The hopelessness, the adrenaline, and the happiness afterwards, was like nothing I've ever been through before.
So we were skiing, and this was my first time in life.
Hired all the ski equipment, and bought tickets for the ski lift. (Bolded because this is a crucial matter in this story)
Now walking in the ski boots are tricky. First of all, it was pretty heavy. And tight. The material was pretty hard, So you can't move much. You kinda need to lean forward a little, and let the boots hold your body weight. It's just hard to walk in.
From the ski equipment rental, we needed to take a shuttle bus to The Village, where we had lunch. From The Village, we needed to take another shuttle bus to the Ski School.
The ski class lasted for about 2 hours.
I kinda got the hang of it. I could somehow stop, somehow turned right, somehow turned left.. Not quite there, but things were done. Beginner. Level 0.1.
Looking at our current state, the instructor suggested us only to play at the carpet, which was just a slight slope for beginners. Nothing too extreme. So we played around at the carpet for a while.
But, thinking that we bought the tickets for the lift already, it would be such a waste not to use it.
We could see what we thought was the end of it, and it wasn't too high up. So we decided to take the lift to a higher plane.
So we took the lift, sat down, protected by the safety bar as the lift brought us higher. Pass the building where we thought it would stop. Way pass it. It went on forever and brought all of us to the freaking top of the mountain. I actually had the thought of jumping down from the lift halfway, because it just keeps going on further. The fluffy snow will catch me anyway. But of course I didn't la, and I'm glad I didn't, cos the next day I watched a movie and found out that you can break your legs that way. With bones sticking out and stuff.
The guy raised the safety bar so quickly it hit my nose. He apologized. Pain immediately zapped and if it wasn't for the thought that I am stuck on the top of a mountain with no skills to go down, I would've wept so hard. It swelled immediately, you could've felt the bump. It turned blue the next day.
So three of us were up there: Me, Mikey, and Ko Ceka. Me and Ko Ceka were complete beginners, while Mikey has had some experience before. It was snowing quite heavily, and everything was white. It was pretty, and at the same time, deadly. You can't see past 10 metres.
Searched google to show you how it was like, and this came close. Didn't take any pics of my own up there. Was too terrified.
And the slope, it was HORROR. It was super steep (for my beginner eyes)!!! Gosh it was really scary.
Mikey went off first, and he fell down at the bottom of the first slope. I went off, and fell rolling not long after. Tried to stand up but it was so hard. FYI, standing up with your ski on is super difficult. Instructor himself said it was difficult. Your best bet was taking the ski off, stand up, and reattach it. He did mention another way: First making sure your ski isn't facing downwards or upwards (lest you would just slide off), being horizontal to the slope, and than use the ski poles to push yourself up. Tried the second method, and succeeded. So I kept going, only to fall again seconds later, this time detaching the ski off my shoe.
So I picked up my ski, walked to where Mikey was waiting for me, and he helped me attach my ski to my boots again. That was when I found out that Anes, another mighty beginner, took the lift up there too. It was such a facepalm moment, it was almost funny.
It was around 4.30, and we must return our ski equipment at 5, so Mikey went off first. Ko Ceka followed not long after, leaving me and Anes behind. We were so lost, yet we could still joke around up there, singing Hillsong's "Mercy Mercy". Yeah, we were in deep need of God's mercy that time.
We tried to wait for each other, deciding to go one lift pillar at a time.
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| What I meant by lift pillar. Don't know what it's called. |
It was somehow very hard to stop or slow down. I tried everything the instructor taught us to do, yet always ended up falling down. I fell countless times, detaching my ski a few times. I crashed onto the first pillar and waited for Anes there. Then he went on to the next pillar, crashed onto it, and waited for me there. I followed, and couldn't stop. He needed to catch me so that I could stop. We went off, and I didn't know what happened, but we were separated.
I ended up alone, not knowing if he was behind me or in front of me, or if he was waiting for me or not. At that time it felt like I haven't even covered one fifth of the journey back down. I didn't know how much longer I needed to go.
And I was scared, because I know I know nothing about skiing, no experience whatsoever, and therefore I know I have no control over the situation. The overwhelming feeling of you cannot. It's like asking a preschooler to answer
. They can't, no matter how hard they would try. There are just too many elements unknown to them. What is lim? What is x? Why is there a line there? It is beyond what they know of. Exactly how I felt.The ski accelerates pretty quickly. Within 2 seconds I would feel that I was going way too fast, and I would try to slow down, which always results in my falling and rolling down. I have fell down in every way possible. I fell rolling backwards, rolling frontwords, crashing sideways, sitting down, flat on my back, flat on my face, in a split position, losing the left ski, losing the right ski, anything you can think of without breaking any bones.
Standing up once was hard enough. Not to mention a million of times. It was such an upper body workout. I fell too many times that I was such a pro in standing up already. And it was very tiring.
I was breathing very hard, you could hear me breathe. It was noisy.
My glasses were covered with frozen snow, so that didn't help. Without the glasses, everything is blurry because of my degree. With the glasses on, everything was still unclear because of the frozen snow. Decided to keep the glasses on.
Everytime I fell, a sense of hopelessness rushed in.
Not again! How long do I need to go? It's past 5 o'clock. How am I going to return all this? Where is Anes?
Everytime a ski falls off, I needed to attach it by myself. You need to stand up steady (which was a little tricky due to the slope), insert the top of your shoe to the slot, and step hard with the heel until the thing locks up. That too, was tiring. I was sliding all over the place, alone, on a cold snowy mountain, trying to step hard and lock the thing. The sight of a locked ski was such a good feeling.
Being up there gave me all the time to look at the view. It was all white and very pretty, ironically. Like a dream. Everyone was a stranger, and I felt really alone.
A few times after a fall, I would just lay there because I was too tired to move. Yet giving up was no option. If I didn't keep going, there was no way I could reach the bottom. Can't get back to the lift, and there was no other means of going down.
So I kept going and falling, until I saw a silhouette of a building in my limited range of vision.
The best feeling ever.
I went on, crashed for my last time, took the ski off, and gladly walked to the building.
Then I realized it wasn't the building I started off at. The ski school was red in color. This one is blue. I had no idea where I was. So I asked a stranger where the ski school was, and she said I needed to walk up. Turned out I skied pass where the others was, and climbing up would be very tough. The ski boots are already heavy and hard to walk in, and I am depleted of energy. Tit tut tit tut.
I asked her where The Village was, and she had no idea. But somehow I felt that I need to go down instead of going back up to the Ski School. I felt that The Village was near. So I kept walking down until I saw another lady. I asked her where The Village was, and she told me it was just down the road. I couldn't believe it!
"Really? The Village where there's restaurants and stuff?"
"Yes"
"Just down the road?"
"Yes"
I thanked her happily, and made my way slowly to the village, in my heavy boots, carrying my ski equipments, one step at the time.
That's when I accidentally looked at the sky, and the view was unbelievable. The sky was coral due to the sunset, and the clouds. They were so near! The clouds are just at your eye level! It was beautiful! There was this brief divine moment, looking at that view. God blew me away.
Yet, I didn't take any pictures because I was still a little panicked from being separated from the others. I tried calling Anes, no answer. Called Ko Ceka, he answered.
He told me he was already on his way back to the ski rental, which was a huge relief. It was my first contact with them after what seemed like eternity. At least I know where the others were. Then he asked me if I was with Anes.
And I wasn't.
So Anes was still missing.
Then, right after I hung up, there was a Whatsapp message from Anes asking me what my phone number was, and for me to wait for him. I called him, and turned out he was at the Ski School. I was again, so relieved.
I made my way to the shuttle bus, which made its way to the ski rental. When I got there, the ski rental guys was waiting for me. They were ready to close. It was past 5 o'clock. I apologized, returned everything back to them, and wearing my own shoes again was the best feeling ever. Later on I realized that the front part of my legs hurt, the part where the end of the ski boots hugged my legs.
Until this very moment, it still hurts. But not that bad. And my nose still hurts too.
I went into the car quickly, and not long after, Anes came along.
Having all five of us in the car, finally, healthily, was very comforting. You could easily sprain your ankle, falling down the way we fell. Guess the heavy boots protected us!
Then, on the way back, Jen said that the stars were amazing. I looked out, and it was. I've never seen stars as clear as what I saw that night. There were A LOT of them! And it was breathtaking!! I kept looking at it until I fell asleep in the car.
No exaggeration, it really was close to something like this. Maybe a little darker, but the amount of stars were this much.
Kudos for Mikey and Ko Ceka for driving! Can't imagine having to drive another 4 hours after all that.
It was a moment in life that I'll never forget.
Did I regret taking the lift?
Not one bit.
>:)
Yolo, bro.
