Swish. Swish. Swish. Click. (The sounds of my holiday in the Alps are keeping me sane.)
Last night I returned from my skiing holiday in the Alps. I can hardly stop myself from looking at my new phone wallpaper taken on a trail down the side of Patscher Kofel. If you clicked on the link, you may notice the incredible beauty that makes you think, "What a photographer!" Honestly, though, the area was so gorgeous that any amateur (me) could get great pictures. Skiing in the Alps was an incredible experience and I think I said, "I just can't believe we're here. Doing this. Here." at least 45 times. It still seems unfathomable.
At Mad River Mountain (6-16 years ago) I was a decent skier. Not anymore. I pretty sure I became a chicken/wimp in the past several years. Maybe I'm just more aware of my bones, spinal cord, and mortality than I used to be, because I was a big old wimp in the Alps (I also believe this has something to do with the incredulous tone in my dad's voice when I told him I was going to ski in the Alps and he replied with, "Get a lesson as soon as you arrive. Better yet, get a lesson before you rent the skis." I imagine he was just picturing receiving a call from me in traction at an Austrian hospital and having to pass on the news to my mother. ) Anyway, I was cautious.
Being cautious was just fine for the group I was skiing with. I was with two teachers who had never been on skis and another who went sking when she was much younger. On the first day, we went to Nordpark and spent the day on a very small hill for the very new skiers. One of them is a true risk-taker and just went at it. She's a natural athlete, and became more skilled after running into a few people, as well as with practice and being told to get some control. The other was pretty cautious, but preferred (like me) to have total control. She has real skiing skillz, but perhaps has the same fear of pain/broken bones. I spent most of the first day with the latter learner which was relaxing and a good way to ease into skiing in the Alps. In hindsight, I wish I had taken a lesson on the first day so that I would have gained personal skiing confidence.
On day 2 we went to the Stubai glacier for more skiing and there... I remembered/learned the importance of reading signs. After quite a bit of time with the new skiers, the other girl who had previously skiied and I went to the top of the glacier (reread the last four words to recognize the heaviness of what we went through) to do a long blue (easy) run. So... Elly and I went up to the top to see four potential trails to the base. We spent considerable time looking at the map to make a prudent choice and headed down the mountain. We were feeling pretty impressed with ourselves as we handled a tight turn and a fairly steep slope. While congratulating ourselves, we noticed that we had reached a fork in the trail. We could go right or left and randomly chose right. About 10 meters down the slope, I yelled to Elly that my sunglasses were probably distorting the colors on the sign, because the sign for trail 7b looked like a really dark blue. We continued the slope for about 15 more meters until we noticed that it ended with a cliff. At that point, Elly sidestepped over to a sign, removed her goggles, and yelled that the sign was actually black, not dark, dark, dark blue. She announced that she was climbing back up to the fork. (Better the devil she knew and all that...) I pondered my skiing abilities and then took off my skis in the middle of the slope and started to climb. (Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.) I should have just sidestepped back up. Anyway, then I had to carry skies and poles and trudge up a ski slope. I trudged up for about 20 steps and then started to slide back, so I consciously chose to fall. Elly was yelling encouraging words from the top, but I was petrified from the slight backwards slide. Whether it was the 3200 meter altitude or nerves, I 'll never know, but I got sick, got up and tried again. After two or three rounds of this, I walked to the side of the slope and finally got a decent foothold and climbed to the top. There, I fell down on my back, took some deep breaths, and flipped out. Even as I write this, my palms are getting sweaty and my heart is racing. (Of course, after flipping out, Elly and I took great pleasure in the story we could now tell!)
The next few days were pleasantly relaxing. We spent a day at Lake Constance with a new Aussie friend, Dazzah, went skiing at Patscher Kofel, and spent the last day back at Stubai where I read each and every sign. The last two days I did a few short red runs, but mainly kept to the blues where I had less fear of death. It just seems incredible that I spent a week skiing in the Alps on a glacier, no less. I'll load some pictures pretty soon and you'll just have to say, "Magnificent!" (Actually, you can say whatever you want. I'll be picturing you saying magnificent, but you might be thinking, "Really dark blue? Stupid.")
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