OK, So I Don't Mind Skiing

Made it back from Big White in one piece. I honestly thought I'd leave that place with some broken bones. Luckily it was a bruise on one arm and my ass.

Monday, the day after I arrived, I went to the main centre in the Village and signed up for some beginner's lessons. It had been 18 years (I recalculated it) since I had last been on skis and the only thing I could remember was how to walk up the hill sideways with your skis. It was a beautiful day for it, that's for sure. Sunny and 0 degrees! They taught us the basics of skiing. Walking in skis, turning and stopping. Stopping with a snowplow is how they were teaching us and for some reason, it was the part I had the most problems with. Turning was a piece of cake, but turning my ankles inwards to make a snowplow was proving to be a challenge. It got easier when I threw away the poles. Damn things get in the way.

After my lesson we ate lunch and I went back out in the afternoon to practice on the training hill. After an hour of that, Karen and her parents took me on the Hummingbird which is basically the easiest hill at Big White. I managed to get through it three times only falling twice.

Tuesday, Dave (Karen's dad) and I did two runs on the Hummingbird and they said I was doing quite well. So they thought I was ready for a hill with more of a challenge, "Serwa's". Still a green level hill but longer and more steep hills. I did that run three times and fell just as many times. But they still thought I was doing well for someone who had just learned from scratch (basically) the previous day. I think I was getting a little cocky on the last run. I kept trying to pick up some speed but then I'd panic and I'd wipe out. Click Here to see a movie of me wiping out on the last hill of "Serwa's" What a dork!


Tuesday night we went on the tubing hill for a few hours. All in all a fun trip. I didn't think I could actually have fun in the snow. In the past I've always associated snow with shoveling it in Edmonton in -20¡ blizzards and not having the option of using a snow blower because it was too frozen to start. Well I've changed my attitude and I think I will take up skiing on a more regular basis. I wonder what Whistler is like? I live so close and haven't actually been there.

What I think I'm going to do is get some practice on the local Vancouver hills - Grouse, Seymour, Cypress - before I go to Whistler and invest $75 on a lift ticket.