That day I became an intermediate skiier
My friends Nick and Steve have joined Robin and I on the ambitious undertaking of playing the board game Pandemic Legacy. This undertaking has required us to spend at least one evening a week congregated at one of our homes pondering on how to save the citizens of our board game from falling from the clutches of zombie-ism. That left Nick in a quandary about how he will possibly be able to spend one weekend in the month of January skiing, so he did the only thing a person under the clutches of an addictive board game would do. He decided he to take us (and our board game) with him to Big Bear.
I ski about once a year starting about 5 years ago when my lovely friends Casey and Matt tried their hand at their hand at the sport themselves during a luxury vacation to Tahoe. I didn’t take to it skill wise but it stoked a then undernourished love of the outdoors. I haven’t improved much in 5 years, but I love it enough to go out when its offered.
We established our criteria success. We would call it a successful day if no one broke any limbs, if we complete 6 runs, two of them without falls.
The 6 runs turned out to be a challenge. We drove up to Big Bear from San Diego at 6 in the morning, arriving at the rental shop at 8:40. It was 9:40 before we had our rental equipment in hand, and 12 o clock when we hit the slopes less than a mile away. The shuttle shenanigans gave us that much of a heart ache. We realized with a 6 hour difference between leaving our home and hitting the slopes we might have well have been in Mammoth. That is something we will keep in the back of our mind next time.
I was able to do a few low-intermediate runs or two when we decided the group would have more fun on harder routes to stay out of the way of beginners laying prone in the middle of the runs. I was surprised about how confident I felt on those blue runs. I felt confident enough to consider a black diamond run, but I wasn’t able to muster the courage when I peered over the edge.
The day was a success when I observed I hadn’t fallen on a single route all day even when skiing predominantly blue routes. At the time I decided I was beginning to feel a lot more confident in the sport, but after reviewing the footage I am observing that I still have a ways to go. I am not taking on the crouched parallel ski stance of the pro skier, but rather pizza-ing quite aggressively.
It seems that I still have a ways to go, but at least I am at the point now where I can feel like I can visit a ski resort with the ability to ski many of the routes. Maybe my abilities will accelerate at this point. Either way, I think I need to start picking up some speed.
Check out the video below:
I made it myself!
