white tail

I am officially obsessed with skiing.  Hubs and I went for the first time on New Years and fell in love.  The first trip to Snowshoe was a lot to take in at once, and I spent a lot of time learning the basics while trying not to get run over by the experts.

White Tail, this past Saturday, was a different experience.  Luckily I had my friend David with us to help me further my goal of becoming an intermediate skier.  Being the sweet person that he is, he volunteered to watch me ski in order to give me tips as to how to improve myself.  I learned that I no longer have to "pie" my way down a hill and instead can weave back and forth and even pick up some speed, all because I'm learning to become a better skier.

Now please don't think I was able to get out there on the slopes, go down the green hills twice and master the blues.  Absolutely NOT!  With much hesitancy I caved in and allowed my friends to take me on the blue slope (next level-- black diamond).  Despite the fact that I couldn't even see the rest of the mountain from the cliff at the top (see picture above), I took my friend Kristen's advice of "Just do it" and began my journey.

Things were looking great-- I was weaving down the slope as I controlled my skis and my speed.  Skiing took a turn for the worst, however, when I picked up a little too much speed, hit a patch of snow and may or may not have "Yard Saled" across the slope.  When I finally stopped rolling around, shook the snow outfrom the back of my pants and was able to get a baring on life, I realized that I didn't have a ski.  I looked up the hill and there it was--- my left ski, wedged in the middle of a slope.  Other skiers were racing around it, not even hesitating to slow down.  Scoping out the scene I realized I would have to remove my right ski, put my poles down, and physically climb the mountain to get my lost ski.  And that's exactly what I did.

The rest of the day was great and I only fell once.  As for the hubs, he was talked into trying a double black diamond, which he was able to do while only falling once.  He did admit that he went down very slowly, but still, he can now say he went down a black diamond!  I couldn't be more proud, and you better believe I was there at the end as his own cheering crowd.  Despite the looks I was getting, I was proud to be a cheering squad of one.

Next step? Buying ski equipment for me and snowboarding equipment for the hubs in order to make this an official hobby!