We drove three hours, and with one minute to go til we reached our destination, we had still not seen a speck of snow. Then we pulled into a mostly empty parking lot, and what looked like a ski lodge with no sign of life in it. There was a mountain behind it....with some snow. The top looked bare. No wonder it was so cheap to ski here! We all looked at each other.
"Is it open?" asked Asherel.
"I'll go find out," I said.
I bravely entered the ghost town. There were only 3 or 4 runs open on the mountain, the rest was too patchy.... but they were open for business. They did have a bunny slope, an easy trail, and then the dreaded Black Diamond trail that only suicidal maniacs attempt.
We brought an expert with us this time. Danielle has four seasons of snowboarding under her snow boots and is already tackling black diamond runs. For those of you who are more sane and don't ski, a black diamond run is a trail down the mountain that is formed by dropping a 40 ton rock straight through the earth. The resulting path is vertical to within .00008 margin of error. Some people prefer to just parachute down Black Diamond runs, others prefer to start off on skis and then finish the run on the ski patrol toboggan, strapped in with life preserving chemicals and air being pumped into their body. I think it is safe to say that I will never go on a Black Diamond trail.
We also brought Alex, a rank beginner and friend of Asherel's. Danielle worked with Asherel while Alex had her beginner lesson with the ski school. I was thus free to go off and ski by myself, being fully trained now with one full lesson from my first outing. I toodled around on the bunny slope, watching the kids and Danielle. Danielle worked her magic instructing Asherel, and after an hour, I had maxed out on the bunny slope. Danielle and I headed to the one operating chair lift, leaving the beginner snowboarding kids to practice seeing just how big and dark a bruise they could sustain and still stand.
The chairlift would take us half way up the mountain to the "easy" slope, or if we stayed on the chair at great risk to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, it would take us to the mouth of the dreaded Black Diamond run. I clutched the hand bar of the lift and asked Danielle only about 604 times how we would know where to get off so we would not inadvertently travel to the top of the mountain, where of course certain death awaited me. To her credit she did not roll her eyes. She assured me it would be obvious....even to me.
And it was. The chair doesn't slow down. There is a big yellow sign that says "GET OFF!!!" or something like that, and another sign that says, "ONLY EXPERT SKIERS WITH EXPLICIT DEATH WISHES SHOULD REMAIN ON LIFT TO TOP OF MOUNTAIN." So at the big yellow sign, you raise the hand bar if you are able to pry your clutching fingers off of it, and then you push forward on your seat and jump a little onto a steep decline. In theory, you then ski out of the way of the chair lift, and come to a graceful stop at a plateau area, where you survey a GULP steep icy descent that is way longer, steeper, and icier than the bunny slope.
"Are you sure this is the easy trail?" I asked Danielle.
She nodded.
"It is not as easy as the one at Sugar, is it?" (Sugar is the last place I skied and its easy trail was not half as steep or long as this easy trail. Nor was it covered in icy granules like this easy trail.)
"No," she admitted.
"I didn't think so," I said. I stood on the precipice wondering how I was going to get down. Danielle was still smiling, latching up her snowboard to her free foot, as though she thought this was going to be fun.
"Cowabunga!" I said. This would have made Asherel run off with the nearest other adult so no one would think she was related to me, but Danielle didn't seem overly mortified. I like Danielle.
And off I hurtled. Actually, my first run down the slope, I snowplowed the whole way, so I didn't hurtle. I actually crawled. Danielle waited about half an hour for me to catch her at the bottom. My legs were shaking from a workout of muscles that had never before been called into action. But I was alive, and had not fallen once. And when I was able to straighten my legs again, Danielle asked if I was ready to try it again.
NO....but.... how would I ever improve if I didn't challenge myself to do something that was just a tad beyond me? I thought of Asherel and her helicopter, that pesky Science Olympiad helicopter that after months of work...still wasn't quite flying. But it was almost there.....almost....just try a little harder......
"Let's go," I told Danielle. The second time, I didn't grip the hand rail quite so hard, and I knew where to slide off the chair at the halfway point. And this time down the mountain, I only snowplowed half the time. I started doing curves and turns back and forth across the wide open expanse. And I was having the time of my life.
"AGAIN!" I told Danielle.
By the third time, I was going fast, with Danielle right with me. Of course fast is a relative term, and Danielle was braking alot, but I was no longer scared and I was skiing, really skiing, not just doing an extended brake.
Sometimes you have to push yourself a little beyond what you think you can bear. And sometimes it leads to disaster, and broken bones.... but sometimes it leads to ecstasy that you might never have known otherwise.
Psalm 90: selected verses
1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place
throughout all generations.
2 Before the mountains were born
or you brought forth the whole world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God9 All our days pass away under your wrath;
we finish our years with a moan.
10 Our days may come to seventy years,
or eighty, if our strength endures;
yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow,
for they quickly pass, and we fly away. 12 Teach us to number our days,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom. 17 May the favor[a] of the Lord our God rest on us;
establish the work of our hands for us—
yes, establish the work of our hands.
Congratulations! You were on skis?
ReplyDeleteyes, i ski. snowboarding is for young people with pliable bones.
ReplyDelete