Skiing (and Commando Crawling) Down Snoqualmie

Last Saturday, my boyfriend and I took advantage of the early ski slope opening in Washington. The past couple of years the skiing has been terrible. No snow. This year, lots of snow before Thanksgiving! Snoqualmie Summit opened their lifts at a rock bottom price of $25 per ticket. We're on it!

I lived 20 years in Colorado and never went skiing. As I mentioned before, I was born a po' child in the ghetto. I didn't have money to learn how to ski, nevermind the gear and the lift ticket prices. When I went to college, I was shocked that some of my classmates were varsity ski team members at their high schools. They had ski teams? Geez!

When I moved to Washington and paid off my debts, I finally had a few bucks to give it a run. My very first attempt at the slopes was snowboarding. It was awful. I could not get the hang of it. I really, really hated that my feet were planted on the board. I ended up with very cold, bruised buns and not much fun. I did not want to go snowboarding again. It was not for me. My dreams of twisting on a half pipe shattered.

I wasn't in a big hurry to go back to the ski slopes after that. When my boyfriend and I started dating, he encouraged me to give it a try. He bought my first ski lesson as a bribe.

Strangely enough, I took to skiing really fast. I'm guessing all the rollerblading I did was similar enough to skiing that my body took to it. I had no problem balancing or sliding around. By my second lesson, I was off the bunny and on the greens! I liked skiing! This was about Winter of 2007.

Anyway, back to the first skiing of Snoqualmie. We got our lift passes and stopped for breakfast first. I had Canadian bacon, hashbrowns, and eggs with toast. A nice hearty breakfast - no skimping for skiing. I needed lots of energy.

We went 3 runs on Little Thunder to get warmed up. It was great! The snow was fluffy and the sun shining. I bought a new action sport camera call GoPro Hero and took a few snaps.

Not the greatest pics, I'm still getting the hang of it.






We stopped at the cafe to warm up and get a coffee. After a brief rest, my boyfriend said, "Lets go up the middle lift and ski over so we don't have to walk."

Bad idea. It was a blue run near the top. I've done blue runs before successfully near the end of last season, but this was the first time I'd been on skis in a while. I wasn't quite ready to go full throttle yet. I still needed to get my 'ski legs'.

I got scared and too timid. I lost my nerve. I lost control and screamed like a little girl as I went off track and plummeted into a tree whose branches were sticking up out of the snow. If not for the tree, I wonder how far I would have slid. I was stuck. My boyfriend had to help dig me out of the snow. Oh dear.

After that, I completely lost my confidence. Whatever chance I had of getting down the blue run was completely blown. I couldn't ski down it. I couldn't walk down it (sunk into the snow if I tried to walk). I had to scoot down on my rear or commando crawl. Embarrassed, I made my way back to Little Thunder.

Oh man, I was completely exhausted! Crawling down a mountain is hard work! With what little was left of my dignity, I skiied down Little Thunder, feeling better on the gentle slope, and called it a day. I whined at my boyfriend that it was his fault. He laughed. He has no shame!

Next time he suggests the blue run, I'll tell him to meet me on the green. I'll try again, but maybe a little later in the season after I get used to being on skis again!