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Published: March 6th 2007
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over the weekend, i tried my hand (and my feet) at downhill skiing. i traveled with my program to somewhere in the french alps by bus. we were near the village of vallouise and we stayed in a well-utilised ski hotel building. everywhere i turned there was a beautiful photo opportunity, and i was amazed by the size of the mountains surrounding us. i don't think it was possible to take a poor photo, and i think i have many pictures of the same places, but i couldn't stop taking pictures since everything was so lovely. on saturday i took a beginner course but after lunch my roommate took me up the chairlift to a really really steep hill that just went straight down. of course i fell head over heels over head over elbow, etc., but this was because in my lesson we hadn't been taught how to ski back and forth and slow down that way. i kept up the practicing and falling for most of saturday, and skied around with a girl i hadn't met before. she got to see me fall a lot. by saturday evening i was very tired, especially because i don't have any muscles,
really. by sunday morning, though, i was back in the saddle, and i praticed for a long time by myself on a bunny hill at the foot of the mountain. i worked mostly on getting rid of my fear of starting to move, which helped me not to fall because i slowly thought about it less. i didn't fall once on that hill, and i began to go faster than zero as my confidence bult. although the three year olds were flying past me, i didn't mind. when i felt prepared to ski with the big kids again i took the chairlift up the way, where i found a guy who had taken the beginner class with me. turns out there was another small slope up high so i practiced that one a few times, until i saw roommate megan at the bottom taking pictures of me looking ridiculous. i went with her on the big hill again, and i DIDN'T FALL! i was proud of that, so i felt ready to ski down the mountain. i took plenty of tumbles (maybe six) but they were small and i stayed mostly in control. i had bloody knuckles though, i was
pretty proud of that. after sunday's lunch i went with megan, erika, and mariano and we skied where i had gone the day before. i didn't fall once, but my legs got so sore i was afraid i was going to if i kept going. i felt like my kneecaps were going to bust out and ski away from me, so i relaxed for a short while. we skied back to the chairlift and took it up to the upper part where we had started out, and mosied on over to a restaurant/bar that was conveniently located there. i had a café au lait while sitting on top of a mountain in march without my jacket on, and we were enjoying the scenery, when we found out that a girl from our program had gotten injured. there are these things called t-bars here where to get higher up than the chairlift you sort of sit on them and sort of just pretend you are secured. to get to the highest part of the mountain, i guess it is very difficult to hold on, and megan said she fell off once or twice. the girl who fell is an experienced snowboarder
who goes to school in nevada and snowboards all the time, i guess. however, she fell off the t-bar and wasn't able to stop herself going down. she fell down the chute for the lift, and i guess she took out nearly 15 people behind her, and she fell perhaps 250 meters downwards. she was more worried about the people she hit, but after being examined by a medic they thought she may have broken ribs, and they flew in a helicopter to take her to the nearest hospital. luckily we found out later that she was okay, and that she had just had a contusion, and she was able to be taken back to the hotel right before we left for montpellier. so, of course after that, i took the chairlift all the way down the mountain, and gave back my skis pretty quickly. i was tired and sore, but in a good way, and it made me want to start up cross-country skiing again next winter at home. i don't plan on going downhill skiing again, although i had a good time, but i definitely want to ski a lot next year if i have the time. i
had forgotten how much work skiing was!
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maman
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where eagles and emma dare...
Really enjoyed this...what an adventure...You were very brave to go down those hills, and I for one, am very glad that you are relatively injury free!(sorry about those knuckles) Amazing also to see the lack of snow in the lower elevations.