Falling and falling again; my skiing experience.

Me coming down the slopes.

I remember the first time I ever went skiing, I was only 8 years old and I went with my mum and brother. One of our friends had an apartment up in Les Angles, so we were lucky enough to be able to use it. We were all so excited we went straight to the ski rental place and fitted into our skis, and off we went.




I honestly don't know what my mum expected to be honest, I think she thought that because Jake and me were so young we would get the hang of skiing straight away. Boy was she wrong.
We must've been quite a sight for regular skiers, as every time we managed to stand up on our skis we would fall over straight away, so my mum ended up spending 10 minutes picking us up one after the other. As soon as she would get one of us standing up, the other would fall over. After quite a while of this, she was so sick of it that she signed us up for a morning of ski school. The instructor was awesome and helped us loads, we got there early morning and by the afternoon we were skiing by ourselves with no help needed.

Jake and me

As soon as we were confident enough, we headed up to the main slopes at the top of the mountain. After having a spot of lunch we put our skis back on and got on with the day. I have to say, the button lifts are my nemesis, the amount of times I fell off of those things is ridiculous. We ended up having to come up with a little system; Jake would be in front, then I would be in the middle and mum at the back, ready to grab us by the collars if either of us fell off. This did take a while to master and if I would go skiing tomorrow, I would probably feel a bit iffy doing this.
The chair lifts on the other hand were pretty easy, all you do is sit and look at the amazing views around you, all of the snow capped mountains and people skiing.

Jake and me enjoying a meal in the snow.

I do remember one time, my mum and Jake decided to rent ski blades instead of skis, they're basically the same but a lot smaller and you don't get the sticks with them. I think that was probably the first and last time that they will ever do that, as they both ended up falling over in the middle of a slope and found it absolutely impossible to get up. I'm serious, we were standing there for about 15 minutes, crying with laughter because every time one of them would manage to get back onto their feet, they would attempt to help the other one up and they would fall over again! I wasn't any help either considering my tiny 8 year old body wasn't strong enough to help either of them. I think in the end some random person had to come and help us.

Seeing as I was 8, I was too young to enjoy Après-Ski, but we spent our evenings either relaxing in the apartment, or going to a restaurant followed by a game of bowling in the local bowling alley. We also made the most of the swimming pool, I definitely think that this was one of favourite things to do there, as the pool was obbiously inside but all of the walls were glass, so you could be sitting there in your bikini watching skiers come down the slopes.

Skiing does take a little while to get a handle of if you've never been, but one you've mastered it it's an amazing experience and I would go back in a flash. Be prepared to fall over a couple of times and get snow down the back of your ski-suit, but I can promise you that you'll remember it for the rest of your life.

Gina.