Vermont, Part II

Some people don't know the definition of the word "beginner."

Thus it was that I found myself in an adult beginners ski lesson with people who had not yet "perfected their left turns," whereas I had never actually seen skis in real life. They're long. And unwielldy. It took my instructor a little bit of time to realize that I encompassed the true spirit of the word "beginner" as applied to skiing. I think he got clued in while I was frantically crawling on the ground trying to get out of the way of the next person on the rope tow. For the fourth time. He was a slow learner. After that, he stayed close by so that he could lift me up every 3-4 minutes since I was exceptional at falling but not so great at getting up again.

After the lesson, I felt very comfortable skiing down the bunny slope. And by skiing, I mean careening in an uncontrolled fashion down a hill of snow and falling onto the ground to avoid running into a small child. So that was good.

Lucky for me, I met a very nice man who, apparently concerned for my safety and wellbeing, gave me some tips.
1. Bend you knees.
2. Learn how to stop.

Learning how to stop made a big difference, as you might imagine. Somehow my instructor had forgotten to mention this amazing thing called pizza slice. (For the non-skiiers out there, that's when you put the front tips of your skis close together and spread the back tips out so that it looks like a wedge.) With my newfound knowledge, I ventured slowly down the hill, stopping every 5 seconds or so just to make sure that I could. The nice man waited at the bottom and cheered me on as I skiied down next to his 3-year old nephew. Sweet.

Lunch break!

After lunch, the babe came out on the bunny slope with me and taught me some more - like how to step away from the rope tow without falling, how to more effectively pizza slice, and how to pizza slice turn. It was like a new world! Pizza slice turn riiiiiight and pizza slice turn leeeeefft, and riiiiiight, and leeeeefft. I was owning that bunny slope! Owning it, I say.

We decided a real slope was the obvious next step...


Stay tuned for Vermont, Part III :)