we live so high above the ground / satellites surround us

[raven]

I went skiing today! It's part of Project Get Out of the House On Weekends, and the Siren came round this morning at nine am when I was half-asleep and half-wondering why I'd agreed to it, but I tumbled out the door and we picked up Baby E and the air was fresh and surprisingly non-chilled - it was a delicious six degrees above today - and the fields rolled picturesquely out under the sky on the drive up, and by the time we got there I was surprisingly enthused about the whole thing. The idea was to maybe do some things that I won't get the opportunity to do after this year, and there was a decent offer on and it would've been foolish not to.

(I am not one of life's natural winter sportspeople, I should mention. The last time I went skiing I was twelve, in the Italian Alps (with shipperkitten? remind me) and I was very bad at it indeed and also hated it rather. The Siren went skiing in Austria once when she was nine; Baby E glared all round and said, "Yes, there is so much good skiing in sub-Saharan Africa." Great, I said, we shall all make idiots of ourselves together.)

So off we trundled through this odd greyish warmish day, and were giggled at by the person who sold us lift passes because of our utter ineptitude, and having explained to the ski rental people the very good reason why not one of the three of us has a New York state driver's licence, we went for a beginners' lesson on what the Siren persists in referring to as the bunny slopes. (We were sharing them with, predictably, an army of tiny, earnest and horrifyingly competent children. They were very patient. I especially liked the curly-haired five-year-old snowboarder who apologised to me when I got in the way of his immaculate descent.)

And, well... first I still hated it. So awkward! My ankles were not made for this, etc. Then I unexpectedly glided down a gentle incline perfectly balanced on one foot. And after I had helped haul Baby E up one too many times and she declared us all masochists and that it was time for lunch, and lunch had been had, I went up to the top of the bunny slope and took a deep breath and went for it. At first I was terrified, and then I was astonished I was still on my feet, still moving, and then I was starting not to be terrified, and then I'd come to a gentle stop and the slope had my descent marked neatly on the snow behind me. And then I tramped up to the little chairlift to do it a few more times.

And, I get it now, I do, I get why people go such hideous effort and expense to do this. It's because once it clicked - once I could turn and stop and no longer worried too much about losing my footing underneath me - it was transcendent. It's the closest you'll get to flying in this life. And something - something about the silence and the sweep of snow, and the toothpaste-freshness of the air - something just made it right.

I desperately want to go back, and the Siren agrees. It was a wonderful day.

Comments

[stained_glass]

Yes! I love skiing, I do, even though it is so hideously expensive. I would have to save for years before go again. But it is like flying - it is the most graceful I have ever felt, and it is just like... I don't know! The speed, the movement - it is addictive.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

It was wonderful! And I was surprised, because I hated it SO MUCH the last time; but the difference between twelve and twenty-four is not being so afraid of your friends laughing at you fall. :)

[stained_glass]

The first few times I skiied it was at the Snowdome near Birmingham. I hated it so much! It was so tiring - the beginner's class had to sidestep halfway up, and I would just cry with exhaustion. But then when you are a bit better at it, and it clicks - glorious!

[macadamanaity.livejournal.com]

Ooo whereabouts did you end up going? I've made it my goal this winter to go snowboarding more than once (Liz and I went once a few weeks ago) since I own a snowboard from that time I thought I was going to be living in Oregon for 3 years but instead got mono and moved to NYC. :-/

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Greek Peak, about twenty miles off? We had a fab time, and I had no idea it was so close!

Snowboarding looks like something that I would crack my skull doing, yes. :P

[macadamanaity.livejournal.com]

Convenient! The crappy mountains near here are still about 2 hours away.

I find snowboarding much easier than skiing, actually! Fewer ways to get my limbs tangled up with each other... Actually, I was briefly a snowboarding instructor when I was 16.

[the-acrobat.livejournal.com]

This is exactly it - why I love skiing so much (it's actually the only thing I find bearable about winter). I'm glad you had the chance to experience it!

Come to British Columbia and ski with meeeeeeeee!

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Oh, one day, I'd love to. I had such a lovely time!

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

I would not say I love skiing, precisely, in that I did not miss it when I lived far from it. But now that I'm living not just in ski country but a ski town (broadly speaking; the resort's a half-hour drive) I go once a week, to have something to get me outside all day in the winter, and I'm pretty good at it and we have fun and we always splurge and eat lunch at the fancy restaurant up at the top and have one beer each.

Also, I met my husband skiing, so there is that. :-)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

That sounds lovely! You're lucky to be living close by enough to do that.

[furies.livejournal.com]

what i like about skiing:

the bundling of clothes
the feeling of the cold air in your lungs
the way the tip of your nose turns pink

i might ski again if i wore a helmet. i would feel ridiculous, and it's not like the helmet would REALLY help if i crashed into a tree, but.

but i remember that feeling of almost invisibility, before i realize how very mortal you still are. it's brilliant. and that moment when it clicks -

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

It is a marvellous experience. I was a bit afraid of the immortal feeling - I mean, you're very much not - but it was amazing at the same time.

[serriadh.livejournal.com]

Skiing's one of the rare things I do where there's only a knife-edge between 'this is brilliant, I'm flying' and 'oh, too fast! too fast! out of control!', which is another thing I love about it.

Sadly, I'd have to save forever before I could go again.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, that. I was SO scared; then I wasn't; then I was again... it was amazing.

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

I fear you. And cold. And skiing. xxx

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

cold and skiing quite respectable fears; me def. not.

[anotherusedpage.livejournal.com]

The point at which skiing clicked for me (and it was actually fairly early on, the only sport that's ever come naturally to me, my teacher was amazing), was when I realised that what you were doing was not learning how to go down a mountain on skis but learning a more or less infinite number of different ways to stop going down a mountain on skis. After that, with the chant of I can stop whenever I like running in the back of my head, it was one of the most freeing things I have ever done in my life.

I found so much of it like a metaphor for other things in life. Like, if you stop when it gets steep it's much harder to psych yourself up to get going again than it would have been just to trust yourself and go over what looked like a precipice, and find it not as final or as terrifying as you had though. *nodnod*

I seriously envy you being somewhere you can do it for a day trip!

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I thought that too - the way you can just push yourself off the edge and it's amazing, because you're sort of beyond being scared. And, hey, there have to be some perks to living in this climate. :)

[shipperkitten.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I remember, Clare went too I think? Weren't we still in junior school, so probably 11? Glad you had fun skiing! You should definitely go again :-)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Yes! Never saw much of you, though, you were zipping down slopes even then. :P

[fyrdrakken]

When I lived in London for six months on a student work permit, I worked at an online ski vacation agent. (I was about to go check and see if they still exist so I could provide a link, but I've totally blanked out on the name.ETA: I think it may be Iglu.com, actually -- at least, that name floated into my head and it demonstrably exists and does what I recall the company I worked for doing eleven years ago.) I and the other little work permit data entry monkeys were about the only people in the office who didn't ski. I've never tried it -- I'm neither outdoorsy nor athletic -- but maybe one day.

[tau_sigma]

it was transcendent. It's the closest you'll get to flying in this life. And something - something about the silence and the sweep of snow, and the toothpaste-freshness of the air - something just made it right.

Ohgodyes. This. This is exactly why I love skiing, and I wish, I wish, I could go right now. I wish it SO MUCH. Alas, I have no money. Next year - would you like to come?

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Next year I would love to come! I feel like I really want to try it properly as a holiday rather than a day out, and Shim wouldn't go if you paid him, so it would be fab if we could go!

[tau_sigma]

AWESOME. *g*