Skiing

When we got up the mountain it turns out we were staying in a beautiful ski lodge. It had a really traditional ski feel to it and was all wood and stone on the inside. It was right at the bottom of all the slopes. So as soon as we checked in and dropped off our bags, we headed out to get our free passes and rent ski equipment. I have only skied once for about 3 hours so I was a bit worried about the whole thing. When we were renting our equipment we also both got three lessons. Brian got intermediate ones and I got beginner ones. I went down the bunny slope after Brian and fell over as I couldn't remember how to do anything at all. Then I decided to wait til the lesson started before doing anything else while Brian waited on the bunny slope skiing down. He was flying and seemed to remember a whole lot. Then our lesson started and Brian headed off to the real slopes and I learned the basics. We paid for group lessons but as the ski resort was empty on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays we got individual lessons one on one with instructors. The lesson when really well and I was flying on the bunny slope so we headed off to a beginner slope. It went a big disastrously and I fell over three times just getting down the one slope. The instructor had taken that into account so we ended up skiing into the hotel at the same time as Brian came back. He had a great time. They covered improving the basic stuff on some beginner slope (it had been maybe 8 years since Brian skied). Then they went out on some intermediate slopes and he seemed to be flying. We got some hot chocolate and wandered around the visit for a while. It was really nice but really small and only had one ski shop, a food shop and a few restaurants/bars. When we got back we headed out to the hotel's outdoor hot tubs. The ground from the hotel to the hot tub seemed to be headed as I was worried it would be very cold on my toes. It was great, we were the only ones out there and we could see skiers go past as we were getting in. We were in about half an hour but the heat got the better of us by then. By half way through the bubbles in the tub were freezing on top. It was really strange being in a boiling hot tub with frozen bubbles.

Next day when I woke up I was feel a little unwell so I stayed in bed an extra hour to try and feel better. When I got out on the bunny slope to practice I was doing ok. For my lesson in the afternoon I let my instructor know I wasn't doing the best but after a few more runs on the bunny slope I was still ok so we headed out to the beginner slopes. On the first slope I fell twice and by that point my tummy was terribly upset as it didn't seem to like the falling bit. We went down another slope into the villiage and I fell again because my legs were all weak so we called it a day (we only cut it 15 minutes short). Brian had a fantastic day that day. He was doing jumps and going down black slopes. He seemed to have a great time with his instructor. The next day I don't have much to say cause I was sick in my bed. My tummy needed a little break from falling over. Brian had his last lesson which went really well. He ended up with my instructor as his never turned up. They covered a lot of the stuff he had been doing on the previous days, I assume to get better at it. I managed to get my last lesson moved to the next day. One of the many good advantages of having an empty ski resort seems to be getting last minute lessons and change. It also means you can be the first on a slope, even me who only went out on the beginner slopes in the afternoon and there are no lift queues. They have tonnes of slopes from beginner to double black diamonds. As much as any of the other resorts except maybe whistler where the olympics were held. It was so strange that it was empty and seems to cater to school groups and the locals from Penticton on the weekends. On the last day I started on the bunny slope again but then loads of school kids came and upset me. So I stopped skiing til Brian came over and convinced me to go with him on the beginner slopes. I was still having trouble turning but he was very convincing so we went. I turned out to have a really great time skiing with him. I did have to walk down one big turn on the slope because I was worried about crashing into trees. It was ok though as Brian walked with me. That afternoon my instructor decided I was thinking too much about the whole thing. She made me go down the slope without looking at my skis or thinking about turning or how I couldn't turn right very well. As soon as I stopped thinking I was doing great. So for the rest of the lesson I went down all the beginner slopes without falling on any. We even met Brian on a ski lift and got to chat to him. Turns out he had spoken to our instructor about our difficulties getting home because we had no transport. So she organised us a lift with one of the girls who lived in Penticton and worked in the resort. It was really handy as she was going that way at 4 and we needed to be in town for 5. On our final day we got up and checked out and headed for a bit of ice-skating. When we were renting skates we didn't know whether we needed hockey or figure skating skates. So we got hockey but they didn't seem right to skate on. They had no ankle support or brakes and I had some real difficulty on them altogether. We headed back for lunch and after were going to change them. However when we had lunch they had an offer to win a snow board if you bought a certain type of beer. We tried the beer and then found out you had to live there to enter. In the end we stayed and enjoyed a few honey lagers before heading back to the bus station. It was a really nice afternoon and we had a great time.