How hard could this be? Having watched Ski Sunday and a few youtube videos, I knew that the
white stuff was easier to ski on than the brown, grey or green stuff.
After freezing my ass off getting to the ski resort and catching up with my friends (who had my ski kit in their van) there was a fun few minutes trying to remember some (any) Spanish so I could get a lift pass, skis (always useful), boots (ditto), poles (wtf am I going to do with those!?) and a helmet (maybe in case someone skis into me?).
The first challenge was leaving the rental store wearing ski boots and steamed up glasses and carrying four things several feet long and each with a mind of its own. Why they can't make doors wide enough to carry skis through width-wise I'll never know. Still, putting everything back onto the display gave the staff something to do as it was pretty quiet and I'm sure they can board the window up or something to stop the cold coming in.
Over to the gondola for the ride up the mountain to the main area. Not much to say here, other than a repeat of trying to get everything through a smaller gap this time with a moving surface on the other side to step onto. Then rinse and repeat at the top.
Skis on, and a slide over to the beginner's area so I can join the other Bambis and keep out of everyone's way.
First lesson: how to use the cable tow. Fairly easy. As I was yanked up the hill, someone behind me said something about making sure I get off to the right for the beginners area, and not left to the Red run. Or was that the other way around? No clue, I was trying to hold to keep two skis pointing in vaguely the right direction (up hill) whilst wrestling with the ski poles.
It really didn't matter which way I was meant to be going at the top...my skis chose for me and I was soon in the middle of the slope. People were very friendly, all yelling encouragement at me as they swept past. Not sure exactly what was being said as it was all in Spanish or French, but lots of friendly waving.
The crocodile of kids all seemed to be able to move pretty quickly but alas, they may not have heard my thanks due to the distortion caused by the doppler affect as I accelerated onward,
As I descended the slope with arms, legs, poles and skis waving enough to make Bambi on ice look stable, it did occur to me that I thought the beginners slope hadn't looked anything like as long as this. Or as steep. Still, I was well on my way now.
I did wonder how one was meant to stop. An experiment grabbing at a tree as a whooshed past wasn't successful, only managing to cause the snow on the tree to drop down on the poor fellow following me. Not sure why he didn't like that, it's not like he wasn't expecting snow up here.
I was able to stop courtesy of a snow bank, a crowd of children and a picnic table.
Time to find the bar.
