times :) I need to get in shape before I attempt this again so I can last longer.
A BIG thanks to the best ski teacher in the world, my sister Angela. She was so awesome. She is so encouraging, never negative and very patient and that helps so much when teaching and learning how to do this sport. We finally figured out that if she skied behind me and yelled out what I needed to do like "look up ahead of you, now pressure on your right leg, now left, look up not down etc. " helped me so much. It was like, as soon as I would start to do some thing wrong she would notice it and quickly yell out how I should fix it then I would quickly correct it and some times save myself from falling. With her doing that the whole time I was able to catch on quickly of what I needed to do and what not to do, seriously it would not have been fun with out her! If she had time, I think she should teach beginners how to ski she's that good of a teacher.
Any way lots of pictures to come. Since C was so proud he got a quite few nice pictures of me skiing and even some fun videos. And then, also some of him, Kim, and Tyler going off jumps. I will post these in the next post, since this one is already so long.
We planned the trip for the day after Christmas so that all of us could go, as my sis and her hubby were leaving that Monday we had to do it while they were in town.
How we started the day off on the hill....
We first hit the bunny hill with our appointed teacher, Angela, for a few times down only to realize we needed a big hill to actually learn how to ski. We headed off toward the ski lift and that is when I got really nervous. I had never been on a ski lift and apparently these are very old ones (ya know the small two seaters that feel like you are gonna slide right off the edge). I was getting a little panicked but had two sisters there and ready to help me. Well the ski lift was braved and the ski lift conquered, but it wasn't me that was taken out by the ski lift. I felt awful and even more scared after I witnessed my sister (who had never been up a hill either) attempt the fast moving ski lift only to be smashed to the ground having it hit her head on the way down. It was scary especially after some one in the crowed (who knew nothing by the way) yelled out "she's knocked out!" I really panicked after that and ran to the front to see if she was alive. Thankfuly she wasn't dead or even knocked out, but had the largest goose egg on the back of her head that I have ever seen and a masive head ache to last the rest of the day, and then some.
She was awesome about it though, they took her off to the first aid lodge to check her out and she was so cool and said to Angela and Me "you guys just go and have fun, I'll be okay." I couldn't believe it! She was just knocked down by the lift and just wanted us to enjoy the day, I love my sisters they are all so awesome! Since she had a massive headache and did not want to attempt skiing for the first time with such a headache she asked for her money back, they gave her a "rain check" which she then sold to my little sister. She hung out and stayed nice and warm in the lodge and visited with us as we came and went. It all worked out in the end, what a relief!
How we spent the day after the scary insident.....
We split up into groups and went our separate ways. Kim, Tyler and C went off together. They have fun together since they all like to hit the jumps. Whit and Allie were snowboarding and were about the same skill level and went down together. Ange was so nice and stuck with me THE WHOLE time to teach me, and we were the only two skiing any way. Even my cousin and her hubby made it out and they stuck together and then we all met up for lunch.
How I did my first time skiing down the hill......
My first time down was not long after the scary insident and I was a bit panicked to say the least. I was mostly scared to brave the lift that took my sister out as I watched helplessly. I did the lift just fine but almost had a panic attack when I saw how I was supposed to get off the lift. Thanks to my sister Angela who yelled "DO NOT freak out on me now!" snapped me in to reality and I exited the lift just fine. I laugh about how silly I must have looked/sounded now, but that was the one thing that freaked me out the most about skiing, doing the ski lift and to see my sister get taken out by it made my fear worse. After the first time up and off the lift I was fine with it after that.
Let me just tell you how AMAZING my sister Angela is, especially when it comes to teaching some one how to ski. She took me down the easiest run (since this wasn't a big mountain they only had one easy run) and what takes most people about 10 minutes or less to get down this run took me 35 minutes the first time. I fell, A LOT! But only on the first half of the run. Ange was so patient with me, and I slowly got the hang of it and by the end of the first run I was carving it like a pro. Okay I'm bragging a little too much but I did pretty good the second half of that first run down if I do say so myslef. Since I got the hang of it so quickly I was pumped to go down again and hopefully perfect my skills a little more. We went down again one more time before lunch and I did a lot better this time. Since I now knew what to do and I still had energy left in me, I will call this run my very best one. Still falling, but only three times this time down. My only problem was that I did not know how to ski slow or stop with out falling. I would fly down the mountain because I would carv so wide, which made me gain speed and then I'd get scared and want to stop so I'd just fall. Instead I needed to learn to carv sharp small ones to controll my speed and then learn to stop with out falling. I'm sure it was very amusing to those watching me, see me "look" like I was good and knew what I was doing as I flew down the hill with such speed only to get scared and biff it hard! I kind of got the hang of it by the end and was carving a lot better and even stopped a couple of times to rest (as I am very much out of shape) with out falling, yay for me!
How I did the second half of the day......
After lunch I was excited to go again, though I could tell I was REALLY tired and going to be so sore. I wanted to get as many times in down the hill as I could. This time my sweet hubby came with Ange and me so he could watch me and take pictures of my first experience skiing. I think the best part about this time down the mountain was when I looked at my hubby watching me ski and saw how proud of me he was, it was so sweet! This was run #3 and I was so tired, I could feel my legs trying to hang on but their strength was disappearing quickly. I held on long enough for C to get some good pictures of me and then began to fall, a lot again. I think I was also a little nervous having my hubby there watching me. He has known how to ski/snowboard since he was like 5 years old or some where in that age range, he was young when he learned, so it was intimidating to have him watch me learn this sport he has known for a long time. But like I said I saw the pride in his face and that made me relax and do my best. We decided to go down a fourth time and this is where my legs said "NO MORE!" not only my legs but my whole body was saying "what are you doing to me?" It's sad to think that is how "out of shape" I really am. I attempted a fourth time down and ended up stopping a lot because I was so tired. At one point I was thinking as my leg muscles were burning "just keep going you're almost done" when suddenly I fell for no reason. My legs just gave out, it was pretty pathetic!
I'm so glad I decided to give this new (for me) sport a try, I had so much fun and I'm glad I got to go several times down the mountain before my body gave up on me. I learned a lot and hope to remember all of it next time I get a chance to go skiing again. By the way, I was SOOO sore the next several days, but surprisingly not really in my legs, but my arms and upper body, I'm assuming from pushing myself up out of the snow so many times :) I need to get in shape before I attempt this again so I can last longer.
A BIG thanks to the best ski teacher in the world, my sister Angela. She was so awesome. She is so encouraging, never negative and very patient and that helps so much when teaching and learning how to do this sport. We finally figured out that if she skied behind me and yelled out what I needed to do like "look up ahead of you, now pressure on your right leg, now left, look up not down etc. " helped me so much. It was like, as soon as I would start to do some thing wrong she would notice it and quickly yell out how I should fix it then I would quickly correct it and some times save myself from falling. With her doing that the whole time I was able to catch on quickly of what I needed to do and what not to do, seriously it would not have been fun with out her! If she had time, I think she should teach beginners how to ski she's that good of a teacher.
Any way lots of pictures to come. Since C was so proud he got a quite few nice pictures of me skiing and even some fun videos. And then, also some of him, Kim, and Tyler going off jumps. I will post these in the next post, since this one is already so long.
1 comments:
Thanks for the kind words, I learned how to be such a great teacher from my good friend. I know how hard it was to learn so thats why I was so patient! Glad you enjoyed it and now you can look forward to many more ski trips in your future, maybe even with the kids!
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