One for the season-On Skiing and Snowboarding

Every time I hear someone talking about skiing or snowboarding, I am reminded of this story.

A few years ago my cousin, Amy and her husband, Dorian came down from California to visit us here in Utah. Whenever we have family come from California, they are always so excited to go skiing/boarding so they can experience our "Great Snow." So, not to fall back on tradition; we all packed up our stuff and hit the mountain!

Alexis and Dorian decided they wanted to give snow boarding a shot for the first time.

I told them they were crazy because boarding equals onyourbuttallday.

Amy and I decided to stick to the old fashioned skis.

Now, I’m going to brag a little here. I’m pretty fantastic with two skis on my feet. I went to school mainly in Idaho and each year we took a "ski trip" I learned to ski for the first time when I was in 6th grade and aside from running my classmate, Jacob, into a tree, (totally on accident and only because our ski instructor only taught us how to go fast, and not how to slow down) I had a great time! Each year I got better and better and started to go more than just the once a year trip. Now, I love it and will ski over board any day!

So, the thought of us going to Snowbird here in Utah and the fact that it would be my first time skiing in Utah (how different from Idaho could it be??) was not making me nervous at all! I was so excited!!

Amy, on the other hand is a California girl all the way! She had only been skiing maybe once or twice before, and she said the last time she’d been was with my dad and her dad and they brought her to a black diamond and made her go down. So, she was a little worried and informed me that she wanted to hang out on the bunny hill all day, and that would suffice.

After the 7th or 8th time going down the same bunny *hill* I tried to convince Amy that we should leave Alexis and Dorian who were still boarding and ontheirbutts, and try some new runs.

Finally after much convincing, she agreed!

Now, at the Idaho ski resort, there is one lift. You get on it, it takes you to the top of the mountain, you choose which path you’d like to ski down and then you hop on the lift again, same..simple..process.

Well, apparently in Utah, things run a little bit different.

"Let’s go on this lift. This side of the mountain doesn’t look too bad!"

"Okay, but Jessica, I swear you better not take me to anything crazy!!! I haven’t skied in a really long time and we’re just fresh off the bunny hill!!"

"Oh, I know! I wouldn’t take you on anything too crazy, we’ll just go a little harder than the bunny hill, cool?"

"Okay!"

We get off the lift, ride down and get a little adrenaline pumping because we’re finally doing something a little more exciting than the kiddie bunny hill.

"Let’s go again!" Amy says.

"Sure!!"

"Let’s just get on this same lift, and find another course at about the same difficulty when we get to the top."

"Sounds good!"

About halfway up the mountain we both start to realize that things are no longer looking familiar.

* We are now going almost straight up, instead of at a nice slant like before.

* We look over to our right and notice there is a professional snowboarding competition being filmed.

* There are only a few people on the lift. Definitely not as packed before.

* At this point, we are only about halfway up.

* We are scared

* Amy doesn’t know I have never been to this ski resort and therefore, I’m not sure where we’re headed.

"Jessica!! What the hell are we doing?? Where are we going?? You tricked me!! This doesn’t look the same as before!! I told you…!! Where is this thing taking us?? How many lifts does this place have???"

(Starting to get a little worried, myself) "Sorry!! I’m so confused...I swear this is the same lift...Except for things are starting to look different......?? I guess we will have to see what happens when we get to the top!"

After the super long ride to the top, we notice the sign indicating the different runs down the mountain.

They are all double black diamonds. (Hardest runs on the mountain)

Amy’s face drops and I calmly say to the lift operator "Excuse me, Sir...what do you think the easiest way down would be?" He looked at me like I was retarded and started to say "Ma’am, these are all extremely advanced runs. If you want easier ones, don’t take the lift from the middle to the top of the mountain. Stay at the bottom half." He was still talking but I was distracted by (what seemed like) a 6 year old little boy moving me out of the way, saying "Excuse me! Hey Dad...let’s go down THIS one!!" almost jumping out of his boots with excitement.

I got the death stare from Amy and we chose a random one."
Standing at the tip top of the mountain, with the front half of our skis hanging off the cliff we're about to ski down, Amy says "Jessica, I swear! You better wait for me! Do NOT go fast; we have to take this very, very slow!"

Well, if you have ever skied down a pretty steep slope you know the slower you go, the more your legs feel. the. burn.

After my legs started to really "feel the burn" I looked back to Amy and was about to ask if we could go just a little faster, only to see that she had taken her skis off and was scooting down the cliff. I felt so bad but I had to keep going. There is no way I could go down that run as slow as we were moving!

As I was going down the run, trying to avoid at least every other jump that was coming up, I felt so bad just imagining my cousin from California, skiing for the second or third time, scooting down a double black diamond run. (But kind of thought it was a little, tiny bit funny)

Now we look back and it’s hilarious!! We both made it down safely! I would do it again, but I know for a fact that next time Cousin Amy comes down for a visit, she will NOT let me be her ski buddy!