Learning to Ski

To close out 2009 I went downhill skiing for the first time in my life! I decided that I wanted to learn to ski, partly because I know several people who do it, it seems like it’d be fun, and I’ve decided that I want to start being a bit more adventurous. Back at the start of Christmas break, Alex & I looked up prices to go skiing at several places near the Twin Cities (Afton Alps, Trollhaugen, Wild Mountain) and on the North Shore (Spirit Mountain, Lutsen Mountains). My original thought was to go skiing up at Lutsen (the best ski resort in Minnesota), but lift tickets at Lutsen cost $58 while every place else was $39-42. Since this was my first time skiing, it didn’t make sense to pay more money just to stay on the bunny hill and green circle runs. With Spirit Mountain costing the same as the ones near the Cities, we decided to go there so we could hang out at my parents’ new house on Lake Superior in Two Harbors, Minnesota — essentially a free resort to us. 🙂
On Tuesday when I was in the Twin Cities I bought a bunch of ski and snow-gear: a waterproof winter coat ($160 on sale for $40!), snow pants, a ski mask, ski goggles, waterproof gloves, warm socks… I didn’t want the elements to be an impediment to my enjoyment of skiing, and I needed better cold-weather gear anyway. After I got all that stuff bought, on Tuesday night Alex & I drove up to Two Harbors. The weather was great for skiing on Wednesday the 30th, with temps in the mid-upper 20s and flurries. And the Christmas Day storm dropped a bunch of snow up there too, so there was a nice, fresh base.
We got to Spirit Mountain at about 1pm and bought 8-hr lift tickets, because we wanted plenty of time to ski and an 8-hr ticket was only $5 more than a 4-hr ticket. I rented skis, boots and poles (Alex had his own gear), and after I got all those on, Alex had us go over to one of the green circle runs. It was a bit of an adventure just for me to get over there, what with it being my first time ever on downhill skis and the first time on any sort of skis since I was in middle school when I last cross-country skied. It was all I could do to maintain my balance at the start. To slowly work our way down the mountain and see if I could learn control without going fast, Alex had me try to go from side to side across the slope (only descending the hill a little bit). I hadn’t yet learned how to stop yet or anything like that, so whenever I’d be getting to the side of the slope and approaching the trees or whatever, I’d simply fall over. Falling over proved the most common way for me to stop for most of the day. 🙂 For some reason I often had trouble getting back on my feet with the skis on, too; sometimes I simply could not get up without undoing my skis, it was rather frustrating. All told, it felt like it took about an hour to make it down to the bottom of that green circle slope (“Four Pipe”) the first time. From all the exertion and nervousness of trying to stay up and then trying to get up so many times, I was pretty tired even by that point. And that first run wasn’t very fun for me, but I wasn’t going to let a rough first time down the mountain affect my attitude — this was my first time on downhill skis after all, and I knew coming into this that my first time down the hill would likely be really rough.
So we took the lift up to the top of the mountain and skied back down to the chalet so that Alex could give me some instruction on the bunny hill, teaching me how to do the “pizza cutter” (or “snowplow”) and slow myself down some. After going down the bunny hill a few times without falling, we went back out to the Four Pipe green circle run again. My second time down the hill was much better than the first: instead of going down the hill in about 20 segments, I made it down in just two! I didn’t know how to turn yet though, so I basically just “bombed” it straight down the hill. Alex said that gave him a bit of a thrill of going fast trying to catch up to me. 🙂 When I was halfway down I decided to wipe out; I was going really fast, probably a bit out of control, and felt like I should take a moment to evaluate the last portion of the hill, especially the bottom where all the people were waiting to get on the ski lift.
On our lift ride to the top of the mountain Alex said to me, “You know, the point of skiing is to take your time and enjoy it, turning back and forth. It’s not to see how quickly you can make it from the top to the bottom.” 🙂 So we went back to the bunny hill for quite a long time, with Alex patiently teaching me a couple methods of how to turn and improve my control. Just about each time down the bunny hill I gradually improved and was better able to turn, and Alex would let me know it. One problem that kept manifesting itself, however, was that while I was trying to go really slowly each time to focus on my technique, I’d inevitably start going too fast down the hill and wouldn’t be able to stop. I should’ve been more concerned about taking time to fix that than I was, but hindsight is 20/20. Anyway, we spent a lot of time on the bunny hill, and I was grateful that Alex never seemed bored, and was instead interested in teaching me and helping me continue to improve.
After the bunny hill’s tow rope closed around 7pm, we decided to go back to the “Four Pipe” green circle run again. Apparently I forgot pretty much everything I learned on the bunny hill, however. Just like on the bunny hill, once I started going downhill I couldn’t stop myself. I think that caused me to panic a bit, and then I couldn’t get myself to do the “pizza cutter” well enough to slow me down or get myself to turn — I wasn’t bending my knees together nearly enough, and therefore the inside edges of my skis weren’t cutting into the snow. So anyway, on this first evening run down “Four Pipe” I wound up bombing it down the left side of the run, which was hillier than the more evenly sloped right side. About halfway down there was a big hump/hill that I went over, and managed to keep my balance. Thing is, that led right into a second, much larger and steeper hump. I lost my balance and went down in a most spectacular fall and a “yard sale” (my skis and poles scattered on the mountain during my fall). While Alex was trying to catch up to me, he said he saw me disappear over the second hump and then saw a huge cloud of powder go up, and that he heard the people on the lift above say “WHOA!!” Alex told me, “Seeing that wipeout right there was worth the whole price of admission!” That made me laugh, and fortunately the fall didn’t hurt.
On our second night-time run down “Four Pipe,” I got out of control a few more times, and had two very painful, hard falls on ice, landing on the sorest spots on my right hip, side and arm. They were sore because almost every fall of mine early in the day was on my right side, and because I hadn’t fallen on them in quite awhile (because I was on the bunny hill), they’d had time to get plenty tender. Anyway, I just laid there for awhile after those two falls, and specifically those two falls put me in a pretty sour mood. I was getting extremely frustrated that I wasn’t able to stop/slow myself once I started going downhill, and that I wasn’t able to turn like I was on the bunny hill. After those two painful falls I was also then fearing my inevitable falls, unlike the first part of the day when I’d choose to fall and wouldn’t feel any pain. “I can’t do this” or “I’m tired and sore” was becoming my mantra. A bit further down the mountain when I was going fast and basically out of control, I fell on my left side (finally! my first fall on my left side, haha) to avoid a possibility of a collision with someone. Alex came swooshing up to me and said, “Did you hear what I was yelling at you after you took off?” I said I didn’t, but he said he yelled “Fall on your left!!” Maybe I subconsciously heard him, haha. 🙂
We decided to go for a third night-time run down “Four Pipe.” Alex was trying to get me back to basics and keep me in control, going really slowly. If I started going too fast, he’d catch up to me, grab my pole and stop both of us with his “pizza cutter.” Obviously I was doing something wrong, if I wasn’t able to stop myself but he was able to stop both of us by himself. There was a little plateau we stopped at before starting the last two-thirds of the run, at which point Alex asked me again what I was thinking, but this time he added, “If I hear you say anything more about how you can’t do something, I’m going to think that my money today was wasted.” It was his way of telling me to stop having the attitude of a 10-year old, and I knew it immediately. He knew it would get my attention and it sure did. I appreciate and am thankful that he was willing to tell me bluntly that I needed to change my attitude. Pretty much right away I decided to stop having such a crappy attitude, and instead be more positive and teachable. There were a couple more times when Alex would catch me if I started going too fast, but on the last one of those, I was going really fast, really unintentionally. Alex finally caught up to me, grabbed my pole, but then I fell, and Alex went sailing over me. Double yard sale! It was the only time Alex fell all day, too. After we both made sure the other was okay, we said to each other that that was fun, but we probably shouldn’t do that again. 🙂 We decided that we should probably just try to make it down to the bottom alive and then call it a night. I think that was the last time I fell, because I did the last third of the hill mostly in control (even though I basically bombed down it), and perfectly turned, slowed down and stopped right at the lift entrance. Back at the top (and after my second consecutive completely successful dismount from the lift) we had to ski part way down the mountain to the chalet, and I had even better control on that run. So after getting so extremely frustrated after my painful falls, at least I ended in a good mood on some positive notes. It was about 8pm when we called it a day, so we were out there for about 7 hours. With how tired and sore I was, I definitely slept extremely well that night too. 🙂
Despite some of the frustrations I experienced, I enjoyed skiing and had a lot of fun that day. I’d definitely like to go again sometime to see if I can improve. I’m really glad that Alex was willing to go skiing with me this first time and teach me. His patience, encouragement and correction meant a lot to me. I’m even thinking I’ll try to buy a cheap used pair of skis and equipment. After a few more times of skiing, the money saved by not paying equipment rental fees would cover that. Unfortunately, the best time to find a good deal on ski equipment is at the end of the season. So if I go skiing again before March or so, I’ll probably just rent again. Who knows, maybe a skiing trip to Tussey Mountain or down to Blue Knob near Altoona will be in my future. And next Christmas break I’d love to go skiing with Alex again; hopefully I’ll be good enough to tackle Lutsen by then. 🙂