flashback: skiing in Nagano

taken from my notebook, [first day of ski trip Mar. 19]

Intensity at its finest. Once I put on all my gear for the firs time, I knew I was in for a totally different, possibly devastatingly frustrating experience. Side note: my friend Hannah happened to be given the exact same jacket and snow pants as me. We were twins. The ski boots were definitely a new thing for me. Walking is so difficult because the boots, which are already tight fitting, are meant to protect you from breaking your ankles by not allowing you to move them. Basically, I felt like a robot, with movement restricted to large steps with my knees bearing the burden of movement.

And then, once we got onto the snow with all our gear, I learned that, in order to get to the ski lifts and get our ski passes, we had to ski down a slope. Actually, two slopes and a long, flat plain. At this point, I knew I was screwed, and I realized that my day would be very, very, very long. Locking my ski boots into my skis, I remembered "pie" position and went down the slopes.

Five seconds of no control, then skiing fail. But, I realized that skiing is easier than it looks. Perri had the unfortunate luck of "skiing" down the first slope and running right into a Japanese person, skis tangled in a mess. awkward, at best :)

Needless to say, despite some epic failures on my part, I was actually able to ski down the green courses by afternoon. To be able to fly down a mountain full of snow is such a rush. The feeling of controlling your new found snow-carving units was so exhilirating, so different. I now know why people love to ski. It's fun, period.

My gullible self allowed me to be tricked into going to the top of the mountain with Erika, Thomas, and Dan Dat. Bad idea. Once we got to the top, sun setting over the mountainous Nagano region, I realized that the ski signs pointed in two directions: left = black diamond course, right = red course with moguls. Looking down the mountain was already daunting. Knowing that I had to ski down the monster was something totally different. I was extremely angry for about three seconds before reminding myself that I paid for the trip, and that the ski lift didn't allow you to go down. I stuck my ski poles in the ground and said, "let's go."

Epic fail. I skiied for about two seconds before losing balance because of the moguls and the steep grade of the course. My fall, quite intense. Once I got up, I would ski again for a couple seconds, then fall, sometimes losing my skis in the process. I can safely say that some of my falls were about 20 to 50 feet of just sliding and tumbling before attempting to stop myself. Thankfully, Erika and thomas were really helpful and were there to pick up my skis. Still though, it sucked to wipe out because it takes so much energy to recover, get up, get your skis that fell off, lock your boots into the skis, and finally, prepare for launch. It sounds depressing and disheartening, this whole wipeout thing. But every fall made me more determined to get back up.

more to come...