16 Years Later I Was Back on the Slope

Approximately 16 years ago, I tried a skiing for the first time on a school field trip. The experience lacked proper instructions resulted in a lot of time on the ground. 16 years later, I decided to give skiing a try again during our weekend trip to Sun Peaks with a group of friends. After all, I live in Vancouver now. Not being able to ski or snowboard just doesn't seem right and might get me kicked out of the city.

The day started with two instructors and 10 other fellow ski NuBes. The Level I lesson started with the very basic of how to put on and take off your skis. There are no right or left ski. Apparently they are identical! We were told to keep our ski boots somewhat loose on our feet since tight boots can cut off blood flow into your feet and make your feet really cold. Greg learnt this lesson the hard way.

The we moved onto a bit of slope to learn how to slow down and eventually come to a stop. This was where I became frustrated with the instructor who was very focused on 3 other students. I wasn't getting any tips on what I was doing right or wrong. I kept turning right as I slipped down the hill. This instructor was either not watching or talking to someone else. When she did eventually notice I was running into poles, she said to me: you are learning to turn already and that is excellent. But I had no idea why I was turning and wasn't learning how to slow down or stop properly. At this point, I was completely not impressed with skiing and thought I was just awful at this.

After struggling with the tiny slop, I couldn't believe we were ready for an actual green slope. Canadian ski resort has a system to identify the difficulty of every slope.

- means it is for beginners
- means it is for intermediate skiers or snowboarders
- means it is for experienced skiers or snowboarders (more difficult the slope more black diamonds)

The idea behind the shapes is if the weather condition is not great and you can't see colour, at least you will be able to identify the slope by the shape.

We took the pole lift up to the green slope named Gentle Giant. I like dthe gentle part, but not too sure about the giant part. Once we were on top, we practiced more slowing down and stopping. I still wasn't getting the hang of it. I kept turning to the right which my not so helpful instructor told me was because I was putting more weight on my left foot than my right. Finally, my uncontrollable skis crushed right into the other instructor. He was not impressed. But at least I got his attention that I wasn't getting nowhere. He was much more helpful. My problem was I wasn't lean forward enough to force equal weight distribution on my two feet.

We went on the Gentle Giant one more time and I was much more comfortable. The morning lesson ended with no more bailing. A quick lunch, we were ready for level II! Level II was all about turning. We had a very perky instructor for the afternoon. She was actually very good and made sure she gave very individual pointers to everyone in the group. Turning on a slope is very counter intuitive movement. One has to put more weight on right foot to turn left and vice versa. This concept really took some time to get use to. But just like everything, practice makes perfect. At the end of the day, I managed to squeeze 4 more runs on the Gentle Giant. I did bail a few more times too. I am still haven't found the perfect balance while doing turns. But it was a fun just trying to!