cool ? cold ? or fun ?
How I learned to ski..
Was going to Davos & met a German (Ernst) guy on the train from Zurich to Davos. He was the cousin of a guy I worked with in Basel Sw. He only spoke a little English & I only a little German. I had borrowed skis from another guy I worked with & Ernst had borrowed his from his brother.
Neither of us had ever been skiing before. Ernst had instructions from his brother. It ended up we both had rooms at the same hotel. so we checked in & asked the desk guy where was a good place to start skiing. The desk guy said Jacobs Horn.
We got out out our borrowed stuff & caught the bus to the lift. We both had free lift tickets from the University.
The desk guy had told Ernst to go to the top where there was a restaurant & take the easy slope down. Desk guy did not know Ernst & I had never been on skiis before.
We went to the top of the lift ( a covered tram ) & then had a couple of beers. we watched all the folks leave on the slope & being bad ass macho freaks decided we would do the same.
Oh yes there was a snow storm at the time & you could only see about 20 meters, then whiteout..
so we got our stuff & went to the start area. I asked Ernst a few questions, like how to you get the boots into the skiis & stuff & Ernst asked passers by. Didn't help a lot since Ernst didn't know the english words for most of this.
So we headed out & onto the 'easy slope'. we stood around for a while & watched people. They came up, popped on the skiis & whoosh !! disappeared into the whiteout.
So we popped ours on & went. About, maybe 20 metrs the first time, then down. We stopped. What choice was there ? & looked up back at the start. couldn't figure out how to get back up there so decided to go on down. The run was about 1 K.
We finally made it to the bottom after about 2 hrs & 100 falls, covered with snow, wet with sweat & freezing.
all they had to get back up was a jbar lift that pulls you up the slope in a rut & no operators like in the USA, all self service. so we watched for a while to figure out how to use it.
so we got on the jbar lift & headed back up the mountain. about 50 meters from the top Ernst fell off. I was behind him, so I got tangeled up & fell off too.
There we were about where we had started at first fall.
so we took off our skiis & used them to stick in the snow & pull ourselves along. after about another hr we finally got back up to the start area. then we went back in the restr & had a few beers & rode the tram down.
next day Ernst found out where the little kids, age 5 or 6 learned & we went there for a few days & figured out how to do stuff & not get killed.
How I learned to ski..
Was going to Davos & met a German (Ernst) guy on the train from Zurich to Davos. He was the cousin of a guy I worked with in Basel Sw. He only spoke a little English & I only a little German. I had borrowed skis from another guy I worked with & Ernst had borrowed his from his brother.
Neither of us had ever been skiing before. Ernst had instructions from his brother. It ended up we both had rooms at the same hotel. so we checked in & asked the desk guy where was a good place to start skiing. The desk guy said Jacobs Horn.
We got out out our borrowed stuff & caught the bus to the lift. We both had free lift tickets from the University.
The desk guy had told Ernst to go to the top where there was a restaurant & take the easy slope down. Desk guy did not know Ernst & I had never been on skiis before.
We went to the top of the lift ( a covered tram ) & then had a couple of beers. we watched all the folks leave on the slope & being bad ass macho freaks decided we would do the same.
Oh yes there was a snow storm at the time & you could only see about 20 meters, then whiteout..
so we got our stuff & went to the start area. I asked Ernst a few questions, like how to you get the boots into the skiis & stuff & Ernst asked passers by. Didn't help a lot since Ernst didn't know the english words for most of this.
So we headed out & onto the 'easy slope'. we stood around for a while & watched people. They came up, popped on the skiis & whoosh !! disappeared into the whiteout.
So we popped ours on & went. About, maybe 20 metrs the first time, then down. We stopped. What choice was there ? & looked up back at the start. couldn't figure out how to get back up there so decided to go on down. The run was about 1 K.
We finally made it to the bottom after about 2 hrs & 100 falls, covered with snow, wet with sweat & freezing.
all they had to get back up was a jbar lift that pulls you up the slope in a rut & no operators like in the USA, all self service. so we watched for a while to figure out how to use it.
so we got on the jbar lift & headed back up the mountain. about 50 meters from the top Ernst fell off. I was behind him, so I got tangeled up & fell off too.
There we were about where we had started at first fall.
so we took off our skiis & used them to stick in the snow & pull ourselves along. after about another hr we finally got back up to the start area. then we went back in the restr & had a few beers & rode the tram down.
next day Ernst found out where the little kids, age 5 or 6 learned & we went there for a few days & figured out how to do stuff & not get killed.
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