Skiing.... not as easy as the Wii Ski would make you think....

All I can say about skiing is that it is for those that have suicidal tendencies...

Win's cousin's; Aaron and Lance were going skiing so they invited us to come along for the ride.
We were going to snow basin, where they had held the winter Olympics in 2002.

First stop was at the college equipment hire shop because it was cheaper than hiring at the ski resort. Once at the resort we were amazed by the crowds, being Christmas vacation the place was packed.
We got our passes and then headed over to the chair lifts for our first taste of skiing down the "bunny hill"- designed for beginners.
Well, the ski lift was easy enough to get on and I thought that I was going to be OK when they said "just lift your skis up and keep them straight". The chair lift got to the top of the hill and we had to dismount, well as soon as the chair lift gave us the gentle nudge off I went down in a big heap with ankles and skis twisted in every direction.

I looked behind me and realised that the next people to dismount were about to be on top of me and I panicked. Lance managed to help me up and out of harms way and I was able to stand up and stay vertical long enough to move to the top of the run.

Lance showed me the basics of skiing, starting with snow plowing. That's where you turn your skis in at the front into a V shape. So I learnt how to snow plow and then go left and right. We managed to get to the bottom of the run without too many dramas and only a few falls- the main objective being not to skittle a small child on the way down. Once we were at the bottom Aaron convinced Lance to go off with him to the advanced runs and leave us to fend for ourselves for the next 4 hours.

Win and I went up and down the bunny run a few more times. Win had some issues with his ski not locking in correctly and when we were on the chair lift his ski fell off and fell down to the run below- a very good reason NOT to ski underneath a chair lift!
He had to go back down the chair lift on one ski and then trudge up the hill to retrieve his lost ski.
At that point Win and I decided to tackle another hill, so we got on the next lift up. Well, this chair lift just kept going and going and going..... to the very top of the mountain, some 90 000Feet I believe.
With every rising foot I got more and more scared that we were in way over our heads, but there was no middle ground lift, just the bunny slope for 3 year olds and then the top of the mountain.
We got off at the top and headed for the easier course. Apparently the beginner course was only intermittent, the rest was filled with more difficult stretches.
The other thing we discovered was that snow plowing only works on mild slopes, when you are on a steep hill it doesn't slow you down nearly enough!
We got to a particularly bad slope and I stacked it pretty bad, with my legs going in different directions, I thought for a minute that I had dislocated a hip... well, I hoped anyway.
Some man that saw me fall came down to help. He asked Win "Did she brake a leg?". At that point I wished I had, and I was contemplating faking a broken leg in order to get a rescue crew up there to get me off the mountain. I was petrified of the slopes ahead and we were a long long long way up with no options but 'down'!
The man that stopped to help asked me if it was my first time skiing and I said "Yes" then he pointed to Win and said "If he bought you up here on your first day he is not your friend".

I laughed and tried to tell him that Win was a beginner too but I don't think he heard. He then said that the first time his wife did this slope she took off her skis and walked down.
That sounded like a good idea to me, so I did just that. I had a few people stop and say that I couldn't possibly walk all the way down but I didn't see a whole lot of other options at the time.

The slope did get a little better once we reached a fork where the beginners went one way and the advanced another. I put back on my skis and Win and I slowly, slowly made it down.
We stopped on the way to wander in the trees because Win wanted to carve out a snow cave. It was beautiful sitting up there in the peaceful quiet snow enjoying the view but I knew that I had to get going soon or later if I ever wanted to get back to the warm lodge alive.

We did eventually make it to the bottom of the mountain, exhausted and bruised but thankful to be alive. I vowed not to ski again that day.

So Win and I went back to the Lodge where we met up with Win's cousins for lunch. Then the Boys all decided to go back out for more skiing while I sat in the lodge armchair near the fire.

I think that the most humiliating part of the experience was that when I was up there on the mountain thinking that skiing was only for the insane, a little kid the size of the twins would zoom past on their skis. Darn those little kids and their mad skiing skills.

Win and I finished the day with a ride up to the top and down again on the enclosed gondolas (like ski lifts but in an enclosed cabin style). It was an incredible view as you went up.

Next time we go I will stick to the bunny slope for the whole day until I have mastered a few more techniques other than snow plowing.

When we got home and I took off the boots I found that I had strips of fine lines of blisters around my shins and legs where the socks and jeans had been pushed into my legs so hard by the snow boots that they had left criss-crossing blisters. Plus I had two big lumpy bruises on my leg from where skis had collided with my legs in the crashes.

All up it was a great day, funnily enough!!
As an additional note, I heard the day after we went skiing that somewhere in the world a chair lift cable snapped and a whole tonne of people were injured. I am glad that I hadn't heard that news before my trip because the chair lift was scary enough without that kind of news in the back of your mind.
Also today on the news they talked about a teenage girl who was snow boarding and got caught in the terrible snow storms that have been happening all across the country in the last day and she died before they could rescue her.
Not sure if I'll be racing back to skii in the next few months.....