Skiing





This entry is a little out of sink with the other blog entries but I thought I would still write something about my skiing experience! I started looking into where I could ski at the beginning of December and discovered my choices were vast. I decided some lessons would be a good idea as I had never been before (except on a dry slope for an hour when I was about 10!). A local agency organise a ski school so I contacted them. However, as Gemma said in the Fun in the snow blog; snowfall in Bled has been slightly erratic over the last few months and there was not enough snow to ski in December. Finally after Christmas there was a bit more snow so it was time!



Me with one of the other participants!

I joined a couple of girls who had never skiied before either and we headed up to Pokljuka. My first impressions were - ouch those boots hurt but I guess I will get used to them! After a warm up and some words of encouragement from our instructor it was time to go up the nursery slope on the baby drag lift! Luckily that wasn't too tricky. We all wobbily made our way down the slope in the snowplough position. I was getting the hang of it and enjoyed the feeling of careering down the hill (admittedly at very slow speed) but my muscles were not so happy! I was using muscles I don't think I ever have before and found it quite painful after a while. We progressed a bit doing some turns down the hill before I'd had enough and stopped for tea! Alpine tea - not good - very sweet!! I'm happy to report that I didn't fall over as much as my colleagues in the group although when I did it gave my legs a rest!!

Proof that I was there on skis!!  

I gave Gemma and Richard a laugh that afternoon and for a few days after as I was hobbling around in some pain! However, I was not put off and after a few days I arranged another lesson. This time it was an individual lesson, which has pros and cons! We went to a different slope in Pokljuka this time and the drag lift was slightly different. Lets just say I had 'fun' getting off at the top!! I got better at turns and got the hang of snowplough corners and parallel skis in between. Felt I was improving but it's hard work.

Overall I'm glad I tried skiing and will probably go again in the future once I've trained my legs a bit!! For the time being I prefer sledging I think!