Feeling blue

Although I had planned to make it up the hill again yesterday to try to conquer my powder demons, when my alarm went off at 6am and I tried to get out of bed, it quickly became apparent that my limbs were not playing ball. So I went back to sleep for a bit and spent the day dragging my heavy legs and aching muscles - many of which I was previously unaware I even possessed - around the place.

Today, however, I was not letting sore legs dictate the day. After a morning's work, which as usual passed by in the blink of an eye, I had the afternoon off and, after a quick bite to eat, headed up the hill with my ski gear to meet up with Toby, an English ski instructor I met last night who had offered - the fool! - to give me a few pointers. We started off going up the Strawberry lift and going down a run I was very familiar with, the Dell Valley. However, my confidence had been knocked by my inability to stay upright for more than 2 minutes the other day, my legs had forgotten how to behave on skis, the run was icy and the visibility at the top fairly poor, so although I managed to get to the bottom relatively unscathed, it hardly gave Toby a good impression of my abilities. I let him take the lead and we headed up Wawa lift for the next run. We did some exercises designed to improve my turning technique and gave the green run a go. It went fairly well, a few bails here and there but nothing dramatic, and as we headed up the lift a second time, he told me he was going to take me down a blue run next. "Erm...if you think that's okay?" I ventured, "I mean, what do blue runs have that green runs don't? Topless dancers, late night poker, that sort of thing?" "Well, you might find the odd bit of barbed wire, assorted booby traps and some land mines, but nothing you can't handle" Toby assured me.

I would love to tell you, gentle reader, that I stormed the blue run with grace and aplomb. But in reality, though I started well, I stacked it on practically every turn - into nice soft powder thankfully - when it got all mogely (bumpy) and very steep. However, I got down it in one piece, learnt a ton about turning on the way down, and we did another blue run straight after, which was a bit (a bit) better. Toby had to run off so I went up and took the green run again by myself and lo! Suddenly it felt like a piece of the proverbial. Not one fall and I found myself actively looking to make up speed and take a more interesting line. Ha!

Of course, I'm not saying I'm suddenly a brilliant skier. But with a ton of practice, I finally feel I might just make it as a perfectly acceptable one by the end of the season. Life is good.