I learned to ski

So I learned how to ski this year. I took the plunge, paid for lessons, and forced myself to jump outside of my comfort zone. I won't pretend that this was a spontaneous personal choice. Had it not been for the fact that Joe and I decided to attempt a tandem (duo) Pole Pedal Paddle team I would not have completed this treacherous journey. But see, neither of us knew how to downhill ski, an important piece of this amazing race. And so it was, that we laid out the plan for which legs we each needed to do in order to achieve the best race time... and I was pegged for the downhill ski.

Fortunately for me, we live in one of the best skiing regions around. Mt. Bachelor offers some amazing deals on lessons for beginners (non-skiers) and I realized I was crazy not to have taken advantage of them until now! For $199 I would get 5 two-hour lessons that would include rentals (which I didn't need because my craigslist-crazy husband found me a screaming deal on some used equipment) and, upon completion of the 5th lesson, a 12-day pass to use for the rest of the season. I was nervous beyond belief and sure that my life would most certainly flash before my eyes. I couldn't guarantee that I wasn't going to be badly harmed. Yet I did it anyway...

Though what better way to tackle a gigantic fear than to do it with a buddy, right? So I enlisted (pushed, coerced, bullied, intimidated... forced really) my good friend and neighbor, Rachel to do the lessons with me. Her husband and children ski for heaven's sake. She was a perfect candidate! If I was going to make a fool of myself I wanted to do it with someone who would eventually let me live it down.

After she finally surrendered and paid for her lessons too, we agreed to take all 5 lessons together with an ambitious plan of one lesson per week in order to get through them with time left to use the 12 day pass. We had no idea that we were headed into one of the worst snow seasons on record and that we'd be learning to ski in sub-par conditions. But so it goes. Mother nature is unpredictable. We survived. Read on for a recap of my skiing misadventures.