A couple of things to begin with. You might have noticed the first one…I am really out of shape. The next is that, I have never been skiing before, so when Karl signed up for a skiing class, I was really jealous. Today I had to take some time off to avoid overtime so Karl suggested that I ride up on the ski bus with him. So I did. The ride up was really fun. We played mancala on the Ipod touch and I got to know Karl’s friend from school, Gabe. Third, I really suck at skiing.
(This is our before picture)
This is Gabe. He and Karl have had a lot of actuarial classes together over the past couple of years. I call their friendship a bro-mance. He is a really fun guy. In fact we work in the temple together on Tuesday nights. Smart, fun, and single…any one? Just kidding Gabe.
About a half hour later we made it to Sundance Ski Resort. We were all suited up and ready to go. Check Karl out!
We played “ski-sies” while we waited to go up the lift. (Like footsies…)
I don’t know if you can see it on my face, but I was REALLY nervous.
I had luckily gotten on a ski lift this summer with my mom and Karl so I didn’t totally freak out getting on. Karl was really excited.
His and Hers.
It had been snowing all morning but by the time we got there just before noon, the skis began to clear up and it was beautiful.
AHHH.
It was Gabe’s first day skiing too. He was really excited and it turned out much better than me. We got off at our stop, and about 30 falls on my face, bum, hip and back later, I realized that my camera was gone…I was devastated, exhausted and totally frustrated. I really sucked at skiing! The skiing instructor was really worried about me, and all the attention she showed to me slowed down the whole class! Everyone was waiting for me. I suck, I was so embarrassed. There was one point where Karl went off to find the camera, and I fell, and was unable to get up because I got a terrible cramp in my hip! I could have died. I sat at the bottom of of the slope, and cried while Karl and Gabe went on with out me.
Meanwhile, this nice girl below, or I guess someone she was with found our camera, and took a picture with it.
Flash forward and hour. Karl persuaded me to go and try again. We hiked up to the beginners run and I started to feel more confident. We went to get on to the lift one last time…the people on the lift had found our camera, I had some confidence, and I was ready to go…
The second run down was 3x as fast. I still wasn’t great, but Karl was a great teacher. He coached me down the slope and although I fell and couldn’t get up for 10 minutes, it was really fun. ( I fell on a steep slope, so it was really hard to get up, okay! I fell once, and one of my skis fell off. It took me forever to get it back on. I finally got up, and 2 seconds later I fell again, and the other ski fell off. It was really frustrating.)
We made it to the bottom of the slope just in time to get to the ski bus. We didn’t even take off our snow boots.
(this is our after picture.)
Yikes. We were really tired and sweaty. Yuck.
I think that I will try it again. Skiing that is. My dad days that the first day is the worst, the second day is much better. At least I lived to ski another day.
We got off the bus, turned in our rentals at the Wilkinson Center and ran into…
My mini me! Allison Smith Lindsay! Isn’t she so cute! Just the way I wanted to meet up with an old friend…stinky, sweaty and just gross. It’s okay.
Oh my gosh! Pips, I'm telling you, this is why you go snowboarding. Skiing is terrifying! I'm so proud of you! Everyone sucks the first time, and I freaked out myself when you mentioned the lift. Do you know how many disatrous falls I've been a part of getting off the lift? Too many to count, basically everytime I got off the lift. I'm glad you got your camera, and started feeling better about skiing. I'm sure it is fun once you get the hang of it…yay team hite!
Everybody says the first day is the worst. Now you can add your voice to the chorus. However, you have to go again in order to make the comparison. I hope you will be able to report on a better experience soon. By the way, your pictures of the mountain and the snow are fabulous!