babyblog

Ski Dude

D and I went skiing this afternoon for what is probably the last time this season. Last week we'd gone and had a fairly unsuccessful time as he'd freaked out during a lesson and refused to continue with it. He had a cold, was feeling under the weather, and combining that with his insecurities and the fact that one of his mates was doing really well, he had packed it in and wouldn't ski anymore. I didn't want that to be the thing he remembered about skiing this winter so I told him we'd go together, just the two of us, and take it easy and there be no pressure to go quickly or whatever.

My son, the timid one, the one who is too scared to take risks, this is.

So, we get on to the slope and he asks to go on the first stage of the hill a couple of times - it's just a small slope with a magic carpet lift on it, not very steep. We do that without problem, and then he says he feels up to doing the bigger run, the one that comes back up on a chairlift. OK, I say, and we go slowish down to the bottom. We do the chairlift (with me helping him on & off), we get back to the top, and we repeat the exercise.

On our 3rd run, my son, the timid one, the one who is too scared to take risks, decides that he's no longer timid or scared of taking risks, and decides to ski down VERY VERY FAST with his both ski's facing straight down the mountain, without turns or 'pizza wedge' (snow plow)'s to slow him down, coming to a halt at the bottom. I struggle to keep up. We reach the bottom and he is laughing and wants to do it again, faster. .

We do it again. FASTER.

By now, he is not pausing at all on the hill, the lifts are barely bothering him, and he's pelting down the mountain at enormous velocity with me going flat out behind him scared witless that I'm going to fall and trying (in vain) to catch him up.

3 hours later we had to finish as the place was closing down, much to his disgust.

Fanbloodytastic. Absolutely brilliant fun.

(except for the one time I waited a bit too long for him to get off the chairlift and ended up almost being taken back down so jumped off and faceplanted the snow while D laughed his socks off)