A Yard Sale at Mt. Snow.
I went to Mt. Snow, Vermont this weekend to ski, chill out (and considering the frigid temperatures, I believe that I succeded). I’ve been working non-stop on my new t-shirt business so a weekend away, in the fresh air and snow was just the right balance that I needed in my life. Saturday started out as a beautiful, sunny day. It was cold, but without any wind, it was a perfect ski day. Now I am a pretty good skier, although I haven’t skied since the beginning of December and haven’t worked out much in the past month due to a nasty cold. I started my day skiing with friends on intermediate trails on the front of the mountain, terrain I know so well I can almost ski it blindfolded. No sooner did I make my first few turns when I noticed something off about my skiing. I could barely control my skis. Turning on hard pack felt like ice and I could not get an edge at all. Was I so out of shape that my skiing could have gotten this bad? Every turn was an effort and I kept having to stop to rest. This couldn’t be me!
Coming down Ridge Run, I felt my skis cross in front of me and I found my self heading head first down into the snow, hard! My friend Bill stoping behind me couldn’t believe how hard that I fell. Nothing but my ego bruised (so I thought) I got up and continued skiing. My next fall proved to be more of a yard sale. Again my skis tips crossed and I found myself separated from my skis, once again sitting in the snow. So unusual was this for me, that my friend Susan, felt the need to capture this with her camera.
At the end of the day I decided to take my skis into the ski shop and see if it was really me or the ski. When the ski tech took a look at the bottom of the skis after I explained to him what had been happening all day, he told me that it was no wonder that I was falling. It seems that my skis were sharpened too many times and in doing so, the edges were higher than the base, so I was actually skiing on two boards with no edge at all. The skis had been throwing me off balance! Well that certainly made me feel better. I left them overnight for stone grinding, where they grind down the base to match up with the edges, and headed to the bar for a much needed glass of wine!
Life is Balance "Keep Your Edge" Ski and Snowboard t-shirt
The following day, setting out on my newly tuned skis, I discovered that I wasn’t in as bad a shape as I had thought. It was like night and day. I was skiing just like I used to ski – effortlessly! Hallelujah!
It was only when I got home and woke up the next morning, unable to move that I realized just why I don’t like to fall in the first place! Oh well, nothing is broken and the spasms in my back will eventually go away (soon I hope) and I am looking forward to the next time. What I learned from this experience is that while the activities like skiing may balance our lives, it takes well-maintained equipment to stay balanced!