Stayin' Alive

Stayin' Alive
Stayin' Alive
ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo
Stayin' Aliiiiive....

Ok now that I have that out of my system.

Yes, I am alive.  My internet connection, however, was not.  Until now.  Clearwire internet service was the bane of my life for the last 9 days but I'm happy to report all is well and I've got connections, baby.  I will be asking for a refund though. Clearwire customer support, beware!

So I went skiing on Friday night, downhill night skiing at Bogus Basin.  The last time I (snow)skied, I was 9 years younger than I am now, and apparently those 9 years were long enough to prove that snow skiing does not come back to you the same way biking does.  I felt like I had never skied before.  Ever.

Thankfully, my friends Cory & Katie are exceptionally patient people, and Cory spent an hour teaching me to ski.  An hour.  After an initial run on the bunny hill (yes, the run that was supposed to bring back all that knowledge from 9 years ago), we headed up a "blue square" run called simply "Ridge".  Blue squares are typically the intermediate ones between green circles and black diamonds.  Which means they should be reasonably manageable, right?  Right.  Wrong.  I came (slowly) around the first corner of Ridge and stared down the mountain about 300 feet in front of me, beyond which I could see... nothing.  This thing was so steep, I couldn't see the rest of the hill!  Needless to say, with my only ski skill being "snowplowing", I was scared stiff.  It scared the pants off of me.  I froze, almost literally. 

Poor Cory had to convince me that no, you don't need to take off your skis and walk down this insanely long hill; yes, you can do this; no, you will not die; yes, it will be ok.  Cory enjoys teaching wimps people how to ski, obviously.  Pretty soon, between frantic rapid glances at the steep slope in front of me, I was following Cory's instructions to "turn your ski this way" and "lean into the hill" and "pick up your left foot".  He taught me to cut across the mountain in a zigzag fashion so I didn't just plummet straight down to become a puddle of Ri at the bottom, minus the purple coat and green beanie.  By the time we reached Katie, who had been waiting near the lift the whole time, it was obvious that I should stick to the green circle runs, even though Cory had done a great job teaching me how to turn.  With the exception of one kerplunk later in the evening, in which I lost both skis (!), I was able to criss-cross my way down the Silver Queen run (green circle) by myself, twice!  Cory is officially the best ski instructor ever.




P.S.  Snowshoeing is still my favorite winter sport.