Shoop, Shoop, Shoop: Skiing at Mount Seymour

Snow shoeing was such a fun day, that we couldn’t wait to get back up the mountain and try out skiing. Dave had been some 15 years ago so we both decided to take the Discover Lesson – which is a two hour introduction to skiing. There had been a lot of new snow so the conditions were pretty good:





Luckily as Dave had been before we were able to get our boots and skis on without help and have a little pre-lesson walk around to get the feel for the boots.








We had a small group of four which was great so we managed to progress quite quickly. We started with walking up hills, which apart from getting up when you fall down, is probably the hardest thing to do when you ski.


First we practiced our pizza’s (or plough as some of you might know it) and our turns on the small slope surrounded by five year olds whizzing around us on snow boards. I wasn’t jealous of them at all. Honest. It’s similar to ice skating in the way that you can’t move your ankles at all, so it’s all movement from the hips and the knees. I found it hard to make a big enough pizza at first, so I zoomed into Dave nearly knocking him over, I also fell over on my arse. After that I tried not to fall back on my arse by learning forward, but must’ve leant forward too much as I ended up in a reverse snow angle position, face down with a mouthful of snow. To top it off I had no idea how to get up from that position and I had to wait for my instructor (lovely Madeline, who was only about 15 and half my size) come over and help. We tried several attempts to get up and in the end, due to the position I was in, I had to step backwards with my hands sticking my arse out to the whole crowd of people waiting to go up the magic carpet (the baby slope lift). You leave your dignity at the door when you start skiing.


I’m not sure what people are like I other countries, but thankfully in Canada they are nice, polite and helpful and don’t seem to laugh and point. Also snow doesn’t hurt when you fall in it – well not at the speed I was going anyway.


We all perfected out turns and our pizzas and ended our lesson with a couple of tries down the Rookies run and I didn’t fall down – I know, I was so impressed with myself!

We were shown (thankfully) how to use the chair lifts. I was just as excited about getting on the chair lifts as I was skiing, but it’s a bit tricky to use them first and both of you trying to line your skis up!





Our lesson ended and we tried to go down the run from the top, I fell in about two seconds of the starting and my ski popped off. I just couldn’t get it back on as the snow was too deep. It was really frustrating being stuck at the top of a really steep slope with one ski off. In the end we both had to take our skis off and walk back up to the top! After a nice warm coffee and some chips, sorry fries, we were back out and the sky cleared.





We decided after a few runs to make it up to the next slope taking the mystery chair lift.





The lift went on for AGES. I started to realize how high we were actually going up, the wind really picked up the higher you went. Just as we got to the top we stopped for ages blowing in the wind, I really wanted to get off at that point. Finally it was our turn to get off and we both fell over as soon as we hit the snow. They had to stop the lift until we could get out of the way – which took a while to say the least. I just couldn’t get up. I was laughing so much which made it even harder. In the end I had to ask another skier to help with Dave to pull me up. I finally made it upright with my pants full of snow. The view from the top was amazing.





But it made me realize just how far up we were. When we got to the top of the slope (sorry no pics at this point, as I was too damn petrified and couldn’t maneuver a camera and my poles). I felt like we were in heaven, literally and the only way down was to ski down this really steep slope. 


We both zoomed down trying to keep our pizza’s but within seconds were both over in the snow. I managed to get up easier this time as I used the angle of the slope. I was so scared and thought to myself, why I had gone up a really big slope when I had been skiing for about three hours and also scared of heights? But you know what, I’m so glad we did it. It took us a long time to get down, but after that the smaller slope was so easier and looking back even though I was so scared, it was such an adrenalin rush.





As the sun started to set we started to realize how absolutely knackered we both were and also that we were pretty cold, so decided it was time to call it a day. 


And what an awesome day. We can’t wait to go back. 


I’m just aching so much today. I ache in places I didn’t even know I had muscles.


You can see the full set of pictures on Flickr.




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