Guess what everyone! I learned to ski this weekend!

Awhile back our friend Shannon brought up a top secret birthday trip for her husband, Al and invited us. I had been talking a lot about wanting to learn to ski and it just worked out perfectly. Except that top secret part. I wanted so badly to blog or tweet or Facebook (verb?) about it but I didn’t/couldn’t.

However, after arriving at Al and Shannon’s house at 5am on Friday, that top secret embargo was lifted! I WAS GOING TO LEARN TO SKI THAT DAY!!

We went straight to the resort and Adam and I got our ski lessons rental set up and went to wait in the lesson area while everyone else went off to snowboard or ski.

The lessons were fun – there was a group of maybe eight of us (skiing, Adam did snowboarding) and our instructor, Weston. We did some stretches, learned how to snow-plow, stop, turn, walk up a tiny “hill” sideways and fall and get up.

Let me be a little more clear however.

• I learned how to snow-plow and stop after several tries.. my pizza wedge wasn’t wedgie enough sometimes.
• Turning was actually rather easy for me, compared to stopping. When it was my turn to go between Weston’s poles he put into the snow (maybe five feet away from each other) he decided to “make it harder” and put them only two feet apart. This prompted me to shout “You’re picking on me!” and he said “No, just making it more challenging!” and I then reminded him I hadn’t even been able to do the easy one. So I said OK, so I just go straight through the poles. He said if I did that (as opposed to turning between them) then he’d make it even harder for everyone else. So I looked at the group and apologized in advance.
• Walking up a hill: I was angling my skis the wrong way and was literally battling with the nothing-hills I was trying to shimmy up. At one point my back was to the instructor, who was in the middle of teaching about falling, and he said to me “Jen, I’d like you to see this!” to which I turned around and said “I would too!” (and everyone had a nice chuckle).
• Falling and getting up. Ah yea did you just read the last bullet point? I didn’t get to pretend-fall or practice getting up but I just took mental notes when he lectured. I got to put it to the test later on.. three times.

When it was time to hit the bunny hill, the instructor chose to ride with me and two other girls in the class. Both of which had fallen a lot during the lessons and were rather slow. Why was I in this group? Cause I was so damn slow at walking up the hill. (At first, then someone gave me pointers and I magically flew up the hill each time. So there.) But I was happy, I wanted all the help I could get.

So from left to right in the lift line: Weston, Chick1, Me, Chick2. We’re in line, waiting for the lift so we can sit down… and Chick2 is ready to sit on the railing, not so much the seat. So I grabbed her sleeve and basically pulled her into her seat. Up we go.. and once we’re at the highest point I decide to announce that I’m terribly nervous about this and really trying not freak out. HELLO- THERE ARE NO HARNESSES UP THERE.

Time to get off the damn lift… I get into position… and swoooplunk. I fall. I fall because Chick1 and Chick2 have fallen as well. Weston has to help me up because I’m a goobered mess on the snow now.

Then we do some skiing.. in chunks.. until I fall again. The chicks and I are slow; and I have only fallen once since the lift at this point. I run through all the options Weston taught us and after trying a few, I just take my skis off and get up. So much easier that way. Snap snap I’m back into them and make my way down to the group. After awhile I made it all the way down to the bottom and Weston meets up with me to give me his peptalk I’m sure he tells everyone. Regardless, it’s a nice gesture and I even share the reason why I’m out there learning to ski (all the while trying not to cry – not because I’m sad but because I was so proud of myself for accomplishing my goal.)

Oh I haven’t mentioned one this yet.. the pain. Just because I’ve lost a ton of weight doesn’t mean I’m in the best shape yet (I have lots to go!!) but I’m better than where I was 5+ months ago. However, my muscles are sooo not in shape yet; my calves and thighs were BURNING and shaking at this point. Thankfully it was time for a break and to meet up with everyone else.

After lunch everyone hit the bunny hill with us. This time, with me riding with Al and Shannon I didn’t fall off the lift! Totally smooth right off the thing. Take that Snow Lift Thingie! In yo face!

I followed Shannon as we criss-crossed the hill, taking numerous breaks because if I didn’t I think my thighs were going to detach themselves and run away. Or simply explode. That would have been messy.

After struggling a bit more down the hill, all the while still enjoying myself and speeding up here and there, I found myself getting really tired. It was starting to snow at an angle and my goggles were fogging up. I was hitting my threshold, my friends. And I was maybe.. if being generous, halfway down the damn bunny hill.

Al stopped by and gave me a great peptalk and told me that it was totally ok if I needed to just walk down the hill; others with plenty of years of experience do it all the time when it is needed. That option made me get a little emotional; I didn’t want to walk down the hill. I wanted to ski! That was what I was here for. But at the same time, my calves and thighs hurt so bad I was shaking. So Shannon unsnapped my boots so I could walk easier and I grabbed my gear and down I went. Adam, by the way, made it to the bottom on his snowboard. He’s always the trooper! I’m so proud of him too for learning to snowboard.

On Saturday, after a long debate with myself, I decided not to ski. The reasons were a mixture of being really sore from Friday’s adventures, the fact that rental+lift was $100, and that I was frankly concerned that I’d only make it down the hill once. Once for $100 just didn’t seem like a good thing. I also considered the fact that tomorrow (Monday) Adam and I are starting our boot camp workouts.

I think I made a good decision; instead of skiing I watched Adam snowboard and people watched for a few hours. I love all the wild outfits people were wearing and I’d also watch how people were skiing, turning their skis at an angle to stop, etc. Adam and Shannon were done around noon so we spent the rest of the time together, walking around in the snow (as it was snowing!) and I even contemplated the Tube Hill.. but again it wasn’t worth the money+time.

Here are photos from our trip:

So my friends, what is my final opinion and the outcome of this trip? — Skiing is totally fun and I plan to do it again; I’d also like to take a snowboarding lesson as well just to see what it is like. Who knows, maybe I’ll like that more!

I’m just so proud of myself that I did this; it’s all part of the new me – trying things I’ve always wanted to do but was limited because of my weight.

So now that “Learn to ski” is being crossed off my Goals of 2010 list (on the left of this page) I decided to add a new one to the list. This summer I want to LEARN TO SURF.