Skiing 101

My friend, Jan, and her husband came with their church group from Derby, KS to ski at Monarch and invited us to meet them there for a visit. We were planning to just meet up with them in Salida but, at the last minute, decided to go skiing too. I was SO nervous because I had NEVER gone downhill skiing and figured I was too old to learn a new trick. We thought we were being resourceful by calling in advance to pre-register and pre-pay for everything but, for some reason, we were not in their system when we arrived and spent almost two hours bouncing around trying to get equipment rented. (This confusion was NOT helping my stress level!) We dropped Jamie off at the Ski School and by the time we got our skis and boots, we were late for our lessons and got stuck with Charlie. Charlie was a nice enough guy and is, I'm sure, a very accomplished skier. He, in my opinion, is not a teacher and he & I just never connected. Before the morning was over, he took us up the chairlift and expected us (me!) to just follow him down the hill. He kept telling me to "turn this way" and "just ski towards me" yet never actually told me how to turn or even stop. So, I was on my butt most of the time, bawling my eyes out and NOT having a good time at all! Bill was doing OK but he had skied before and kind of knew what to do. I was so frustrated by the time we stopped for lunch that I was ready to give up! We found Jan & Leon and had a nice lunch and then headed back out to the slopes for our afternoon lesson...HOPING that we would get a different instructor. NO SUCH LUCK!!! We were stuck with Charlie for the afternoon. The first thing he did was take us back up the chairlift without any further instruction. Did he think I learned to turn and stop over lunch??? Anyway, after I fell down the third time, I took my skis off! I told Charlie that I was done, that I was walking down the mountain to spend the rest of the day in the lodge. I walked down, crying like a baby, and Charlie carried my skis down. THEN Charlie decided that maybe he'd find a different instructor for me...and Peter came to my rescue. Peter was an instructor from the Kiddie School and he was awesome! He started from square one and after a couple of hours, I was actually skiing down the mountain. Bill stuck it out with Charlie for the afternoon and then we both did one run on our own before heading over to pick up Jamie at the Ski School. Jamie had a great time with his lessons! He said that he "only fell down and cried three times". Well, buddy, I fell down & cried WAY more than that so, you did great!!!

So, my first ever downhill skiing experience is over. The morning SUCKED and was a total waste of time and money. But, the afternoon was good and I'm glad that I didn't give up. I'm even looking forward to maybe trying it again sometime. Thanks Peter!

Needless to say, photographing this event was the furthest thing from my mind so the only thing I have to show from this experience is my lift ticket. I am disappointed that I didn't at least get a photo of Jan & me.

After skiing, we went back into Salida and had a nice dinner with Jan and Leon. We spent the night in Salida and before we left to go to Pueblo, we stopped and visited Rynn & Jim, who happened to be at their gallery for the weekend. In Pueblo, we went to Lowe's and bought the supplies we're going to need to put in the new floor in the computer/craft room.