A Ski Bunny, I am NOT!

As I mentioned in previous posts, I was asked to go to Tahoe/Heavenly Ski Resort as part of a work event. I was excited to experience a new activity and meet new people but nervous at the same time. Many people told me that I would be good at skiing because I'm athletic.

Yeah, not so much. Okay, wait... I take that back. During my lesson at Sierra, I did really well. My falls were limited to:

• the stupid magic carpet, while not wearing my skis. I was told to step on, lean forward a bit, and keep my feet still. I have no clue what happened! With skis and poles in hand, I stepped on the belt, leaned forward, and rather than keep my feet still, they were moving back and forth like I was running in place. You know when you see a cartoon and the character is running on a treadmill but their feet can't keep up with the belt? Well, that's what I looked like. Eventually I fell down, and they had to stop the magic carpet while I rolled off and got back on... embarrassing!
• crashing through a group sitting in the snow. I was coming down my learning slope, and the stupid wedge stop was not working. And we hadn't yet learned how to turn and do diagonals. So here I come, sailing down the slope and right in my path is a group sitting in the snow. WTF are they doing sitting in the middle of a beginner slope for?! That's like death waiting to happen! I kept wedging the crap out of my skis/legs... nothing. And there I went, barreling right through as some of them tried to roll out of the way. My ski eventually went under someone's butt and stopped me. He probably had a bruise after that. 

At the end of my lesson, my instructor told me she was impressed. Methinks she might have confused me for someone else. I was bothered that in our group of 10, she spent most of her time with one female who kept falling. The rest of us had to keep going up and down the hill on our own because the girl couldn't get down without falling every other second.

Here is my learning slope at Sierra:

Cut to the next day, when I tried to join the group at Heavenly. Up and away we went on the gondola, which FYI - amazingness! The views of the Sierra Mountains along with Lake Tahoe were so incredibly beautiful. I was content with the 13 minute gondola ride up and down the mountain. 

But back to skiing... so with a group of 4 others, we poled ourselves to the first slope. Yeah, my instructor never said anything about that. Exhausting! Once we got to the slope, I looked down and had a panic attack. The slope was much more narrow than my practice slope. And there were trees on either side. I started to angle my skis and do diagonals, when I started sliding down the slope. Again, the effing wedge stop was not working. I finally just fell down. And let's not even talk about the ridiculousness of me trying to get up with the skis still attached. After that fiasco, I started again... freaked out once I started sliding and fell again. The slopes were definitely more icy than powdery.

I felt bad about holding the others up as they waited for me. It was their vacation, and I didn't think it was right for them to wait around for someone they just met. I told them to go on, and I would go back to the baby slopes. For the rest of the day, I stuck to my same baby green over and over again. I took the next day off and then took the shuttle to the California side on Friday. Again, I kept to my simple greens.

It was a bit of a bummer not being able to ski the blues with everyone else. But I would still do it again. The main thing holding me back is my fear. I don't have a fear of heights, but I do have a fear of falling/not being able to stop. It's the same reason that I only started riding rollercoasters about 9 years ago. I avoided them for years because I was scared of going downhill. I let that fear sink in when I was on the blue slope, and rather than remember my basics, I freaked out. I was also panicked that I would injure, not only myself, but someone else. A member of the group said I should take a shot before skiing... I see that ending in disaster! 

*****

The best part of the trip was meeting new people. I'm a bit shy when I first meet people, but luckily the group made it easy to have fun. Many of them were talking about next year's trip, which I think they decided would be in Breckenridge. I definitely want to go again next year, even if not complements of work. It was still a great opportunity to spend a week with different people and have a great time.