That's more like it
After a rough couple of ski outings, I did much better on a day trip to Sörenberg today. For starters, it probably helped that unlike earlier trips, my boots actually fit and I wasn't sick, plus the snow was much better than earlier trips. We didn't ski anything too difficult, and my skiing form is still pretty crappy, but it was just nice to be able to ski for a day without feeling like a total spaz (with one major exception--read on). The big downside of the ski area was that there were no chairlifts--just T-bars, which are tough because on a chairlift your feet and legs get a break, whereas on a T-bar you pretty much don't ever get a rest. Which brings me to the highlight of the day...
After lunch we were taking a long T-bar ride when Gretchen said something to me. I don't remember what she said, but at the time I thought she asked me to move. What happened next is a bit of a blur, but I think either our skis crossed or we bumped into each other--in any event, all of a sudden I lost my grip on the T-bar and went flying off it, and not especially gracefully either. Of course, once I did that it was impossible for Gretchen to hang on, so she went flying off as well. I can't even imagine how funny it must have looked to the people behind us as everything was going along smoothly and all of a sudden for no reason we both went flying off. I think everyone was laughing at us, but at least it was in Swiss German so we couldn't understand a word of the ridicule. (I initially blamed Gretchen for the whole fiasco and she of course blamed me...given my relative clumsiness, though, I can pretty much guess who was really at fault.) There we were sitting off to the side of the T-bar, trying to stay out of everyone else's way and trying to decide whether to walk the rest of the way uphill or cut across a relatively short ungroomed area to one of the trails. Naturally we opted for the latter, and we knew we were in trouble when Gretchen took her first step and promptly had snow up to mid-thigh. As hard as the skiing and T-bars were, nothing was as difficult as trying to walk fifty yards through a couple of feet of snow in ski boots while carrying skis and poles. I'll be feeling that for at least the next few days...
After lunch we were taking a long T-bar ride when Gretchen said something to me. I don't remember what she said, but at the time I thought she asked me to move. What happened next is a bit of a blur, but I think either our skis crossed or we bumped into each other--in any event, all of a sudden I lost my grip on the T-bar and went flying off it, and not especially gracefully either. Of course, once I did that it was impossible for Gretchen to hang on, so she went flying off as well. I can't even imagine how funny it must have looked to the people behind us as everything was going along smoothly and all of a sudden for no reason we both went flying off. I think everyone was laughing at us, but at least it was in Swiss German so we couldn't understand a word of the ridicule. (I initially blamed Gretchen for the whole fiasco and she of course blamed me...given my relative clumsiness, though, I can pretty much guess who was really at fault.) There we were sitting off to the side of the T-bar, trying to stay out of everyone else's way and trying to decide whether to walk the rest of the way uphill or cut across a relatively short ungroomed area to one of the trails. Naturally we opted for the latter, and we knew we were in trouble when Gretchen took her first step and promptly had snow up to mid-thigh. As hard as the skiing and T-bars were, nothing was as difficult as trying to walk fifty yards through a couple of feet of snow in ski boots while carrying skis and poles. I'll be feeling that for at least the next few days...
<< Home