A Chicken Goes Skiing

I am a total chicken! Except, I’m the kind of chicken that ends up doing the things that she’s scared of! Every time! Let me explain:

I am afraid of heights and speed. Like every other mortal, I am also afraid of public speaking, and I’d much rather be in my comfort zone! But then I get easily bored, and then my choices make me a walking contradiction!

A Chicken Goes SkiingSo afraid of heights and then I got tickets to a trapeze class! So afraid of speed and heights, and then I booked a trip to Orlando to visit the adventure parks (mostly for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter though)! So afraid of public speaking and then I signed up for an oral argument competition! So afraid of… well, you get the point.

It was my birthday on December, and my boyfriend gifted me a trip to Colorado. His plan? Well, what do you give someone who is afraid of speed and heights?!?! A ski trip, of course! Every time I thought about the upcoming trip my stomach flipped. I tried not to let my fear show, but I couldn’t help but get super quiet when the nerves set in.

A Chicken Goes SkiingI decided to throw caution to the wind (not really) once again, and flew up to Denver, Colorado. I love Denver! It’s got the cutest houses! And the food scene is definitely happening! Every place we visited left our taste buds happy and our tummies full.

And then there were the ski resorts. Beautiful of course! We visited Echo Mountain and Loveland Pass.

I’d never skied before, so the first day I opted for a class. Man, skiing is exhausting! In Echo Mountain they didn’t have a moving walkway for the bunny hill (it’s too short of a distance anyway), so I had to walk up the hill in the skis a million times for two hours. By the end of it I was ready to pass out in the snow!

The second day was the real adventure! I started off all wrong. We didn’t get there in time to book a lesson, and I immediately felt very grim about the whole thing. No way! I can’t hit the slopes like this! My guy wouldn’t take my pessimistic attitude for a no, and pushed me towards trying the bunny hill. Pretty persistent guy! I pulled all the stops: whined, got mad, whined some more, wouldn’t carry my own skis, couldn’t move with the skis on, but nope! He was determined to get me on that hill!

A Chicken Goes SkiingWhen I finally gave the Loveland Pass bunny hill a few tries, I got cocky! Oh yes, I got this! Turns out skiing is pretty cool! What I find to be the best part about it is that you can easily control your speed, and it’s not like your are raised up off the ground. I find that as long as I am close to the ground, I feel good.

Of course, my guy saw the glimmer of confidence in me and decided we should go on the lift to do an actual slope. Again I retreated to my silent panic. Ok, let’s do it. But it was great! I got on the lift, I got off the lift, and slid down the hill like a total pro (not!)! But we couldn’t just leave it with a win. Nope, we had to go for the second try, didn’t we??

A Chicken Goes SkiingWe slid right back into the line, ready to get on the flying chairs again. Except this time, I became a pretzel, got my skis tangled and fell off the lift… and the chair flew right past me knocking me down on it’s way out. I was a mess! I had to crawl to safety, take off my skis and stand up to face the crowd. Of course there was no shortage of “wow, the lift is supposed to be the easy part” comments.

Well, nothing to do but try again. I was able to stay put on the chair, and off we went, and as we slid off the chair I slid to another downfall! No problem, I get back up, no biggie! We then start heading down the hill, when all of a sudden I keep picking up speed and can’t figure out how to slow down. I panic and repeat wedge, wedge, pizza, pizza. Nope! Down I went. I don’t even know how I fell, but I fell good. Maybe I flipped? I don’t even know.

A Chicken Goes SkiingNeedless to say, I was done after that. But looking back I feel so awesomely proud that I did it! Can’t wait to do it again! I may get awkward and quiet, maybe a little whiny and annoying, but in the end I’ll love it!

Have you faced your fears? which ones? did you end up liking it? Do tell!

 

Oyster

8 Comments

    • I would say that the most valuable thing I learned was that when you make the wedge/pizza shape you also have to kind of tilt the skis inward, and that’s what will slow you down. So make a triangular shape, with the front tips of your skis almost touching and the back spread apart, and then tilt your feet so that the inner part of the skis is pressing down on the ground and the outer edges are almost lifting. That trick almost always helped me slow down.

  1. This was so funny to read! I am a bit contradictory too but love to test my limits (not too much though) Thanks for sharing!!

  2. I haven’t done skiing yet either but I might be about to in a few weeks and much like you: I’m scared but also excited! Glad to hear though that all went well for you and that you had fun 😀

  3. YAY for trying and getting back up! That’s what it’s all about! I’m from Fort Collins, Colorado, and I used to go skiing all the time, but I haven’t been in years! Sounds like a fun time… taking those damn boots off and relaxing and having a hot drink afterwards is the best part! haha

  4. I’m quite the scaredy-cat for certain things, too! Like you, however, I end up throwing myself into situations where I face my fears. It looks like you had a fantastic time in Colorado (jealous!) and ended up enjoying skiing. I’ve barely been to the snow a couple of times and have yet to venture into any snow sports. You’ve inspired me to get on that goal! I love your photos, by the way!

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