Skiing
February, 2021 was the first time I ever put on skis. When trying to brainstorm trip ideas during pre-vaccine COVID, skiing was suggested. Sung hadn’t been in years. Adela had been more recently, and wasn't skiing regularly. Josh was the advanced member of the group, even owning his own snowboard.
Not even a year into losing my Dad, I had this growing desire to feel extra alive. When you wake up and you are breathing, you are alive. But you know those times that you just feel so alive? You are banging your head to music at a concert, you are petting a Quokka in Australia, you’re giving the best presentation of your life at work, or you see the Backstreet Boys jump out of this weird contraption and onto stage at your first ever boy band concert? It’s a different feeling than just waking up and breathing. Losing my Dad made me want to feel extra alive, so why not try skiing at age 35?
I took a lesson and spent 5 days on the bunny slope in Stowe, VT, with 2 attempts at a green. The next year at Stowe, the bunny slope was closed so I had to do the green. I spent 4 days on that 1 green mountain, skiing down 30 times a day. I am no sports expert but I basically was doing drills, trying to gain strength and confidence in my skiing.
Last year, we moved on from Stowe to Breckenridge, Colorado. My goal was to try a blue. After the first day of greens, I moved on to the blues on Day 2. I went down slowly, watching my every move. I was getting more comfortable but still a little terrified of losing control on a steep mountain. As someone who has only been skiing on 3 trips, I still look at a steep mountain and panic. I was also really worried about getting lost. I would hear the rest of my ski group talking about the paths they would take and say they would have to turn at this spot because if they didn’t, it turned into a Black Diamond.
On our last day, after riding the same 3 blues, I decided to try another mountain of blues. Sung came with me. Sung is way more advanced than me, so we typically don’t ski together. His protective husband side comes out in full force when we are skiing though. He appreciates that I want to ski alone so I can go really slowly but he is also so worried that I am going to get hurt or lost. So when I said I was planning to spend the morning on a new mountain, he said he would come with me.
For the first time, I really had to read the ski maps. I typically don’t read them because my mountains are small and easy. You just go straight down! I had to understand which paths I wanted to take and which ones to avoid. That morning, we did 6 or 7 different blue trails together. And I only fell a few times!
That day was a top moment of the year because it changed the game for my skiing wise. I was now someone who could conquer new mountains, try new trails, and finally had more to say at lunch than just “yup went down that same mountain 32 times.” And it was really fun to have Sung skiing by my side. I didn’t want to hold him back or take away from his skiing day on tougher trails. But he didn’t see it that way. He wanted to spend the day with me, even if it meant slowing down a bit.
It is easy to reach a point where you say “no new things” and you stick to what you're good at. When I reached adulthood, I figured skiing wasn’t in the cards for me because I hadn’t done it as a kid. Now I own my own ski equipment and have 3 ski trips planned this year. To have a new, sporty hobby that I look forward to every winter has been a great addition to my life, and I look forward to many more ski moments topping my annual charts.
