Winter Olympics Gold, Here We Come!
We did it, we finally went skiing! I had my reservations about the sport, my sister and mum had some stories about their experience and in addition of not being a natural sportsman, I had expectations. Expectations that I might not enjoy it much. But - even after many painful, embarrassing falls - I really enjoyed it!
We went to Villars-sur-Ollon, roughly 1h30m (walk + train + bus + mini train) away from ours. All the credit goes to my partner for doing the research, booking the ski lesson, leading us there etc.
Before going up the mountain for our ski lesson, we first needed to rent our equipment - helmets, skis & ski boots. Benefitted from a 15% discount off with the school booking, always appreciated. The mistake we made was changing into our boots and leaving our shoes at the rental place. What we should've done - for next time - is bring the ski boots and wear our own shoes up the mountain. Ski boots are so incredibly hard to walk in, my goodness.
6 hour lesson. It was an incredibly intensive day, till now (3 days after) my calves are burning, my shins are bruised and I've some how gotten blisters - where the end of my thermal tights sit in between the ski boots and ankles.
It was both our first time, and as predicted, my partner made way more progress than me in a short amount of time. As you can see from the images, we did not learn with ski poles, just us and our skis. The movement, I discovered quickly into the lesson, is very similar to ice skating or inline skating. Lucky for me that it's a familiar movement so I could move/walk in the skis after a little practice but my biggest problem was slowing down and stopping. I got the most nervous when I saw other skiers/snowboarders slow down near me or stop close to me. Very anxious about slamming into someone, worse if it was a kid. And because we were beginners, we were surrounded by learner toddlers often.
In awe of the skill, absolutely amazing
Our instructor, Greg, was very attentive. He taught well with his limited knowledge of English. Really tried to explain with as mush detail as he could. It took awhile for my mind and body to connect with his instructions but by hour 4, I think I finally started to feel it in my body. Greg would make sure to stay close to me when I was going down the hill but not before he makes sure my partner had safely gone through/down a hill. Gave us both helpful tips and encouragement from time to time.
We got to ski down a blue hill towards the end of the 6 hours, quoting Greg: "It's easy" (I learn that Greg is a natural liar). The levels are as goes - bunny, green, blue, red & black. I struggled a lot on a green-blue hill and was scared out of my pants when Greg suggested to go down the big blue hill. I was only brave enough to go down it once, fell while trying to go back up via ski lift and that was my day done. It was in fact, GREG, not easy. But my partner was fantastic, going down 3 times.
Pictured on the left: the millionth time I was on this hill
Overall, 10/10 will recommend, will do again but maybe next trip we do 3 hours at a time, not 6. Okay, so we're no where near Olympic level skiers but I'm in pain like one (I like to think).
I have to add though, falling with skis on is quite the scary experience. One fall, while I attempt to catch myself, I end up in such a weird position and really stretched my left thigh before my ski detached from my boot. I sat in the snow thinking "did I tear something?" with fear in my eyes. And another fall, it happened so fast that I didn't recall right away how I ended with my face an inch from the snow until I tried to do the same turn, I basically tripped on my skis.
On the train back, someone had stored their snowboard above us and as the trip down the mountain went on, the snow melted right onto us... that wasn't fun.
We watched the sun set behind those magnificent mountains, as the day ended and we entered through that blanket of fog. With tired limbs, we got home and heated up our well deserved ratatouille and cried in pain the next morning.
