Mistake

"Wow, it really didn't look this steep from the lift!" I chuckled nervously and shook my head as Amy smirked at me. Really, it hadn't looked all that steep from the bottom of the hill. Or the lift. But from the top of the run it looked more like a cliff face than a ski trail. Blue square my ass.

"We can cut over halfway down if you want." She gestured with one pole at a trail through the trees that led to a more sedate run on the right. But that 'if you want' was more of a challenge than her mild tone would've indicated. That's what I got for telling her how much I loved skiing, how I was totally up for whatever.

I guess the three resorts I'd been two on the east coast hadn't properly prepared me for what real skiing was like. For one thing, this was actual snow. That had fallen from the sky. Rather than ice or, if I was lucky, water frozen and then blown over the slope by a huge fan on a pole. For another, apparently real mountains had runs with intimidatingly inclined slopes.

I swear, looking down through the tips of my skis over the edge, that I could already see what was going to happen. And while I didn't have anything against falling in general- it was kind of fun, actually, sometimes- I knew that if I fell on this run I would slide for a long, long way. My stomach muscles tightened as I shot Amy a forced grin.

"Whatever. You want to go first?"

"I'll follow you." She gestured with her ski pole again and nodded her head at the run. "Go for it."

"Alright." I dug my poles in and pushed off, turning and quickly picking up speed. My usual technique involved going as fast as I could before I fell, but that wouldn't fly here. A quick turn, a quick turn and I was coasting across the face of the mountain.

There, that's not that bad. Oh, a bump. Okay, under control. Wait, hold on. Lean forward, dig in, turn, slow it down. Going a little too fast. Okay, okay. Good. Another turn. Good. Nice. Great. Very good.

Halfway down and I ignore the turn off. I don't need it. The wind in my face, the skis sliding across the snow, muscles I didn't use the other 362 days of the year tensing and pulling, feeling good. Pick up speed again, maybe a little off balance but alright. Yeah, I do like skiing. This is fun. I don't know what I was worried about.

Then I catch the edge of my left ski in a rut and it gets pulled under me. I lose my balance and go down in the snow. Pop and one ski goes, tumble and roll and the other one is gone with an odd twisting feeling in my knee. There goes the left pole, staying up the hill as I slide on my stomach toward the edge of the run, and I just see a blur as some unlucky skiier swerves to avoid me. And no, he's down too but I don't have time to worry about it because here comes the ditch at the edge of the trail and ohthankgod I stopped before going into that tree.

A breath, another breath as I take a moment to calm down. Everything seems okay, except that knee hurts and my goggles are covered with snow so I can't really see and my jacket is pulled up in back so there's snow down the back of my ski pants. But all in all, okay.

I roll over and sit up, looking back over my shoulder to watch Amy gather up my skis. Well, that was exciting. I wave at her to show her I'm alright and can already feel the grin creeping across my face. That was fun! Let's do it again! Practice makes perfect, right?