Showing posts with label sport. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sport. Show all posts

Saturday, 12 January 2013

A Day on the Mountain


There is something to be said about spending a day skiing.  There is also something to be said about spending a day anywhere but work.  I guess you could think about that in many ways, and probably suggest warmer alternatives, like spending a day at the beach or something like that.

True.

I like both options, but I live in Canada, and January is simply not beach weather.  If I want to go to the beach, one day off is not going to be sufficient.  I would need to take a week (of course, going to the Rockies to ski would also take a week.....hmmm)

Skiing is a pretty good adrenaline rush.  Careening down hill, sometimes in control, sometimes not, is pretty thrilling.  A double black diamond run can really get the heart pumping.  And the windburn you get on your face roughly approximates a tan.

I can't lie to my readers (well I could, but what would be the point) I am not a great skier.  I am an intermediate skier with less of a death wish than most people on the mountain.  Sometimes I am cautious, sometimes I am reckless.  I guess it all depends.

I am a skier, not a snowboarder.  That is just a clarification, not a snobby declaration.  Snowboarding looks pretty cool, and I wish I could do it, but I am worried about being too old to learn it.  A good snowboarder seems very graceful, carving turns with ease, riding the mountain like it's a wave on the ocean.  Of course a bad snowboarder is just one more obstacle in my way, and an unpredictable one at that.

I might whine about having to shovel snow, but without snow there would be no skiing.  And if there were no snow, I couldn't take a midweek break to go skiing.