But then I stopped. My parents no longer went, my friends didn’t ski, and my winter breaks in college were spent working. As I got older and became adverse to the cold, I simply never wanted to be near snow. Winter was a time to go to tropics not into the mountains.
Yet over the last two years, my friend Ryan has been pressuring me to go skiing at Keystone Resort . (He works for Vail, which owns Keystone.) I kept resisting. I’m overseas I would say. But being in the states meant I had run out of acceptable excuses so I finally relented. After buying winter gear warm enough for Antarctica, I boarded a plane to Colorado.
It was weird to be on skis after 11 years. It also made a good video:
I was pretty bad at first but managed to go through some deep powder and off trail before the trip was over. My friends were impressed with how fast I relearned to ski. They expected me to be awful but I wasn’t. If I had a few more days, I probably could have been back on some black diamonds trails.
The first day, I fell twice with my private instructor. But my biggest spill was on the second day. While heading down the mountain, my ski came undone from the binding and I tumbled like a snow ball down the trail. It was an unpleasant experience. (Though I wish I had THAT on video!)
In the end, I had a lot more fun than I thought I would. Though it snowed for 4 days straight, I got used to the cold. It wasn’t so bad. Eventually, I only had 3 layers of clothes! And I really had fun skiing. A lot of fun. I forgot how much fun I had when I was a kid. The first 18 yrs of my life came back to me and it was blast.
Maybe the winter isn’t so bad after all. Yes….maybe good things do happen in the cold….
Now, that is an interesting thought to have.
Editor’s Note: I paid for my flight but Keystone paid for everything else. Except my laundry. I paid for that too.
