How do you northern hemisphere people do it?

[ora_wai]

I went skiing today. Or rather, I went to a place where people (like children) were skiing, and I fell over a lot. I tried snowboarding but my knee kept threatening to dislocated, so I switched to skis. It hurt less and I managed to stop without falling down - but then I was silly and thought that this meant I could use the lift (which I had bailed

Comments

[miniglik]

Hee!

I ski very, very slowly. I'll go slowly right to left until I have to turn, then turn carefully, then left to right, then turn carefully, etc. If I get to a part that's too steep I'll sit on the back of my skis and go down on my butt. I'm such a weenie. It takes forever to get down the mountain that way, but I'm not a good skier and I haaaaate wiping out.

I think it's hard to prepare for your first time up the lift. Back when my mom had her accident it was her first time up the lift. (Story: she'd been taking lessons that day, and after just a little bit of time on the bunny hill they had the group go up the lift. The ground dipped away quickly after the lift's exit point, and the lift moved up steeply there too. She was afraid to jump off at the right time, so she stayed on too long. The lift operators yelled at her to "Jump! Jump!" so she panicked and jumped too late, falling about 10-15 ft and smashing her femur in five places.) 7 years later, and I don't think any of us have gone skiing since.

[ora_wai]

Dammit, why didn't I think of skiing from side to side? Although, it was an indoor 'rink' as it doesn't snow on the North Island, so you know, limited space for people like me. I was all about the going straight down, which may be where my problems started. I didn't mind bailing so much, mainly because my munted knee was instantly iced!

I am glad I heard this story after I went skiing. It's a fear of mine that I will break my femur....and the pain that I've heard is involved is too much to bear. Your poor mum!

[drtygal]

WTF. It DOES snow in the North Island, just not in the good parts.

That being said, we should totally do a trip to the mountains sometime. Stay in the Chateau. Take ski instruction from a nice piece of eye candy. Fall on our butts and then retire to the fireplace for hot chocolate and even hotter ski instructor eye candy. Yes, yes I think we should.....

[ora_wai]

Shhh. I totally forgot about Whakapapa and Taranaki /shameface.

Let's do it! I'm good at falling over and I do like candy.

[beeker121]

I ski a lot like you do. Except being afraid of heights makes the chair lifts scary too. I've discovered that the best ski trip is the one where I stay at the lodge with hot cocoa and exclaim over all of the cool things my friends did.

[ora_wai]

Oh yeah, chair lifts would be really scary - these were more like sitting on swings (well, the bit goes between your legs and your ski's stay on the ground). We did have hot chocolate after, and laughed at all the awesome/silly things we did - that sort of counts, right?