Skiing - a new experience

My brother and I always had this ‘healthy’ competition on trying new things – be it food, adventure sports or even music. If I tried hiking, he tried backpacking. If I tried bungee jumping, he tried rafting. If I tried parasailing, he tried skiing – and that’s where it hurt  Now, being in mostly in India, trying skiing was a distant dream… till I started living in Calgary, AB, Canada. (Note: for most Indians, skiing is not just a sport – it’s an adventure sport).

Naturally I was fixated with the idea of going skiing ever since I landed in Calgary. Our good friend AU was the right person to talk with. He loves skiing so much that he sells the concept well to newbies (not that I needed any selling of the concept) and everyone will immediately want to go try skiing.

So over a good evening of dinner and drinks at the ever popular 1410, we were all set to drive to Lake Louise Ski Resort the next morning (18/Jan/2010). The resort is in the mountains overlooking the lake (duh!) in Banff National Park. Throughout our drive of around 2 hrs, AU gave an overview and tips for our first experience. It was decided that we would go for the day-long beginners ski lessons.

We bought tickets accordingly and headed towards the equipment area. We had to rent the ski, poles, helmet and ski-boots. The ski-boots are easily the most uncomfortable footwear ever created by man. It’s a fibre-glass mould and for obvious reasons – stiff. So the walking style of the person completely changes. One suddenly starts walking like a cowboy – heel first. I was instantly in pain. AU assured that it’s just a matter of time and that I’d get used to it.

AU left us at our class and headed to the steeper runs to ski on fresh snow. Our instructor, Donna, was British (from good old Devon) and we were a batch of six. Getting on the skis was the next difficult thing of the day. Keeping steady on the skis is not easy for beginners. Our morning session went off well and most of us were confident of standing straight with our skis on by the end of the session. The ski boots continued to kill most of us though and we were totally exhausted by lunch time. Sitting down at the table was the single joyous moment of the day for me as I thought my feet were totally crushed due to the ski-boots. Skiing is hard-work – totally exhausting.

For the afternoon session, we advanced to use the bunny slopes. This was loads of fun. By now, we knew how to ski down the slope – but only a few knew how to stop at the bottom of the slope. It was good fun falling down but not so much fun trying to get up with the skis on though. By the end of the session though all of were officially toast, we knew how to turn while coming down the slope as well but I still wasn’t very comfortable with the boots though. We were happy with our progress till we were told that most beginners actually go to the next level (T-bar zone) by end of the day and we hadn’t!!! Oh well…

I skied a few more times during the rest of the season. We tried other ski resorts like Kimberley and Sunshine. We stayed overnight at Kimberley. Situated in BC, it’s around a 5 hour drive. The best part of the place we stayed was that if you already had equipment, then you could easily ski out of your cabin, straight down the T-bar slope and down to the ski-lift area. We couldn’t use this feature as we didn’t have the equipment and more importantly, I didn’t have the confidence at that time.

Sunshine is a perfect place for beginners. The runs are shorter but yet challenging for the newbies. It is also very crowded as people come from all over the world to ski at this famous place.

I can now manage to ski the green slopes with some ease. I have taken a liking to downhill skill – the views as well as the thrill of going downhill are totally worth it. Boots are becoming less of an issue each time I ski as well. I am not sure of the length of our stay in Calgary, but I will surely hit the slopes if I am around here in winter.

Some basics:
Powder: Snow. Also called Pow-Pow; Skiing on fresh snow (which is new and fluffy), is far more enjoyable then old snow, which is icy.
Bunny slope: Beginner starts at the bunny slope. Beginners always start at the bunny slopes using a magic carpet ski lift to go to the top of the very short slope.
Magic carpet: It’s a conveyor type of ski-lift on which the skier stands with his/her skis on and then skis off the conveyor belt when he/she reaches the end of the lift, on top of the slope.
T-bar: This is because the ski lift consists of a bar suspended like an inverted T against which skiers lean while being towed to the top of the slope. If the skier leans too much on the bar, the skier will easily get dragged along or fall out. Usually a beginner tries the magic carpet first and then the T-bar
Chair lift: A chair lift is an automated aerial chair device used to carry skiers up a mountain slope. One needs to ski off the chair as, the chair doesn’t stop for the skier to get off.
Run: A run is a groomed and marked path.
Greens: the easiest ski runs are marked by green circles. They are relatively flat & smooth and are mostly machine groomed.
Blues: A blue square marks medium difficulty. Runs would be steeper than greens.
Blacks: A black diamond run is steeper than a blue square. It would be narrower with unmarked obstacles as well.
Double Blacks: A double black diamond is mainly for experts. These trails are extremely steep.
Alpine skiing: Started in the Alps, is just another term for downhill skiing.
Freestyle skiing: Combination of acrobatics & skiing. E.g., ski jumps, moguls.
Moguls: Skiing as fast as possible through mounds of snow, both natural and skier made.

Having gone to 3 ski resorts, I learnt that there is no standard for runs. Every ski resort determines them relative to their own terrain difficulty. So, for instance, a blue run at one Ski Mountain, may be a black-diamond run at another mountain.

More information on skiing:
http://skiing.about.com/ or http://www.abc-of-skiing.com/