I'd Rather Make a Snow Angel

Well my first experience skiing wasn't as grand as I had hoped. In fact the first attempt was rather traumatic. Half way down I wanted to call the emergency people to haul me down or walk because I really had no desire to stand back on my skis and finish the route.

To start the day Chantel and another optometry student, Teri, had decided to help me learn to ski. We chose a green route and headed up Mt. Bachelor. Chantel had me go without poles this first time to prevent me from doing something stupid and hurt myself and also to make sure I learn how to properly balance on skis. As we started down I fell about every 10 feet when I was trying turn.

After what seemed like forever, we joined a trail that would take us back to the lodge area, however this trail would require me not to fall because I would either fall off an edge or in front of another skier. Let's just say I bit of a panic attack and crashed, coming down on my chin on the lightly ice cover snow. It didn't feel great, but I was relieved to realize I hadn't bitten through my lip. The next bit I held onto Teri's pole in order to control the direction I was going and at this point my stopping was still failing and I got going faster than Teri, which caused her to crash and me to go off the edge and at a tree, which I avoided...barely and flipped over my head. That was the point where I wanted a rescue team! Well anyway we finally made it back down, I was traumatized and had not intention of going on any run the rest of the day.

I sat in the lodge with Natalie for a couple hours, before chatting with an 8-year old who had been skiing since she was 3 and was telling me the route I went on was the hardest green and that I needed to try 'Homerun' the easiest green run. Well as much as I didn't want to touch the skis again a couple people in our group convinced me along with the 8-year old to try again. So out I went, the run was a little bit better. It was more open space without a lot of trees. It still wasn't pretty, but it got better. Ending the day with 4 fall-less runs was a bit of an accomplishment.

While it ended better than the first run, I really don't think downhill skiing will come again anytime in the near future for me. I can check it off my list, be grateful I didn't get hurt severely and move on to the next challenge. Until then I will stick to making snow angels, once all the bruises disappear.