Visions of sugar plums danced in my head. I strapped on my skis thinking I got this. It's been 20ish years since I had been on cross country skis but it's like riding a bike, right? You just get back on the skis and it would be just like years ago. Boy, was I wrong. Both Mariane and I had been on cross country skis in the past and both of us forgot everything. Well, not everything! I knew you could use the groom tracks, you had to go forward, and it was different than downhill skiing. The most critical thing we both forgot was how to stop. That's really important. The snow plow technique didn't seem to work the same as downhill skiing. Some nice people saw our struggles and helped us with our crashes and gave us some tips. They spent a good amount of time with us trying to get us up on our skis and doing that moving forward thing. After they left the struggle was still real. The conditions were icy. That complicated everything. Not a good day to start! We took our skis off and started back down the trail. Were we done? NO WAY.
We were still in fantasy land here!
This was my crash on the first trail. I am not kidding, the camera somehow took a picture without me. It was around my neck and I felt it bounce around. When I looked at the pictures later I couldn't believe it. Well, now my crash has been documented whether I wanted it to be or not.
We found a trail that wasn't as icy. With some back and forth practice the skills started coming back. The snow plow does work when you want to stop. My skis don't have metal edges so you really have to move your knees in and get the edges of the skis up on the snow. I got it.
We continued to venture farther down the trail and then come back. The slightest downhill was an issue at first. We mastered the stop and got those slight downhills conquered. Next step will be a real hill.
I love snow! I love snow!!!
Winter is my favorite!!
A nice little Christmas tree standing out from the crowd.
The Selkirk lodge.
When we got our map at the beginning of the day the nice man said there were no really challenging trails on this hill. Well, that is a matter of opinion! We ended this adventure with smiles on our faces and ready to go again. It feels good when you master or should I say begin to master something that was difficult. Now I have another way to play in the snow!!! We are both excited to go again.
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