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Killington 2012-01-29 -- Taking the girl I love skiing for her first time

bdfreetuna

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keep the faith
To cut to the chase, conditions were overall great at Killington.... really soft snow and nice powder.. They had WAY to many ropes up though on trails I would have totally skiied and they looked totally legit to ski.

Anyway, I wasn't out there to slay the mountain that day. I was out there to introduce the love of my life to my favorite past time.

We had gone out for like 4 years, then broke up as our paths took different courses, and just a month or so ago we started to really reconnect. I asked her if she wanted to go skiing and she said she would love to try it.

Since I am an expert skier I assumed I would be an expert ski instructer. That turned out to be mostly not true ;)

Anyway, we got up there early and rented her some skis. They wanted to give her like 140mm skis since it was her first time but I was like come on I ski 185s and anything less than 160 isn't a real ski... so she ended up with 150's or 160's I don't remember... at least a decent pair of Rossignol Bandit rental skis and she is like 5'10" so she dont need no short ass skies...

Anyway... we took a couple runs down Snowdon or Snowshed or whatever the easier mountain is. Her first time riding up the lift was slightly scary they had to slow it down a little but it was fine. She got off the lift okay and I taught her how to snowplow and go real slow while I was skiing backwards giving her tips the whole way down.

She fell a few times but did pretty well. So we took like 4 runs like that and she started to get fairly confident and was having fun even though she did wipe out a bunch of times.. at least the snow was soft that day and she mostly laughed it off.

Then I came up with a stupid idea. "Lets go on the K-1 Gondola that will be fun!"

So we rode up that and by that point her legs were already getting tired. We took the green circle all the way down but she fell a bunch of times and I could tell she was getting frustrated and her legs were just not conditioned to skiing and she had a hard time setting her skies straight across the mountain and standing up a few times. She started to get frustrated but she was trying her best.

We got about halfway down when she just needed to take a break, because its a long way down the Gondola to the K-1 base lodge and her legs were really giving out. A ski patrol came by and noticed we were just sitting there and she was frustrated, so we talked to him for a while.

We came to the decision that we might as well get her a sled ride down the rest of the hill. The sled was there in 5 minutes and I grabbed her skies and followed the sled down. She was slightly embarrased but she also had fun on the sled. I said "Thank you SOOOO much" and shook his hand and he was like "Dude, it's totally my pleasure"

Ski Patrol RULES and Killington mountain ambassadors are the real deal. She could have probably gotten down the rest of the way but by the point her legs were so tired and they just really saved us a heck of a lot of frustration and they were so cool about it.

We got back to the lodge, had a few drinks, had some food and a lovely chat. I took her out to a nice restaurant afterwards and overall she had to admit it was an incredible day although a little intense and maybe next time I should get her some actual ski lessons instead of trying to do it myself.

In the end.... it went very well considering.

Here is a picture of us at the top of the K-1 gondola... this was before her legs gave out and she was still having a good time ;)

f9hzi9.png
 

Nick

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Glad she was cool with it.

I have a good Killington story. When my wife and I were first dating (literally a month into our relationship), we went to Killington on a weeklong trip during college break.

Anyway, we went to the top of the K1 gondola same. It was myself, my girlfriend, a good friend of mine and his girlfriend. Anyway, my buddy and i decide we are going to ski down the steeper stuff and we will just meet the girls at the bottom.

Long story short, they get lost, end up in a mogul field somewhere, and we didn't see them again for almost three hours. (this was when not everyone had a cell phone). Whoops.

That, and my Wachusett experience where I had to go back down the lift, are both in my book of shame :lol:
 

oakapple

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Anyway, we got up there early and rented her some skis. They wanted to give her like 140mm skis since it was her first time but I was like come on I ski 185s and anything less than 160 isn't a real ski... so she ended up with 150's or 160's I don't remember... at least a decent pair of Rossignol Bandit rental skis and she is like 5'10" so she dont need no short ass skies...
Well, there you go: the shorter the ski, the easier it is for a beginner to control. Not that she would have been parallel turning on the 140s, but they would have been better for her.
 

mlkrgr

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Glad she was cool with it.

I have a good Killington story. When my wife and I were first dating (literally a month into our relationship), we went to Killington on a weeklong trip during college break.

Anyway, we went to the top of the K1 gondola same. It was myself, my girlfriend, a good friend of mine and his girlfriend. Anyway, my buddy and i decide we are going to ski down the steeper stuff and we will just meet the girls at the bottom.

Long story short, they get lost, end up in a mogul field somewhere, and we didn't see them again for almost three hours. (this was when not everyone had a cell phone). Whoops.

That, and my Wachusett experience where I had to go back down the lift, are both in my book of shame :lol:

Agreed; that's the thing that if you split up to ski steeper stuff, you can easily get lost. It's easy enough to get unintentionally lost as I thought I was skiing slow the day I went with my friend to Stratton down a black diamond. I was paying too much to what I was doing myself and so I then got a good distance down and noticed my friends weren't behind me. Took 3 hours there to get back with them (should have been 2 but they were at a bar open that day that's usually closed).

As far as introducing a never ever GF, I'd probably do it on a local hill first as I would be one of the types to say taking the K1 up would be fun too.
 

skidbump

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To cut to the chase, conditions were overall great at Killington.... really soft snow and nice powder.. They had WAY to many ropes up though on trails I would have totally skiied and they looked totally legit to ski.

Anyway, I wasn't out there to slay the mountain that day. I was out there to introduce the love of my life to my favorite past time.

We had gone out for like 4 years, then broke up as our paths took different courses, and just a month or so ago we started to really reconnect. I asked her if she wanted to go skiing and she said she would love to try it.

Since I am an expert skier I assumed I would be an expert ski instructer. That turned out to be mostly not true ;)

Anyway, we got up there early and rented her some skis. They wanted to give her like 140mm skis since it was her first time but I was like come on I ski 185s and anything less than 160 isn't a real ski... so she ended up with 150's or 160's I don't remember... at least a decent pair of Rossignol Bandit rental skis and she is like 5'10" so she dont need no short ass skies...

Anyway... we took a couple runs down Snowdon or Snowshed or whatever the easier mountain is. Her first time riding up the lift was slightly scary they had to slow it down a little but it was fine. She got off the lift okay and I taught her how to snowplow and go real slow while I was skiing backwards giving her tips the whole way down.

She fell a few times but did pretty well. So we took like 4 runs like that and she started to get fairly confident and was having fun even though she did wipe out a bunch of times.. at least the snow was soft that day and she mostly laughed it off.

Then I came up with a stupid idea. "Lets go on the K-1 Gondola that will be fun!"

So we rode up that and by that point her legs were already getting tired. We took the green circle all the way down but she fell a bunch of times and I could tell she was getting frustrated and her legs were just not conditioned to skiing and she had a hard time setting her skies straight across the mountain and standing up a few times. She started to get frustrated but she was trying her best.

We got about halfway down when she just needed to take a break, because its a long way down the Gondola to the K-1 base lodge and her legs were really giving out. A ski patrol came by and noticed we were just sitting there and she was frustrated, so we talked to him for a while.

We came to the decision that we might as well get her a sled ride down the rest of the hill. The sled was there in 5 minutes and I grabbed her skies and followed the sled down. She was slightly embarrased but she also had fun on the sled. I said "Thank you SOOOO much" and shook his hand and he was like "Dude, it's totally my pleasure"

Ski Patrol RULES and Killington mountain ambassadors are the real deal. She could have probably gotten down the rest of the way but by the point her legs were so tired and they just really saved us a heck of a lot of frustration and they were so cool about it.

We got back to the lodge, had a few drinks, had some food and a lovely chat. I took her out to a nice restaurant afterwards and overall she had to admit it was an incredible day although a little intense and maybe next time I should get her some actual ski lessons instead of trying to do it myself.

In the end.... it went very well considering.

Here is a picture of us at the top of the K-1 gondola... this was before her legs gave out and she was still having a good time ;)

f9hzi9.png


And this is why you never teach someone to ski who is your Spouse,significant other ,or your child.Also it quite obvious that you pushed her way beyond he abilities just so you could ski a shitty wrap around.
 

WWF-VT

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An "expert skier" would never have gotten themselves into a situation where the first timer that they were skiing with needed to take a sled down due to fatigue and frustration. I hope you made a big donation to the Killington ski patrol for bailing you out.
 

Cheese

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She has a nice smile. It's too bad you took it away from her on her first skiing experience. Expert instructors know that the most important thing they can do is make it fun enough that a student will return for another lesson. Next time, listen to the advice given from the rental shop, care enough about your girl to pony up for a legitimate lesson, buy her a nice lunch after she completes the lesson and then return to the same trail(s) that her instructor taught her on so not to preempt her learning by removing her from her comfort zone.
 

Puck it

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You know. I was thinking that it was BD move too! I would never have put a beginner in that position.
 

skidbump

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As someone who only works with first time skiers i would like to say
It only takes approx 3 hours to get someone from the beginner bump "10 ft long pitch to flat run out" to green trails when they come in for a lesson at Belleayre.In the 1 to 1.5 hrs of the 15 dollar lesson they are taught balance and stance thru wedge turns to stop.After they graduate we send them to the tow handle to practice what we taught and most make it to the green lift after 2 or 3 runs down the 100 yrd bunny trail.
THE ONLY WAY SHE WOULD HAVE BEEN EXHAUSTED IS BECAUSE YOU HAD HER IN A POWER WEDGE FROM MINUTE 1.
Feel sorry for her and i don't even know her.Hope you didn't scar her for life.
I have had people who couldn't do it but we have a 99% success rate on a 2 turn and turn to stop final station.

Dude you did a major injustice to your girlfriend.
 

andrec10

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As someone who only works with first time skiers i would like to say
It only takes approx 3 hours to get someone from the beginner bump "10 ft long pitch to flat run out" to green trails when they come in for a lesson at Belleayre.In the 1 to 1.5 hrs of the 15 dollar lesson they are taught balance and stance thru wedge turns to stop.After they graduate we send them to the tow handle to practice what we taught and most make it to the green lift after 2 or 3 runs down the 100 yrd bunny trail.
THE ONLY WAY SHE WOULD HAVE BEEN EXHAUSTED IS BECAUSE YOU HAD HER IN A POWER WEDGE FROM MINUTE 1.
Feel sorry for her and i don't even know her.Hope you didn't scar her for life.
I have had people who couldn't do it but we have a 99% success rate on a 2 turn and turn to stop final station.

Dude you did a major injustice to your girlfriend.

+1
 
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