Learning to Ski (Part 1)

Learning to Ski (Part 1)

During my dating days I met a woman who was an experienced skier. I had never even tried skiing. One day she suggested that we spend some time in the Mammoth Lakes area and do some skiing. When I confessed that I had never been on skis, she promised to show me the ropes. I have always been willing to try new things so I agreed.

She took me to a local ski shop and they fitted me with skis and poles and gloves and a mask and all the other paraphernalia I would need. The following day we drove to Mammoth arriving late in the afternoon.

The next morning we got out early and we went through all the rigmarole of renting a ski locker, buying lift tickets, buying ski school tickets for me, changing into ski clothes – it was a lot more complicated than I realized and she was a big help. (It was also a lot more expensive.)

Now we clump our way out the lodge (it’s sure hard to walk in those clumsy ski boots) and onto the bottom of the ski slopes. She helped me put my skis on. Then she pointed off to the left and said, "The ski school is over that way. I’ll meet you here around lunchtime." And suddenly she was gone. I stood there a little dazed, abandoned and feeling, "If she loved me, she wouldn’t leave me here like this all alone."

I struggled my way over to the ski school – falling 9 times in 120 feet - where there was a bunch of equally clueless skiing novices. As we went through the basics, I noticed that just beyond us was the bottom of a slope where skiers were ending their runs. I watched them with envy thinking, "Boy, I wish I could do that."

The school lasted all morning and most of us soon got the hang of it. And guess what?
Later that day I was skiing down that very slope and it was clear that she knew what she was doing when she sent me to ski school by myself. Trying to teach skiing to someone you care for can be a serious mistake. It will only result in "bloodshed" and the end of a beautiful friendship. I learned that a few years later when I tried to teach a new friend how to ski instead of sending her to ski school.

But that’s a whole other story.

© 2008 by Paul Burri
#103 for the week of May 26, 2008