Timepass at Steven's Pass

Hobbies - Skiing, mountain climbing and scuba diving.

Something like this in the hobbies column of your blog gives an impression that you are one of a freaky kind. I always wanted to do something adventerous like this. Eventually I got a chance to experiment with one of these and only then did I realize that these aren't as easy as they look. Rather a day at the mountains has really drained me off.

It all started with our division wanting to celebrate the successful launch of a few products and so the VP announced that Feb 28 will be a ski day at Stevens Pass. I was delightfully looking forward to the day. So were the other poor folks who were also first timers.

I know that its going to be bizzarely cold in the snow out there. So I wore thermal inners, a thick jeans, a woolean sweat shirt and a jacket which can withstand snow. Thinking I am smart enough to dress for the occasion, I drove down to office. When I got down from the car I saw this tall hefty man walk past me with a pair of leather gloves.

"Oops...Why am I so stupid !!! How on earth did I miss my gloves !!!" Well and it was too late for me to go and fetch them from home.

Then when I walked out a found a whole lot of people in their snow coats and skiing trousers. For a moment I thought I was out of place but my jacket which resembled a snow coat saved me some grace. At this point I realized something. Your fellow desis will never let you down. I saw a bunch of desi guys who had first timers written all over them, walking by. I can already hear one of them say Areh yaar..bahuth tand lah rahi hey. I thougth to myself "If these fellows find this cold, I am sure they are going to freeze in the mountains. I am much better!!!"

Then the long two hour journey to Steven's pass started by bus

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No sooner than we got down from the bus we were directed to go and pick up our rental equipments. It was snowing slightly and "Oh God here I am again without a cap or a hood". Then this babe comes and asks me

"First time in snow"

"Not really, I am pretty used to this"

"Oh...so you are so used that you can walk without a cap is it great"

(Me didn't want to act too much)

"Well its just with a friend of mine in his bag, just got to go and grab it"

In order to save myself, I went and bought one - at an expensive price.

Then went to pick up the equipments.

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The equipments given to us consisted of a pair of ski boots, a pair of skis with bindings on them and a pair of ski poles. Anything else like ski coats, helmets, goggles,etc was left to the individual to take care of.

The ski boots were awesome. You can do all your free weights exercises that you do at the gym at home if you have a pair of these ski boots. Trust me they were as heavy as a rock. The boots will hold you tight up to half your knee height and so you just can't move your ankle. Walking in them makes you feel as if you are a robot. But then slowly I got used to it. I then rented ski coats and trousers and it took a whole damn hour to get set up.

There were some lessons offered. I realized I wasn't the odd one out for there was too many people taking it - doing this for the first time.

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The initial skiing on a flat surface was pretty simple. But then when we got into tricks on how to climb up a slope, climb down a slope, slow down etc is when I learnt how hard it is. Back when I was learning physics in high school there used to be problems that talked about frictionless surfaces. Well the skiing surface probably came pretty close.

Everytime I tried to slow down or take a turn while skiing down hill I fell down. Standing up isn't an easy thing to do with those rocks restricking anny ankle movements. It requires an amazing amount of skill to turn around and get up with all those equipments on you. It is also a good test of whether you are starting to put on weight. For if you can't bend, hold your toes and get up you will have to remain on the ice. If you have excess fat on your belly, then you probably can't do this - made me realize that French fries and chocolates aren't all that good for the body.

Then I learnt a technique where I can remove one ski and get up. This wasn't easy either for as soon as you get up you will ski down with the other ski and fall again. So after a lot of effort the first thing I perfected is - how to get up when I fall down.

They taught us how to fall down without crashing into others and with little injuries to your body. Still It wasn't all that pleasing to fall down for it really hurted - excepting once when I fell down because this gorgeous babe skiing beside happened to crash into me. Thunbathilum inbam.

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At the end of the day when we were about to wind up, I finally managed to ski downhill without falling off. Did it a couple of times and left the place a contended man. Now when this Bandha Paramasivam (general name given to any guy who just drives an aeroplane by his mouth) caught me over chat from Bangalore I could say Well buddy I was chilling out in the mountains doing some skiing. Had a good nights sleep and until I got up from bed this morning did not know so many body parts existed for it was paining like hell.