Day 1 Skiing

By Shaz Thompson on July 8, 2015 • ( 1 Comment )

Jen is booked in for a beginner pack, ski lift, ski hire and lessons in the morning and afternoon. Neil John and I were booked in for a group lesson in the afternoon. The plan is to ski and warm up in the morning and then hone the technique in the afternoon.

It was another early start for Sid (poor thing) but he did it with a smile on his face… After having our lesson on snow chain fitting and all of us feeling a bit daunted by the whole task – we were relieved to see that the roads were clear and no chains were required – hoorah! A nice warm breakfast and off we go to the snow.

As promised Jen and I are in the back of the people mover sipping our lattes watching learning to ski videos on youtube. John is trusted with the safe delivery of the cargo. We ere there quite early and I thought that something was amiss when we were directed to park in Car Park 7 (meaning that they are very busy this early). Geez the place was bedlam – boy was I glad that we got our Lift passes and ski hire the night before.

Jen got all kitted up looking as snug as a bug in a rug, and met her friends in her class and off she went. She went to a flattish area and they got them to put on one ski and move around with that – then take that ski off and put the other on and move around with that. Then they learned to walk up hill (side stepping) and then ski downhill with the instructor stopping them, they learned the snow plough and the turn – not bad for a mornings work.

Neil and I went to the nursery slopes and got our ski legs, really practicing technique (or what we could remember of it). We really weren’t very good but I was really impressed with how Neil skied and he was being cautious which was fantastic.

John lost his pals on the first queuing of the ski lift, so poor thing skied on his own in the morning, which is probably not a bad thing as we normally slow him down. Neil and Sid had a play around together.

Lunch was a welcome break, Jen had survived and still had a smile on her face and was warm. Neil had no knee injuries, John, Neil (aka Birdie) and Sid were in one piece. Lunch was warming and it was fantastic to sit down and rest my weary legs.

Afternoon lesson – spent a lot of time fart-arseing about which is freezing cold in -3 deg celsius. Fortunately it was a fine sunny day. Neil and I had Dani as our instructor, she was fantastic. She had us skiing parallel and looking like we knew what we were doing by the end of the lesson. Neil was amazing, I am so impressed at how he is skiing after such a long time. John had a more advance lesson and they also brushed up on technique which John knows that he needs to focus on – he found it tough to break old habits but at least has somethings to work on for the rest of the trip. Birdie and Sid skied together again in the afternoon.

Jen honed in her turning and did some skiing – Neil and I actually saw her skiing whilst we were on the chair lift and she was doing pretty damn well. Jen had fun and was keen to come back another day but was keener to get her ski boots off. When I found her carrying her skies she was walking like she had done something in her pants and didn’t want it to touch her legs, or like a cowboy with chaffing or like she had 30kg lead weights on the bottom of her feet. Hopefully you can picture this – she was totally relieved and overcome with delight when the ski boots came off and she could put her Uggs on. Bless…

To say that it was a quiet night is an understatement – everyone was knackered, so a home cooked meal it was. Sid is going to have a lie in tomorrow and a day of rest stating that he comes on ski holidays for the Apres ski and the ski breaks, not the actual skiing. John, Neil and Birdie were keen to go skiing but it is now 8am and there is no sign of them. Jen and I will have a massage and a leisurely day together.