Monday, March 08, 2004
I was skiing in Park City Utah for the past 10 days.
You may recall I gave myself the Snowboarder name "Sumac". Well, I was given a new Skiier nickname this week: George. As in "of the Jungle." As in "Watch out for that tree." We're all familiar of the scenes of George or Wyle E. Coyote or countless other cartoon characters smashing into trees to great comedic effect. I am here to tell you those scenes do get played out in real life.
I was following a "friend", a super-expert skiier, down the mountain who said "follow me!" He took me into a section of the woods where his 6 and 8 year-old-sons like to ski. In order to successfully ski into a forest, one of the following must be true:
1) You have a great deal of experience making quick, confident turns on your skis
2) You are under 40" tall
Unfortunately, I don't meet either of the requirements. The trail zigged, I zagged, and WHAM! It really was like a cartoon. Both my feet went in the air (on either side of the tree), my arms wrapped around it and my face slammed right into the trunk. I then slid down the tree onto my butt. Had I not been wearing my goggles, I'm sure I would have broken my nose, or worse. My goggles cracked from the impact.
That being said, I am still quite proud to report that I skiied my first Double Diamond trails this week. I'm not saying I looked great doing them, but I still skiied down. I think that makes me a little hardcore. Maybe there's still a little bit of Sumac left in me after all.
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You may recall I gave myself the Snowboarder name "Sumac". Well, I was given a new Skiier nickname this week: George. As in "of the Jungle." As in "Watch out for that tree." We're all familiar of the scenes of George or Wyle E. Coyote or countless other cartoon characters smashing into trees to great comedic effect. I am here to tell you those scenes do get played out in real life.
I was following a "friend", a super-expert skiier, down the mountain who said "follow me!" He took me into a section of the woods where his 6 and 8 year-old-sons like to ski. In order to successfully ski into a forest, one of the following must be true:
1) You have a great deal of experience making quick, confident turns on your skis
2) You are under 40" tall
Unfortunately, I don't meet either of the requirements. The trail zigged, I zagged, and WHAM! It really was like a cartoon. Both my feet went in the air (on either side of the tree), my arms wrapped around it and my face slammed right into the trunk. I then slid down the tree onto my butt. Had I not been wearing my goggles, I'm sure I would have broken my nose, or worse. My goggles cracked from the impact.
That being said, I am still quite proud to report that I skiied my first Double Diamond trails this week. I'm not saying I looked great doing them, but I still skiied down. I think that makes me a little hardcore. Maybe there's still a little bit of Sumac left in me after all.
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