So from Febbraio 13-15 we went to La Thuile with my program for a ski trip that was wonderfully painful! La Thuile is an adorable Italian town on the border with France and you can actually ski to France but I'm not that good so I didn't make it to France. Next time perhaps! We got the bus at 8 am Sunday morning and drove the 3 hrs there... or what should have been 3 hrs. I slept for the first hour and a half and when I woke up we were in the wonderful valley with snow-covered mountains rising up around us and it just took my breath away. I couldn't sleep for the rest of the trip because I was too busy looking out the window!
Then things started to get stressful. We are in a giant bus climbing mountains on narrow roads that make a 330 degree turn every 50 yds or so... and we take up the whole road to scale the turns so the cars that are coming have to hit their breaks hard to avoid crashing into us. I'm in a window seat so at points I can just look out and see the drop down to the last section of road and also down into the valley. We finally arrived at the hotel and went through the process of getting the lift tickets and skis. We got onto the slops by 2 pm and I quickly realized I was not as good as my roommates! So I made the responsible decision to go schedule a lesson for the next morning and then I went to the easy hill at the bottom to practice my turns.
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At the bar for a quick coffee and to give myself a pep talk (Day 3). |
After I literally left my pride on the top of the mountain due to the fact it fell out of my pocket from the many falls I took, I went to the easy hill at the bottom to practice my turns at the end of the day. As I'm standing on the 20 yd long, 2 ft wide rubber belt to get to the top with my skis on I look to my left at a person or bird or squirrel, I do not know what... something. Anywho, I lose my balance and literally fall over to my right. There is a 4 yr old in front of me and another little kid behind me and the belt didn't even jolt or anything, I just fell over. Awesome. Then some little French kid who's as tall as my waist and is skiing down with perfect parallel turns says something to me and of course I don't speak French but it wasn't nice and I almost say something back to the pibsqueak but I exercised some self control... and I went inside after that. I didn't sleep well because I had all these visions of me making a wrong turn and skiing off the side of the mountain and I can see the valley and can see trees and rocks below me and I know I'm not going to land this jump and it was just terrifying. Here are some pictures I took with my blackberry; I didn’t take my camera up with me because we all know how that probably would have ended.
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View from an area right beside our hotel when we first arrived on Sunday. |
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See wayyyyyy in the distance where the ski lift ends? That is one of the "tops" of the mountain on the Italian side. The gondola doesn't eve get you to where I'm taking this picture from! |
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Guilio said that there were avalanches in this direction a couple of weeks ago... |
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You could see even farther on a clear day! |
Monday morning (Day 2) I took my lesson which helped tremendously and calmed my nerves. My instructor's name was Giulio and he didn't really speak English but between his and my limited vocabularies we did alright. He kept calling me "Anna" and telling me to stand up rather than bend my knees as much as I was doing, hence the title of this post. Afterwards I felt so much more confident and spent the rest of the day on the slopes practicing on the "blue" runs, some of which really wouldn't be considered "blue" in the USA but rather "red."
Tuesday (Day 3) I didn't spend that much time out on the slopes because of the weather and the terrible visibility. It was snowing pretty hard up top and I'd say visibility was 15 yds at best. There were times when I couldn't even see the other side of the run, which really freaked me out considering I was in no position to handle what was definitely coming my way if I made a wrong turn. La Thuile is a serious skiing place, the majority of the slopes are red or black and nothing is well marked. I knew I could be in a dangerous situation if I pushed my luck.
We (my roommates and I) called it quits at about 10:30, returned our skis and went into town to walk around and get lunch. There's isn't a lot to do in town but we had a beautiful walk and a delicious lunch! I love snow and small country towns and pasta and cheese so I thought the day was absolutely great! Here are some pictures of the town and a video from the gondola I took while descending on Tuesday. Overall, a wonderful trip and so beautiful, if slightly terrifying!
sounds awesome!
ReplyDeleteps. thanks for the laughs as i was envisioning your falls lol
Ah Ann! I'm reading this and I can hear your voice perfectly in my head. Made a skype account. akkilihtne. Can't wait to talk to you!
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