Skiing

What better way to spend New Year's Day than doing something completely new, like skiing! We set off fairly early yesterday morning and arrived in the Tahoe area nice and early — around 8:30am. Our first stop was at the Sugar Bowl ski resort where we dropped off Bryn and Jared with a friend of theirs (they had discount coupons for Sugar Bowl). The rest of us then went to the Donner Ski Ranch just over the road. Donner Ski Ranch is (a) somewhat cheaper and (b) has some easier runs for beginners than Sugar Bowl. The Tahoe area is beautiful in the snow. I have been there in the summer previously, which is also very beautiful but very different.

The day did not get off to a particularly auspicious start. The official "bunny slope" for beginners was short, but steep and ended at the ski lodge where there were a lot of people milling around. When one's ability to control direction and stopping is severely limited, that's a little scary. And trying to get back up after falling over is really interesting when you're wearing heavy, clumsy boots and long skis which try to head downhill at the slightest provocation! Both Janet and I had a rather bad initial experience and took a time out to get our breath back, feeling a little despondent, while Colin and Erin enjoyed themselves on the slopes.

They came back and reported that they had found a very nice run, a little higher up the mountain, but relatively unpopulated and very gentle. It took a little persuasion to get me up there (not least because the ski lift was that much more scary!), but I was very glad that I did, because the run was perfect. It started off with a very gentle slope away from the ski lift, then a gentle bend and a slightly steeper section before levelling out again, going into a couple of slightly sharper bends before levelling out completely before a gentle drop back to the main run down to the base of the ski lift.

I spent the rest of the day (with a short break) on that run, slowly mastering some of the basic skills. By the end of the day, I was staying upright reasonably consistently and managing to steer fairly well. Stopping at the bottom of the run proved to be a challenge, but the butt brakes work quite well! (I thought it was very rude of Colin to take a photo of me in this state!). I'm not sure I'll ever be a great skier, but it was a fun day of learning new skills in a stunningly beautiful setting.

Janet also had a much better time on the longer run and was doing very well by the end of the day. At about 3:30 we packed up and headed for home after collecting the boys who had had a great time snowboarding at Sugar Bowl.

While I am rather stiff today, it's not as bad as I expected/feared it might be.