marymack
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
So last October, one of my best guy friends asked me if I wanted to join him and some of his friends on their annual trip to Tremblant since I had learned to ski last year. I of course said absolutely and set my goal "to be able to keep up with everyone". So I have been taking lessons, I leased skis for the season, I've been skiing every chance I get and the weekend was finally here. I just have to say: mission accomplished! Not only was I not relegated to the bunny slope (as was my fear in October) but I was skiing with guys that have been skiing for 10-15 years longer than me and keeping up! Highlight of the weekend: I was skiing with 3 of the guys and we reached a fork in the trail, I glanced at the sign and saw that one way led to a black and the other to a blue, the boys started heading for the black and I yelled over "I'll take the blue and meet you at the bottom". We got to the bottom and my friend said "Mary, why did you go the other way? You had just done a black! You didn't need to bail, you were doing great!" "What?! I don't believe you! Show me the trail map! I'm just doing blues, there is no way I did a black" and sure enough I had been doing Kandahar for the last 3 runs! What a great feeling (and I'm glad I hadn't known ahead of time and had just been chasing after the guys not really paying attention to where we were actually going). It is amazing what a difference it makes if you are being pushed and if you are just skiing, I felt like I skied better this weekend NOT thinking about perfect technique than I have in any lesson.
Although the mountain was pretty icy/in some places had chunks of ice/snow the size of softballs (and was super cold/windy) and crowded because of the holiday week, we still had a great time! What a fun place! I loved trying to pick up some French and everyone was just so nice! First wipe out of the weekend was on my second run of the day, popped out of my ski and then slid about 25 feet (I always end up going for a fun slide whenever I fall!). As I'm standing up an instructor skis over and places my ski down for me, offers to let me hold on to him while I step back in and holds my ski so it doesn't slide away from me. The ice (and some lovely natural bumps/mogu-y things on a trail that leads to the gondola) made for some epic falls but someone always stopped and helped me pick up the pieces (and in many cases bring me the ski(s) or pole that I left half way up the run and to ask if I was alright. The village was so fun (and man, how have I never tried poutine before!) and the chalet we had about 25 minutes away was beautiful, I can't wait until next year!
Although the mountain was pretty icy/in some places had chunks of ice/snow the size of softballs (and was super cold/windy) and crowded because of the holiday week, we still had a great time! What a fun place! I loved trying to pick up some French and everyone was just so nice! First wipe out of the weekend was on my second run of the day, popped out of my ski and then slid about 25 feet (I always end up going for a fun slide whenever I fall!). As I'm standing up an instructor skis over and places my ski down for me, offers to let me hold on to him while I step back in and holds my ski so it doesn't slide away from me. The ice (and some lovely natural bumps/mogu-y things on a trail that leads to the gondola) made for some epic falls but someone always stopped and helped me pick up the pieces (and in many cases bring me the ski(s) or pole that I left half way up the run and to ask if I was alright. The village was so fun (and man, how have I never tried poutine before!) and the chalet we had about 25 minutes away was beautiful, I can't wait until next year!
