What goes up must come down…

01Oct08

…and my first experience of skiing was certainly no exception to this rule!

I went up Treble Cone on Sunday morning after a night of cold-induced sleeplessness with my aunt who works as a nurse at the resort. I initially considered backing out because of how tired I was, but then I decided that if I did that I’d spend the rest of the day kicking myself for not bothering to go when I knew it was the right thing to do.

There’s not an awful lot to say about the experience really, apart from the fact that I think I need a lot more practice. I spent the majority of my two hour beginners’ course sliding down the second easiest slope on my arse and elbows – much to my instructor’s horror. Credit to the guy though: he was incredibly patient with me. I sucked and he didn’t hoof me off the side of the mountain in exasperation so he obviously has the patience of a saint.

At one point I lost control of the skis and went careering into one of the metal barriers next to the lifts. I hit it with such force that I knocked the barrier over, got my skis tangled in it and ended up slumped over it on my stomach with a crowd of people laughing at me. It’s a good thing I’ve never been one for taking myself too seriously. Oh dear!

Despite my skillful display of clumsiness and ineptitude the experience was a lot of fun. I did manage to ski in a straight line, it was just the turning I had problems with. Unfortunately for me the turning aspect of skiing is rather important if you want to stay on the piste and alive. Moving that quickly across snow is a very odd experience to begin with but I can see why people become addicted to it now that I’ve tried it. Needless to say I’ve been rather sore as a result of my many wipeouts. I’ve been almost unable to move my arms for the last two days because I’ve been aching that much and I’ve managed to do something horrible to one of my toenails as well (but that was the ski boot rather than my falls – or so I’d like to think).

After my morning of skiing I was completely exhausted so got a lift back into Wanaka from two kind people who had to leave the ski resort due to one of them sustaining an ankle injury. They were very friendly and told me lots of things about the area as they drove me back into town. This is what I love about Kiwis: they can never do enough for you.

I suppose I should include some photos as proof of my trip to the top of Treble Cone. Fortunately there were none taken of me embarrassing myself. Maybe next time. 😉

The "Nice 'N Easy" slope. This is where I did most of my falling.

An unsuspecting snowboarder

View from the Treble Cone resort

On the way down

On the way down

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Tags: new zealand, otago, photos, public humiliation, skiing, south island, sports, treble cone