Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Skis & Tobaggons make for great adventures.



The last (and first and only) time I tried skiing was my senior of high school when the German Club (comprised mostly of asians) went on their annual ski trip. Back in 1999 boarding was relatively new, but all of my friends were young and adventurous and went boarding. Rentals for boarding equipment was also a lot more expensive back then, and so I opted for the "learn to ski" package at Mt High. It was a wretched class that I left after 10 minutes and then "taught" myself how to ski down the "intermediate" slope. This basically consisted of me falling off the ski lift every single time, and in a crouched low to the ground (because it was scary to be away from the ground) position with my skis straight, shooting down the mountain. I was 18 and fearless!

Well, as it turns out- I am no longer 18. And Mt. High is NOT Big Bear.

After borrowing pants and renting a jacket/equipment, I fared pretty well on the beginner slopes though I was having difficulty differentiating between stopping and turning. My calves were burning, my knees were aching, I was doing everything wrong- but having a good time. Then I was told that I could conquer the low intermediate mountain- the Summit Run of Big Bear. It's supposedly low intermediate, but what it REALLY is is a straight run down from the top of the damn mountain. Sure it was pretty, sure it was snowing up there, sure the powder was UNBELIEVABLE and it was empty and the run was wide... but it was freaking STEEP.

I ate it about 3 times on the way down (since I couldn't figure out turning/braking) and had to take off my skis a few times to get up (STEEP I tell you). I ALMOST made it down until some snowboarder RAMMED into me (not the other way around thank you very much) and I basically flipped over him and landed in the (VERY soft) snow with my legs in opposite directions and a pain in my right knee. Stacy said she heard someone say "Oh shit" and she turned around in anticipation of some fun accident, only to see me flat on my back with my skis jumbled about. At that point, I was far enough down to see the end of the run, but it was too steep to put my skis back on to get down (I had to take them off once I fell). I tried to carry my gear down, but it was too steep and I was too tired and my knee was hurting too much. So I just sat there. In the pretty snow. And took pictures.

Stacy had to board down and get someone to help me. They found me (20 minutes later) and had to TOBAGGON me down the rest of the mountain. I was literally strapped into a tobaggon and then this (very hot) Snow Summit guy snowboarded me down. On the tobaggon. It was indeed humiliating and a bit ridiculous, and I was pretty much done after that.

I think I made a valiant effort at this skiing business, but will definitely invest in some lessons for next time.

P.S.- that question about where are all the hot men in socal? They're boarding/skiing.

It was a good eye candy sorta day.




1 comment:

::f:: said...

Ooh 누나... I remember my time snowboarding a couple years ago. I ate it quite often before getting the hang of it, and by the end of the day - I was entirely over it. <3