Skiing!
Wow! Went skiing yesterday at Snoqualmie with some new friends and it was awesome. I was really scared at first, especially getting into the ski lift. I thought 'this is it, this is my death.' My only other skiing experience was when I was 12 or 13 in Montreal, with an ill-tempered old Irish uncle as an instructor. What a disaster... I just couldn't get the skis in the right position, I ran over a child, kept falling down, and got hit in the face with a pole. Finally I got up, skiied straight down to the bottom of the hill, fell down to stop, and ran into the lodge.
The last time I was in Snoqualmie I was snowboarding with Michael, and I fell so bad that I twisted my knee and bruised the bone. So with that in mind, I wasn't too thrilled when I got to the top of the bunny slope (green run named "Holiday").
My first run down was rough, I fell A LOT. But... they weren't nasty falls, not like with snowboarding. Meredith hung out with me and taught me the basics. She had knee surgery 7 years ago and this was her first attempt skiing since then, so she was taking it slow. By my 2nd run I was getting the hang of it, though still falling here and there. On my 3rd run I was beginning to master the turns, and we upgraded to the "Gallery" lift. The Gallery lift is still a green run, but as a steep drop before it meets up with Holiday.
On our 4th run, on Gallery, Dominik urged us to ski to the right into the next run. That turned out to be a blue run, and I was falling all over the place. At one point I couldn't get up, I was laying on my back with the legs spread and couldn't move. It didn't help that it was snowing the entire time and by then there was about 6 inches of fresh powder. It gets really hard to ski with the fresh powder, because your skis will get under it and become very heavy.
I'm happy to say I survived it, I had a great time, and I've become pretty good at it. I'm looking forward to my next trip to the slopes. I'm not in tooooo much pain, though my right shoulder is a little sore. My left knee, which is the one I hurt snowboarding, was hurting yesterday but feels good today. Dominik and I are going shopping this morning for some basic gear for the next trip out there. We're even thinking of getting a cabin with some peeps and making a weekend out of it.
Greg took photos. If I get my hands on them, I'll post.
The last time I was in Snoqualmie I was snowboarding with Michael, and I fell so bad that I twisted my knee and bruised the bone. So with that in mind, I wasn't too thrilled when I got to the top of the bunny slope (green run named "Holiday").
My first run down was rough, I fell A LOT. But... they weren't nasty falls, not like with snowboarding. Meredith hung out with me and taught me the basics. She had knee surgery 7 years ago and this was her first attempt skiing since then, so she was taking it slow. By my 2nd run I was getting the hang of it, though still falling here and there. On my 3rd run I was beginning to master the turns, and we upgraded to the "Gallery" lift. The Gallery lift is still a green run, but as a steep drop before it meets up with Holiday.
On our 4th run, on Gallery, Dominik urged us to ski to the right into the next run. That turned out to be a blue run, and I was falling all over the place. At one point I couldn't get up, I was laying on my back with the legs spread and couldn't move. It didn't help that it was snowing the entire time and by then there was about 6 inches of fresh powder. It gets really hard to ski with the fresh powder, because your skis will get under it and become very heavy.
I'm happy to say I survived it, I had a great time, and I've become pretty good at it. I'm looking forward to my next trip to the slopes. I'm not in tooooo much pain, though my right shoulder is a little sore. My left knee, which is the one I hurt snowboarding, was hurting yesterday but feels good today. Dominik and I are going shopping this morning for some basic gear for the next trip out there. We're even thinking of getting a cabin with some peeps and making a weekend out of it.
Greg took photos. If I get my hands on them, I'll post.