did u know that falling on snow can be a really ass warmingexperience. i dint but now i do.
so far, in my 25 years of existence on this wonderful planet, the onlysnow i have seen is in the movies where kids throw balls made of thatwhite powdery thing and ofcourse in the form of avalanches. thisweekend, i got to see n feel snow for the first time in my life. itwas a good day of my life. as usual, very eventful, if i might add.the place is called snoqualme. The plan was to go there early in themorning around 0800 hrs. Thts way too early for a sunday in the US andany other day for that matter by my standards. For the record, we hada party the previous day(Saturday). So we woke up at aroun 1000hrs onSunday and while it dint take long for me to decipher that i am late,a phone call from the other skiing pro's made me realise that its asmall world and we r all not that different from each other. The tripwas on!
the route is marvellous. the weather gods were really giving a thumbsup to us in the form of a cool breeze and lots of sunlight throughoutthe day. In seattle that means u have won a lottery. So the 4 of usleft to conquor the snows of snoqualme. Actually, the remaining 3 ofthem were prtty used to skiing and they have been doin this formonths. i was the virgin skiier in the group.It took me great determination to go for such an outing. I was toldthat like cooking, skiing was something that cud be learnt when one isreally a teenager and it ahd to be practised real hard. Strangecomparison i thought but still i decided to pee against the wind andgo ahead n try out my skiing skills.Comin back to the route, Washington is called the greenest state fornothing. maan..the view is just awesome. we had a couple of chais nburgers n finally reached the snow clad mountains of seattle. i wasalso clad in pretty tough gear to bear the chilly winds n temperaturesthat this place had to offer.A jacket, 2 Tshirts, a jeans a tracksuite n a cool(as in really cool and not cold) jockey brief.we got all our skiing apparels and it was time to get dressed. I shudsay the boots were the ones that most amazed me. these are so damnheavy that it felt really tough to move from one place to the other.its like this: u put on these boots n then skiing is the onlycomfortable way to move around. walking is indeed very tough.Since it was my first time, i also enrolled for a 2 hr session withthe instructors that was planned after a couple of hours.Once i put onthese huge boots i noticed a lot of small kids and i mean really small6-8 year olds trying on these skiis on land(land=where we sit n put onthe boots. basically no snow there). The professional skiier in melooked at them n said "Kids, u better practise hard n be reallycomfortable in those baby skiis of urs." I left to conquour the ice.Since i was a fresher, i wasnt given ne ski- poles. I firmly walkeddown the snow clad paths and reached a small slope where i was hopingi cud begin my career in skiing. But first i had to put on my skiis.one boott in..tht was easy...way to go. now for the other one...boom.i kiss the snow. somehow i forgot that once i lift the other leg, theonly poitn of contact with the snow wud be my skiis. But not forlong...my whole body was in contact with the snow in a couple ofseconds. The next task was to get up...damn...it took som estrategicmoves but i was up on my feet...err..one foot n a ski. i carefully gotinto the otehr ski and locked myself safe. Big mistake. Now i wascompeltely at the mercy of the skiis...and they had no mercy. At thismoment, i see the other 6- 8year olds gracefully floating away in ice.In a short while i too found myself floating except that the grace wasmissing. Maan...it was a battle from there. A wonderful observation imade was that the people there dint ggive a damn abt me n my antics.guess they were used to seeing such clumsy blokes. or on an optimisticviewpoint, even it wud've reminded them of their ownclumsy-bloke-phase hehe :) But i learnt to make the most of what ilearnt -to fall. Tht was the only was i cud stop myself from hurtingneone.Finally the time for the session came by. As if like a gift fromabove, a solace for all the bloodshed b4, there was just me n a reallycute mexican chic, Racheal who were there for the session. That wasinteresting. I found my partner in clumsiness. we complimented eachother in every possible manner. Just one problem...she speaks inspanish n very little english.We happily learnt the basics of skiing from this very patient n niceski instructor Bill. Wished that i had learnt some skiing in the snowclad mountains of Kerala so that i cud show off in front ifher...damn..the instructor left us ina couple of hours and then we dida coule of rounds and that was it. She drove away with her hubby. Mybuddies returned after their fun fulled ski trips n on our way back,we hogged.
Heres hoping to embed some grace into my skiing next week. Amen!
so far, in my 25 years of existence on this wonderful planet, the onlysnow i have seen is in the movies where kids throw balls made of thatwhite powdery thing and ofcourse in the form of avalanches. thisweekend, i got to see n feel snow for the first time in my life. itwas a good day of my life. as usual, very eventful, if i might add.the place is called snoqualme. The plan was to go there early in themorning around 0800 hrs. Thts way too early for a sunday in the US andany other day for that matter by my standards. For the record, we hada party the previous day(Saturday). So we woke up at aroun 1000hrs onSunday and while it dint take long for me to decipher that i am late,a phone call from the other skiing pro's made me realise that its asmall world and we r all not that different from each other. The tripwas on!
the route is marvellous. the weather gods were really giving a thumbsup to us in the form of a cool breeze and lots of sunlight throughoutthe day. In seattle that means u have won a lottery. So the 4 of usleft to conquor the snows of snoqualme. Actually, the remaining 3 ofthem were prtty used to skiing and they have been doin this formonths. i was the virgin skiier in the group.It took me great determination to go for such an outing. I was toldthat like cooking, skiing was something that cud be learnt when one isreally a teenager and it ahd to be practised real hard. Strangecomparison i thought but still i decided to pee against the wind andgo ahead n try out my skiing skills.Comin back to the route, Washington is called the greenest state fornothing. maan..the view is just awesome. we had a couple of chais nburgers n finally reached the snow clad mountains of seattle. i wasalso clad in pretty tough gear to bear the chilly winds n temperaturesthat this place had to offer.A jacket, 2 Tshirts, a jeans a tracksuite n a cool(as in really cool and not cold) jockey brief.we got all our skiing apparels and it was time to get dressed. I shudsay the boots were the ones that most amazed me. these are so damnheavy that it felt really tough to move from one place to the other.its like this: u put on these boots n then skiing is the onlycomfortable way to move around. walking is indeed very tough.Since it was my first time, i also enrolled for a 2 hr session withthe instructors that was planned after a couple of hours.Once i put onthese huge boots i noticed a lot of small kids and i mean really small6-8 year olds trying on these skiis on land(land=where we sit n put onthe boots. basically no snow there). The professional skiier in melooked at them n said "Kids, u better practise hard n be reallycomfortable in those baby skiis of urs." I left to conquour the ice.Since i was a fresher, i wasnt given ne ski- poles. I firmly walkeddown the snow clad paths and reached a small slope where i was hopingi cud begin my career in skiing. But first i had to put on my skiis.one boott in..tht was easy...way to go. now for the other one...boom.i kiss the snow. somehow i forgot that once i lift the other leg, theonly poitn of contact with the snow wud be my skiis. But not forlong...my whole body was in contact with the snow in a couple ofseconds. The next task was to get up...damn...it took som estrategicmoves but i was up on my feet...err..one foot n a ski. i carefully gotinto the otehr ski and locked myself safe. Big mistake. Now i wascompeltely at the mercy of the skiis...and they had no mercy. At thismoment, i see the other 6- 8year olds gracefully floating away in ice.In a short while i too found myself floating except that the grace wasmissing. Maan...it was a battle from there. A wonderful observation imade was that the people there dint ggive a damn abt me n my antics.guess they were used to seeing such clumsy blokes. or on an optimisticviewpoint, even it wud've reminded them of their ownclumsy-bloke-phase hehe :) But i learnt to make the most of what ilearnt -to fall. Tht was the only was i cud stop myself from hurtingneone.Finally the time for the session came by. As if like a gift fromabove, a solace for all the bloodshed b4, there was just me n a reallycute mexican chic, Racheal who were there for the session. That wasinteresting. I found my partner in clumsiness. we complimented eachother in every possible manner. Just one problem...she speaks inspanish n very little english.We happily learnt the basics of skiing from this very patient n niceski instructor Bill. Wished that i had learnt some skiing in the snowclad mountains of Kerala so that i cud show off in front ifher...damn..the instructor left us ina couple of hours and then we dida coule of rounds and that was it. She drove away with her hubby. Mybuddies returned after their fun fulled ski trips n on our way back,we hogged.
Heres hoping to embed some grace into my skiing next week. Amen!
