Ski Week

So its ski break here in Germany. The school calendar specifically says "Ski Break", so I guess that means, we have to go skiing! Now grant it, I did grow up in Alberta, Canada. Best skiing in the world! Then I lived 6 years in Utah...another great ski place. Do you think any of that helped me ski the mountains in Austria? NO!! The last times I skied was probably 15 years ago, and I was not that great back then either. In fact I probably have skied 10 times in my life, and that might be pushing it. I could get down the hill with some wide turns....or just go straight

down really fast and hope not to injure myself too badly for golf!

So when we get to Bad Kleinkirchheim in St. Oswald, Austria ( home of the world cup 2006 and 2007), I think no worries, its like riding a bike!

We send the kids off to ski school on the bunny hill, and Ben and I get our gear and head up to the gondola to take us up the mountain. As the gondola goes up and up I see the black runs a few blue, but really no green runs. This starts to make me nervous. So we reach the half way point of the mountain and the doors open up to our gondola but no one gets out! I tell Ben "we can get out here can't we?" but no one is getting out. No one in the ride in front or behind. So now we are heading up to the top! I get out on top of the mountain and think to myself, there has to

some easy trails here someplace. We go to the map and see that the first run is easy and then hard all the way down.

I start on the easy run and I cannot turn my skis! I am not going left or right! I am only able to snow plow! I yell out to Ben in front of me "I FORGOT HOW TO SKI!!" He is laughing until he sees me fall down. I get back up and start to freak out! Not a pretty site. I tell Ben I am not going to be able to make it down the hill! I barely made it down the green! So Ben tells me to snow plow down. Have you ever tried to snow plow down a icy steep hill? It does not work if you cannot turn left or right! And no one yelling "PIZZA!!!" at you is going to make it better. So Ben now says, "OK hold onto me from behind and we will snow plow down together." Now I am crying, and not the pretty tiny tears in the corner of your eyes cry with the glowing smile of, I can't believe you bought this for me cry,... but the bitter someone ran over my dog Skip cry!

So I try and give this a shot but after 5 seconds we are so on our butts! I tell him "this is not going to work!", he tells me to Trust Him! I tell him, this is not a matter of trust, its a matter of survival! So we go one more time. This time when we fall my knee is facing one way, my ski the other and I feel my knee stretching to its limit! I yell at him to get my leg...he gets the ski off my boot and I sit there again crying and swearing! Now most of you know I do not swear, but for this moment that great F word worked perfectly to get my ass in gear and tell Ben...that's it! I am sliding down! Ben thinks I am kidding, but I grab my skis in one hand and my polls in the other and make it down the hill on my butt. So at the end of that hill the next hill turns to be a black diamond run. Seriously!! Where are the easy in between hills, the escapes paths

for the idiots who go up to the top of the mountain and cannot get down? So I start to walk/slide/shuffle down the hill. Ben now has had enough. He tells me he is going down to get help. He tells me to stay where I am so that he can find me. He looks at me again and says "promise me you will not move", so I say yes I will sit!

30 minutes go by and all of a sudden a man comes up behind me and asks "so I hear you want to know where the closest bar is?" I told him I will go anywhere with him, just get me off this mountain! Ben asked Greg (a man in our group for the week who was a ski instructor for 15 years) to come and get me. So with Ben, Greg and Tony (Trisha's husband) surrounding me so that no other skier could crash into me, I slide down the hill until I make it to the green easy area to ski to the 1/2 way gondola. What a trip and a half! Bruises on top of bruises! So happy to get to the bottom of that stinking hill!! The next couple of days I go to the bunny hill with the kids and get my grove back. I tell Ben, if I had done this first I could have made it from the 1/2 way point at least!

This is why I golf people...little hills, carts, feet planted on the ground without movement!

Picture of Hill that I was waiting on..long way down!!