British Columbia ~ Skiing at Whistler

My First time Skiing in 30 Years !!!

I survived without any broken bones !

As a child born in Europe I learned to ski when I was young – I even competed on a racing team as a young girl, but I had not put on a set of skiis in over 30 years when my cousin from England said he was flying over to Canada to ski at Whistler/Blackcomb for a week and asked if my sister & I wanted to come and meet them for a day skiing.

My immediate reaction was : Yes – that would be great fun ! But as soon as I committed, the doubts and fears set in… what if I fell and broke some bones ? What if I was embarrassingly bad in front of everyone else who were skiing like “pros” ?

But we booked an incredible room at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler (for $79 instead of $199), and headed up from Vancouver into the mountains.

To my surprise, I managed to get myself onto the chairlifts and up the mountain by SHEER willpower and started skiing down the mountain…We went slowly, taking in the spectacular views of snow-capped mountains in every direction and reveling in the pristine beauty surrounding us.

After a few trips down the mountain,  I started to gain a little confidence and go a little faster – and then I hit a mogul dead on and wiped out, cartwheeling down the side of the mountain, ski poles and hats flying everywhere.

I was sore, hurt, and felt like an idiot !

I really wanted to quit at that moment and find one of the patrols with a stretcher to carry me down the mountain so I didn’t have to try again. Once you are at the peak, it takes about 45 minutes to ski down to the bottom, so quitting entails finding help to get back down if you don’t ski it.

But I picked myself up, hobbled around gathering all the pieces strewn over the hill, wiped the snow off my face and dumped it out of my clothing, and PERSEVERED !

And team – if you DON’T get up every time you fall or fail and try again– the fear gets stronger & you are less likely to try again.

The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience. – Eleanor Roosevelt