Skiing with my bro

 

For Christmas this year, my awesome bro got us both passes to ski together for a day at a resort within driving distance for both of us.  The real gift?  I got to spend a day with Bryan, just us, having fun.

Now, you must remember, while we both grew up skiing, my little stint on the west coast left my skis sitting in the garage in a corner and I am sure that my boots have dry-rotted by now.  All this information to say that it has been what I approximate 13 years since I have been on skis.  I wasn’t nervous, because skiing is like riding a bike.  Once you know how to do it, you don’t really forget.  You may be a little rusty, but it comes back pretty quickly.

My skills had to return faster than I anticipated.  Much faster.  On our first run, we skied over to the lift, got on and rode to the top….only to find the only way down was BLACK DIAMONDS!!!! (For those of you who don’t ski, that’s almost as hard as it gets – there is double black diamonds and those are sheer drop slopes with moguls usually.)

Needless to say, not what I was anticipating on my first run in 13 years.  My skilled and kind brother figure “eighted” in front of me so I could follow his path…and that worked, for about a minute until we got to the first drop.  Then I wiped out.  A nice man stopped and helped me gather my poles.  I didn’t lose my skis, so it wasn’t a class 5 wipeout :)

That’s me, a little later in the day after I had gotten my feet back under me again.  After I made it to the bottom by the grace of God, we went to the green beginners for a few runs, then the intermediate slopes, and then back to the black diamonds.  Yes, before lunch I was back on the infamous wipeout slope and felt confident again.

   After a delicious leisurely fireside lunch at the bar and grill, we headed back out to the slopes for the afternoon.My wonderful brother stuck with me the whole day, barring one 10 minute interval when he navigated a seriously difficult double diamond and then convinced me I could manage the bottom part of the slope.  (It connected to a single diamond). 

All I can say is that I am so grateful, so blessed, and so overwhelmed to have such a great brother, who happens to be one of my best friends in the world.