“Learning how to Ski at Thanksgiving”

 

Once upon a time I thought I needed to learn how to ski. So I signed up for a Thanksgiving holiday in the snow in Austria.

I had taken several trips (Paris, Brussels, Garmish) with the German railroad and enjoyed them all. I took the train from Wertheim all the way to Austria in about a day for my turkey week. It was a great trip, first class all the way.

I had a first class train compartment, ate in the first class dining car and had a great time with everyone on the train. I guess it took most of the day to get to Austria by train.

Now the problem we ran into was this off-season learn to-ski-trip for turkey should have had a lot of snow on the ground for the vacation. The real snow season did not start for another month. Most years Austria has snow a long time before Thanksgiving. However on this trip I noticed there was very little snow on the ground as we entered Austria from Germany.

The train I was on arrived in the little Austrian town (do not remember the name) and we were amazed that we were greeted by Australians and not Austrians. Strange but true.

Seems the Australians had come to Austria for fun and drink and decided to stay and bought several pubs and hotels in this little town. The hotel I was staying in was owned by Australians and not Austrians. This was not a bad deal since they all spoke English of sorts for sure. Now by the time the week was up, my English had developed a little accent.

The hotel was great. It was a four-story building right out of the storybooks. Hanzel and Gretel could have been in the room next to mine. The town was in a valley with mountains all about us, a large stream ran through the property, and there were slopes all around us. If we would have had a lot of snow we could have learned to ski on these gentle slopes right outside the hotel door. The hotel looked old like it had been in this little town for centuries.

However this hotel was very modern and was only five years old. My room was a suite, king size bed, TV (Austrian) and VCR, kitchenette, bath and toilet in the room.

The Australian owners were not about to let any of us be shy and made sure we all participated in all of the scheduled events whether we wanted to or not. They just seemed to have the personality to get you involved even if you did not want to. Some people can make you feel at ease even if you do not usually feel at ease that quickly. So before we had a chance to do anything we were ushered into the hotel bar and given drinks and told about traditions in the valley and how everyone skied no matter what.

After about five or six prost and toast of beer, ale, wine, and who knows what, none of us were feeling any pain. You must remember I do not drink often and when I do drink it does not take much to make me feel no pain.

Our Australian host talked to us about the problem of not having enough snow to learn how to ski but advised us all, they had that covered and would make sure we had a place to learn how to ski.

It was Friday afternoon when we arrived and we were schedule to be in the area until Friday morning of the next week. So we all figured we would be waiting for snow. We were wrong about that; these Australians were a wild bunch and did not wait on much. We had fun dancing, talking and drinking all-night and ended up in a very large hot tub by 1:00 AM. I am not sure when we got back to our rooms, but some how we did.

We were up at 8:00 AM and in the large meeting area of the hotel where there was a very large fireplace and lots of breakfast food. It was at this time we learned we had to get our skis and ski gear and be ready to get on the bus by 10:00 AM. We were going to go to snow since snow had not come to us overnight.

Thirty of us ate, got our gear, and boarded the bus. It was a wild ride of sight seeing and singing for about one hour. The mountains, trees, roads, and other scenery were unbelievable and took your breath away. We could tell we were steadily going up, up, and up as we drove along.

We arrived at another ski resort and had to get in line with many other ski vacationers who also were looking for snow. All of this by the way was paid for with my German Rail Vacation pass. I should have know at this point this ski vacation was going to get even wilder when we saw the bullet train being boarded by all the skiers. The train rails seemed to go up, up, up and up into a covered shoot of sorts and then disappeared into the clouds. So with that in mind anyone should have known we were not going to be learning to ski on nice rising and falling slopes like we had at the hotel.

I also noticed that most of the skiers had numerous tags hanging on their jackets and ski togs. Now we all got a tag to hang on our jackets to let the ski resort owners know we had paid our bullet train and ski pass fees.

I just could not figure out why most people had other tags still on their jackets. I later learned ski types like to show off where they had been skiing up to a year ago.

Well I got on the bullet train and noticed my car had six seats in it with full chest harness. I could not figure out why we needed a full chest harness to ride the train.

I should have taken a hint from the name of the train "Bullet". We all got into our harness and a train conductor of sorts came by and made sure we had the harness on correctly so we would not fall out of the train. That is right, the windows were open on these cars. Then all of a sudden the train jolted and we were off. I felt like I was in the ride at six flags that goes straight up. I was ok because I left my stomach at the starting platform and that kept me from getting sick like numerous others did on the way up.

We must have traveled two miles up the side of the mountain in about a minute. We were at the top before I could catch my breath. This made it seem like we had not traveled far at all, just straight up. As we started we entered the tube and then all of a sudden we were out of the tube and still sitting pointed straight up. We got out of the train and found we were in a very snowy area, snow was falling, snow was on the ground and there were a lot of people skiing.

We got off the train and our Australian guides and host came and got us, and took us over to the Ski Lodge. We got our directions and assignments while in the lodge. Some were going to the lifts for the intermediate and expert slopes while some of us were going to the beginner slope.

Seven of us were learning how to ski. The lady who was going to teach us how to ski was great looking and obviously a great skier. We walked out of the lodge and walked about two hundred yards up the slope from the lodge. This took us past the lifts into the on coming skiers who were skiing down from the upper slopes.

We learned a lot the first day and in fact were able to ski after several hours of practice. Now the trick was to stay out of the way of the experienced skies who were coming down the slope after taking their lives in their hands for the last two hours of speed skiing down that slope.

We were getting brave, we were skiing and having fun and moving further and further up the slope each hour. We would side walk up the slope about fifty yards, then ski down the slope about a hundred yards, and then repeat the drill again. The day came to an end at 7:00 PM and we had been out there about 6 hours without even knowing it. We were beat, tired and run down and did not even know it. Now it was time for us along with everyone one else on the mountain to head to the lodge and get back on the bullet train and then the bus and head home to the hotel and a party.

Each of us took a turn of moving down the slope toward the lodge. Finally the instructor decided we were doing well enough to all head down the slope for home.

The instructor signaled for me to start off and for the others to follow. We were to stay to the side of the main down hill slope in order to stay out of the way of the experts.

I had all the moves down, I started off and all was going well. I was doing everything the instructor had taught me. However I was picking up speed and was not having any luck slowing down.

Then it happened, I hit a bump and jumped about five feet into the air.

I knew it was all over at that moment and knew I was about to crash and burn. Then I hit the snow and kept going.

I was impressed, I had done all I had been taught and it was all working and I was still in one piece after being air born.

I notice my speed was still picking up, the slope was getting steeper and my slowing technique was not working.

I hit another bump and was air born again, but this time I was really air born. I jumped over several skiers that were passing under the slope I had just jumped and I was still going.

It seemed like I was in the air forever but it was only seconds. I did not stop to look at my watch but I was in the air for a very long time.

I hit the snow hard and was still standing and still skiing by some miracle. Then as several skiers skied by me I realized they were not in my learn to ski group which meant I had ended up on the main ski slope with the good skiers. Those folks who knew what they were doing.

I was impressed with myself and just leaned into the skies, tucked my poles in and decided I would ski on down to the lodge which was now a lot closer than it had been all day.

I could hear my instructor yelling "Great Job Bob" and the rest of the students yelling "way to go."

Then as the lodge got closer and closer, I realized I had not practiced stopping at this speed or any other speed and did not know if I could do it right or not. As I got closed and closer to the lodge I could see all the skiers ending their run and standing at the bottom of the slope.

I kept trying to remember how to stop, lean left, slide left, and lay down if need be. I had been good at lying down to stop all day. I was not sure that would be a good idea at 50+ mph.

I was going to have to do something since the skiers at the bottom of the slope were in my way and did not appear to be getting out of my way.

I could see it now, I was going to ski into them and kill them all or worse, ski by them and off the side of the mountain.

These were not the thoughts I needed. I again started thinking of sliding and stopping.

Now you must remember all of this was taking place in only a few minutes and only covered about a mile of the slope. That mile was like a hundred miles to me and those few minutes were like all day.

I could hear my instructor yelling what a great job I was doing. Little did she know I was about to die and take a bunch of skiers with me.

When you are young none of this seems to bother you like it would today. Ha Ha

The lodge was getting real close and I could see the faces of the skiers who had finished their run down the slope. It was at this moment when I thought this could not get any worse when another skier came by me on the left and then cut in front of me causing me to veer to my right onto a jumper slope.

This was not good, not good at all.

Now my entire life was flashing in front of my eyes, and that was not good either.

I thought I had been air born previously, well I mean to tell you this time I was up, up and away. I could see nothing but clear blue sky.

Now the crowd at the bottom of the slope had some how figured out I was a beginner (wonder how) and were all yelling and clapping and having a good old time. Little did they know I was about to land and ski into them and push them off the mountain.

After what seemed like a lifetime I landed, managed to stay on my feet, and was only twenty yards from the crowd.

So I did the only thing I could think of. I leaned left, and turned onto my left side and low and behold I completed an almost perfect side-ways lay-down stop. I was only five feet from about fifteen skiers who had been watching me come down the hill. They were covered with snow from my stop but at least they were still standing.

Now I was in fear of having a heart attack right there and then, but none of the other skiers had a clue I did not know what I was doing.

As I got up everyone was slapping me on the back and telling me what a great job I had done on my first day.

Then my Australian instructor and the rest of the class showed up. Everyone thought what I had done was great, even if a little dangerous for my first effort. I on the other hand wanted to get down and kiss the snow, but had just been down there on the snow and did not need to be face down on the snow now.

This was my best and last day on the slopes as an expert beginner skier.

I made the trip to the slopes every day that week and skied because I had paid for learning how to do this. I just made sure I did not have any further air born trips and kept the speed as slow as I could and still be standing.

We all made it back down the mountain in the bullet train (that day and all the other days, (that is another story), we all had a great ride on the bus back to the hotel and partied all night long every night all week.

Those were the days when I could do things like ski all day and party all nigh and then get up and do it again the next day.

The week went quickly, kind of like a blur, but I had fun and enjoyed every minute of it.

I have not skied since that week in Austria with my Australian friends. I have also not partied as much since those days. One encounter with death on the slopes was enough but fun after all.