With the end of finals this past week, I decided to take my friend, Austin, up on an offer. He is from Salt Lake and has been skiing since he was three. He kept saying how he would love to take me. I kept telling him he would have no fun because we would be stuck on the easy slopes. But we went anyway, and he gave me a full set of skis, some gear, and got my lift ticket. We drove up the canyon to Snowbird and began our day.
Austin could sense my nerves and kept encouraging me the whole way up. Once I was strapped into my skis, I was overwhelmed with fear. Holy crap. I don't think I remember how to do this AT ALL. I thought I remember myself being semi-decent...at least able to attempt a black diamond. But from where we parked, there was a slope for us to go down to get to the main part of the park, and let me tell you....that was difficult. I slowly started gliding along, remembering to make a pizza shape with my skis when in doubt. Austin starts doing 360's and jumping in his skis, while my legs are trembling. What a show off. He gets a head of me, and a baby decline comes up and people are whizzing by, so of course, I completely wipe out and get dragged by my skis which are still miraculously going downhill. I was so flustered and couldn't get up, but Austin came running back to help me up. Boy, he was in for a day.
The bunny hill was accomplished without any falls on my third time, so we progressed to the green hills. I was actually starting to have fun at this point. Plus, even though I looked terrible, I still looked pretty cool being with Austin who would go off side slopes and do little flips. It was also nice to have someone keep picking you up when you fall, reassure you that you are doing really well for a beginner, and give me tips on carving. We progressed to a difficult blue by the end of the day...and that concluded the day too. On one part of the mountain it was particularly steep, and I was so tired from falling...oh I don't know...at least 15 times, and it took forever to get to the bottom. I was impressed by how extreme my wipe outs were. I couldn't help but keep laughing through the pain. And I couldn't help but laugh at Austin's optimism. "Look you are getting better! That last turn was really good you almost had it!" Austin...you could be on the black diamonds doing flips and tricks, but instead you drove a girl up to Snowbird and gave her skis, gear, and bought her lift ticket? Crazy. I was pretty tired after that so we got a late lunch at the lodge and hung out.
We walked back to the car with the gear, but took a break for some powder fun. Do you know how much fun 6 feet of powder is? Running and jumping to make a snow cut out of your body, making snow angels, and having snowball fights is probably the funnest, lamest thing you can do. The weather was gorgeous, too. Sunny at 40 degrees, we lounge in our powder cutouts of ourselves and took in the sun and scenery.
I've fallen in love. With Utah. Even though I sucked and fell a lot...it was one of the funnest days in...years? I don't know why, but it was the scariest physical thing I've had to do since I can remember, but equally rewarding and exciting. I could've sat in the snow all day just looking at the environment. So peaceful.
My legs are still sore and still bruised pretty bad, but I can't wait to go back. Austin gave me the skis for the season too, so now I have gear! And get this...Austin actually wants to go back with me whenever I want. So January 7th, steer clear of Snowbird blue slopes because there will be a Becca falling out of control on it.
Oh and I might be falling out of control at Park City Mountain Resort soon as well. The other guy I'm dating coaches the U.S. Ski Team and is semi pro for Sessions and is convinced we would have 'fun' skiing together. Geez. What have I gotten myself into.
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