My son asked me this the other day. It was the day after we all went skiing as a family, so I suppose it was perfectly natural for him to wonder why I don’t do it very often. In fact I think it had been two years since i last went skiing. I gave him a somewhat incomplete answer, explaining that I never learned when I was young, wasted the chance to ski for very little expense while in college and never got very good at it. Now that I am in my 60s and have had knee operations and terrible ankles, I am not confident bombing down the mountain like they do. As I reflect on my answer, i find it’s not really complete.
The truth is that I don’t really like the sport. Don’t get me wrong, I love hanging out with my family and they all like to ski. I will say yes anytime they ask. Note the photo at the bottom from the other day when we were all together. It was really great – but I would do anything to spend an afternoon (or a morning or an evening) with my family. Now my kids are grown I grab those opportunities whenever they are presented.
But now, the truth (they don’t read my blog anyway) about skiing. It is a real pain in the ass! First there is the expense – the equipment (skis, boots, skiwear), the fees at the mountain, the lodge, and then there is the getting there and back. Its not like you can just pop your skis on and head out the back door (unless you live there – congrats if you do). then you spend most of your day trying to get UP the mountain, standing in lines in the cold so you can enjoy the 5 minutes it takes to slide down…doing your level best not to hit something and break something, whether a tree, another skier or your own leg (you will never hurt those kids who go bombing past you, there is no way to catch them). Then there is the pain – those boots were designed specifically to torture people. I remember what they used to call “Lang bang” which is an industry term for how your shins feel after a short while wearing Lang ski boots. The best feeling in the world? Taking those effing boots off at the end of the day and putting my shoes back on, knowing I survived and can progress to “apres ski.” Of course the ski wear is just as important at “apres” as it is on the mountain. When you are at the fancy resorts, you need to have at least $1000 worth of cool colors on your back to avoid being scoffed at.
I am admittedly resentful of the fact that I am a lousy skier, given I never even tried it until I was in my mid-20s. There are few sports that I can’t play at least reasonably well – skiing (and ice skating) are at the top of the list. It’s therefore humbling to get out there and suck at it each time.
All this aside now, there are mountains that are low key, where you don’t have to wear fancy clothes, where you can rent equipment for a reasonable price, where the crowds are not bad and you don’t have to queue just to get up the mountain on a lift and where the runs are kind and gentle enough so that I am not terrified about landing on Dr. Lynch’s operating table again….and the chance to spend a day with my family? That’s worth anything, frankly. Boy I really do like skiiing, sometimes.
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