Never Thought I'd Do This Again!

Last month, our friend John Welch, offered to teach me how to ski. He told me that he had been skiing since he was eight years old. He is now 89 years old. When he began skiing, you took two pieces of wood and tied your feet to them! (I think that is a joke! But it is almost the truth...I mean it was 81 years ago!) Anyway, he told me that he would definitely be able to teach me and I would be learning from the best. So we took him up on his offer and went skiing yesterday. I now know why I could never ski as a teenager. It's expensive. And even in the olden days when day passes weren't $66.00 and skiis were cheaper, it was still a chunk of change. We had seven kids in our family and we surely didn't have the money for skiing every weekend. So I was deprived of this opportunity when I was young. (DAd and I actually went skiing a couple of times about 20 years ago. I didn't do so well). Well, by the time we rented skiis, bought ski pants, gloves, hats, goggles, socks, etc, and then paid for ski passes at Alta and lunch....well the sum is staggering! But I have to say this....It was so fun!

The first time up the lift was so beautiful and I was trying to concentrate on getting off the lift without falling. I almost made it, but ended up falling. what an embarrassment. My first lesson was good and I ended up at the bottom of the mountain having fallen only twice (not counting the fall at the lift) and having my great teacher congratulate me on a job well done. The next two times I came down without a fall. I actually got off the lift nice and smooth! Then we had chili for lunch and started up the mountain again. The whole time we skiied it was snowing and the snow got deeper and the flakes got bigger as the day went on. So the conditions weren't perfect. But hey, if you can ski when it's snowing and do reasonably well, then just think how I could do in the nicer conditions!

The second half of the day was so fun and we took a few different routes through the trees and on steeper hills. I was not snowplowing anymore except on some turns. I made three more runs without incident and I was coming down faster and smoother. The last run of the day, however, I was turning on a steep hill and the visibility was really bad and must have hit some deeper snow and fell before I knew what had happened. It was fun getting back into my skiis in the blinding snow and I felt a bit dizzy too. But I made it down the rest of the way just fine.

You are probably wondering how DAd did on his first time on skiis in 20 years or so. He actually was out of control most of the time. You know how men are! And he fell at least twice on every run! I think he had lots of fun though.

All in all, it was a fine day and I learned to ski. My teacher tells me that we will work on some other techniques next time. But he did congratulate me every run on how amazing I was and how I was such a quick learner and must have a lot of athletic ability. It was great to hear that he was proud of me! So I guess we are headed back to the slopes next week. Not bad for an old fogey, huh? I will have to admit, however, that I am a bit sore today. My neck is sore from my last fall, my legs and quads are sore and last night I felt like my legs were two noodles! I was beat! DAd is pretty sore today. He should be after all the times he fell showing off his great abilities (just kidding!) I did lose a pound and a half from yesterday, so I guess the type of skiing I did was good for burning calories! Can't wait until next week. Do you think my aches and pains will be gone by that time?