According to my snowpants, I haven't been skiing or snowboarding in 13 years. As I was squeezing into my old snowboarding pants, I noticed that I still had my old lift tickets tags attached. There was a rainbow of tags from 2000, 1999, 1998 and earlier from family vacations and school trips. I went skiing lots when I was a kid. Skiing as an adult, no problem, I thought.
In my quest to embrace the winter, my pants, my husband and I accompanied my parents and friends of the family to Tabor Mountain for a day of skiing. On the drive we were discussing how long it's been since my husband was on skis (about 20 years) and how long it had been since I skied rather than snowboarded (at least 15 years). Between my husband and I, we had 35 years of no experience between us. We weren't nervous at all. Nope. Not one bit. Skiing, as we discovered, is not like riding a bike.
I was fortunate enough to go to Tabor a few times on school trips so I remembered what the mountain looked like (though I thought it was on the other side of the highway). I was completely surprised that Tabor is so close to town. It's really is only 15 minutes from town. It seemed a lot longer when I was a kid.
We had an amazing man help us with our ski and boot rentals and he had a truly remarkable gift of looking at our feet and finding the perfect boot on the first try. It was ski boot magic. He set us up with boots, skis and poles and, as a tip, make sure that you notice the fact that your skis have a number written on them. Knowing that number will ensure that you don't take somebody else's skis after a coffee break and merrily ski on them for the rest of the day and then try to return the wrong skis. Not that it happened to me. I didn't accidentally steal another person's skis. Really.
As for the skiing, let me first say that I should have taken my mom up on her offer have a lesson. Or perhaps we should have skied at Hart Highlands where the runs are not as intimidating. Our "ski legs" weren't as stable as we were had remembered and yes there was some walking down the mountain carrying skis. We were those people. The things that are easy when you're 10 years old are a little scarier when you're in your thirties. We had a good time and we will definitely be back to conquer the mountain. After we take some lessons.
