My husband and I decided to take a little winter break and go to Santa Fe. Actually, my husband has not gone skiing in about 12 years and he wanted to go again. I have never been on skis. EVER. So we go. He is so excited! The first day he insists on driving up the mountain just to "check it out". I get winded walking up the stairs to the rental shop. Since I work out quite a bit, I got a little nervous. Of course, the air is thinner, up the mountain. We head back into town and have a lovely dinner. Walked back to the hotel in -8 degree weather.
The next day, we get up, have a big breakfast and get dressed in all our ski gear. We head up the mountain. I get my boots (very heavy-but figured I was burning lots of calories), skis and poles. I headed to the Never Ever class. Nick joined it too, to be supportive. My first teacher was Ben. Nice guy, but a ski bum. He took us up to the bunny slope and got on the "magic carpet". This was a conveyor belt that took you up the little slope. The Magic Carpet was my favorite thing!
Went up and down, using my poles and trying not to fall. My husband was way too advanced, but cheered me on. We had a 15 minute lunch break. This is not good for being banded. The no eating and drinking rule always applies. I had a hot dog (no bun) and 1 slurp of water.
Nick got moved up to the advanced class. I was sent back to the bunny slope with a new teacher, Bob. Bob doesn't like poles. Bob made me give up my poles. I didn't like Bob. He made me go down the slope, without the poles!!! I did better. Okay, so maybe Bob was a good teacher. Up on the magic carpet and down the slope, over and over and over. When I let go, I was pretty good. I fell a few times, but I am short, so it isn't far to go! I have a problem stopping. No very good at the snowplow.
The end of the lesson came (finally!) and we had to go down the bigger slope. Nick had finished his lesson and was watching. I did fine on the bump. Turned my skis perfectly. Nick was so proud. Then I had to get in traffic. I got scared and couldn't stop. I was trying to snowplow as hard as I could and I seemed to be going FASTER! I was going to take out a group of people by the lifts. So I fell. Nothing broken, but muscles pulled. I chose not to ski the rest of our vacation.
