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No longer a ski lift virgin!

TsuKata

Certified Ski Diva
After an hour of building myself up to it today, I finally managed to get onto a chair lift. For those not familiar with my history, I’ve been skiing three times in the past month for 4-6 hours each time, and the whole time, I’ve been on one of the four magic carpet mini-runs. (I know it’s sad, but they were very exciting to me.) At any rate, I was definitely at a point where I could handle the longer beginner hill, but I just couldn’t get myself to go on the chair lift. It took a lot of coaxing, even this time, but I went on the quad high speed at my local ski hill with relatively minimal drama.

As for getting off, I totally wiped out. I felt backwards trying to slide off, and I banged my head on the ground. I was, however, wearing my brand spanking new helmet…I was very glad for that, because the next chair was coming right toward me, and I actually banged myself pretty hard on the ground. The helmet had gripped the top of my glasses, though, and so, not only was I all laying on the dismount hill, I couldn’t see! And I was just like calling out “hey, help me…I can’t get up, and I can’t see what I’m doing!” The guy who had been on the chair with me and my DH came over, and they stopped the lift long enough for me to get out of the way. And, my DH was actually trying to help get my skis off, although I didn’t realize he was there until I was about to get up, because (as previously mentioned) I couldn’t see anything. Once I hobbled away, I got my glasses and helmet situated and then all was cool, and I was ecstatic I’d made it up alive and well.

The people waiting around on the flat area were totally cool about it all. The guy who helped me up (an older man on a snowboard) told me that he’s been skiing thirty years, and that the dismount for that particular lift is just nasty right now, because it’s so icy and stuff.

To make a long story short, then I went down the green run, which actually had a really steep and long bit for the last part of it that was really tough for me. I took a triple “older style” (for lack of a better description) lift back up to the top, falling down on the dismount again...this time because I didn't get off the chair soon enough. I went down the theoretically blue run next to it, which was actually far easier than the green in my opinion. And then, I took the quad lift again. Over the course of the evening, I took the lifts 8-10 times, and after those first two times, I never fell. It is so much fun (and so tiring!) going down the longer runs, and I'm also just so excited that I managed to get past the mental block and do it!

Home now, tired and satisfied. Yay. :smile: I just had to tell y’all, because I’ve been talking about my lift fear on here for so long.
 

num

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Woohoo! The whole lift riding thing just opened up a whole lot more options for you, the better to feed your addiction with :smile:
 

Sheena

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
YAY! It is always so satisfying when you can get over those mental blocks and progress!

Glad to hear you had fun!
 

Solincia

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
That's exciting! Good thing you got past the block on it.:clap: My bf just went skiing for the first time on Valentines day, and he as nervous about the lift. He had already fallen on the magic carpet the first time--he was standing up too straight and it jarred him backward--so he wasn't too sure about the lift.

Well, he fell, but that's okay! The rest of the day he did just fine, and said "I like this lift thing, it does the work for you. It takes you up, and you ski down.".. HAHA!
 

SnowHot

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Angel Diva
Nothing expresses the feeling better than this!

:thumbsup::yahoo::thumbsup::yahoo::thumbsup: :yahoo: :thumbsup:
 

skihawk

Certified Ski Diva
Congrats! It sounds like you had a wonderful day! I'm glad you were wearing a helmet :clap: My DH conquered the ski lift for the first time this year! It was a wonderful moment.
 

SueNJ

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Wow, you certainly were persistent! And your persistence paid off--now you've got more of the mountain at your disposal. A huge victory for you! It's a great feeling to conquer your fear, isn't it? :thumbsup: :yahoo:
 

atlantiqueen

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
F - A - B - U - L - O - U - S ! ! ! !


:clap: :ski2: :clap:
 

Jenny

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Angel Diva
Congratulations! And don't worry about falling while getting off the chair - it can happen to anyone at anytime.

When I first started skiing, my friend and I had to sit on a certain side of each other in order to get off the chair. It was really an every woman for herself situation with arms and poles flailing everywhere.

Of course, we were always laughing pretty hard, too, which didn't help matters any.
 

SkiNurse

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
And falling while getting on the chairs too!

:faint:
 

Jenny

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Angel Diva
That's right. Same friend bent a pole and stopped the lift a few years ago becase she was admiring the view and "forgot" to pay attention to the chair!
 

TsuKata

Certified Ski Diva
For anyone with way too much time on her hands, the much longer account of this is on my blog at https://tsukata.org/?p=781 :smile: That goes into detail on the trails, lifts, etc...and all the things I did leading up to going on the lift.
 

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
Hey, TsuKata, we've all been there. Falling when you get off the lift is part of the package. Consider yourself baptized!

Congratulations for not giving up!
 

AnnKH

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Hooray!!! Now that you have totally plastered yourself at the top of the chair and lived to tell about it, you can move on - the worst is over!
 

Quiver Queen

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
TsuKata--gotta be honest, my first thought on seeing the title of your thread was on a different subject entirely, one sort of like joining the "mile-high club." I was trying to figure out, how did she do that??? Especially in ski clothes!:ROTF:
 

Lola

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Congratulations on another milestone reached! Now when do you intend to try a gondola? Just kidding . .
 

TsuKata

Certified Ski Diva
Actually, I had already done a gondola (I think?) at Heavenly in Tahoe. The heights don't bother me, but the lack of a safety bar just was driving me batty...it just felt like it'd be so easy to tumble out.

Even having done it now, it feels way too easy to just fall out, but I figure if I concentrate on *not* falling out, I know I won't fall out.
 

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