I told this story a few times at work today,
it chokes me up every time I tell it.
Elise goes skiing for the first time:
So Renee and I really had to knock ourselves out for
Elise's first ski trip yesterday. We knew we would
be pushed for time (had to be back to pick up Miriel
at school at 5pm) but we went for it--jumped thru
many hoops to do it.
After the two hour drive up to Stevens Pass we find
the place mobbed with skiiers--after a 15 minutes search
we park in the farthest part of the upper lots.
It was a long hoof to the lodge, me carrying two sets
of skis, Renee with Elise's skies, and for a while Elise
herself. In ski boots, across the highway, snowing
blowing a bit, slippery. A perfect day with lots of
new snow for me to ski--maybe not the best day for
a four year old her first time.
We get to the lodge and warm up Elise, adjust her
clothes, and then I go get the tickets. We planned
to ski the noon ticket and just for Daisy chair--
save some money. Well it ends up being $80, whew!
But I've got my positive attitude program running,
I want Elise to have good feelings about skiing
no matter how it goes.
I put our tickets on, and then lean down to
get Elise in her bindings. A buckle is gone--these
are cross country skies, no buckle and your out
of luck. So over to the ski shop to buy something to
rig it.
Ten minutes later that is fixed and Elise and I
are snowplowing down the hill toward the chairlift.
She is thrilled.
We shuffle over to Daisy and wait for Renee who
is a good five minutes behind us (she couldn't
get her binding to work). Finally, we are waiting
for our chair. I'm a little concerned that Elise
wont shuffle all by herself, I'm holding an arm
and Renee has the other.
The very nice fellow operating the chairlift says
we technically cant let Elise ski with skis that
don't have metal edges, hearts sink. But he lets
us get on the lift and suggests avoiding the guys
in the blue ski coats. We are off and Elise is grinning!
A few minutes later I notice that her wrists are
red--her gloves and ski outfit leave a gap and
the cold and wind are getting in there. I take
my gloves off and hold her wrists all the way up
to warm them up.
Arriving at the top, we get off the lift just fine,
I am holding Elise up, and we get into our snowplow
formation...
Starting down the hill I am supporting, oh, 98% of
her weight. For some reason she wont put weight on
the skiis. This goes on, we snowplow, I try to make
her stand on her own, she flops down in the snow,
and repeat. Leaning over to support her, with Elise's
skis between mine is hard on my lower back, surprising
painful. I must have a bad back. But I take a few
breaks and we work at it. But the realization
that we will have to get Elise in the lodge is
setting in.
Miriel skiied when she turned 4 and did great.
Elise is a little bit of a delicate flower, but
mostly we just didn't prepare her well enough. I had
Miriel doing herringbone up and snowplow down
in our backyard several times one winter before
her first trip (at 4), but Elise is 4 1/2, so I
thought she could do it.
But wait, maybe our luck is turning...
Now comes along a couple with a little one not too
much older than Elise--and this child has her snow
plow down cold. The father stops and offers this
nice bungie cord thing to clip on to Elise's ski shovels
to keep the skies from chattering and going left and
right. Maybe we are on again!
No, Elise still wont put weight on her skies.
We give up and decide to head home.
Almost back to the lodge, we take her skies off--
but she starts heading the wrong way across
Big Chief. Worried that she will get run over,
Renee gets her skies off...I haul all the
skies to the lodge, back aching (but happily
it did not go out on me).
Ten minutes later we are in the lodge, warming
Elise up etc.
Then two hours down the mountain through the snow,
slick slushy roads all the way down, a stop for
hot chocolate for Elise to celebrate her 'great effort'
etc. The point being, a lot of hoops and effort.
Later that evening Renee and I decide that there
just wont be another attempt til Elise is stronger
and we have really got her in good equipment.
Better fitting boots, real downhill skis etc.
There is no way were are going again this winter.
Now this is the part than chokes me up--I cry whenever
I try to tell this story. I did choke it out once
this morning--tried again this afternoon but
finally had to type it and email it. I thought
I'd post it here for the handful of folks on SI
who know me.
Grandma calls.
"Grandma, I went skiing today. I did great!"
"Skiing is like sliding down a rainbow!"
whew! Breaks your heart, so darn cute. I wouldn't
even try to tell the story to some folks, but it is
a good one and I hope my SI friends liked it.
P.S. I should thank the folks at Stevens Pass for
giving us vouchers to try again. I've been skiing
35 years, and $80 is a lot for just the one run--
but all is well that ends well and the rainbow
ending would have been worth the $80 and the extra
effort to pull it off. And then some. |
