Broken Hearted..

Skiing is a dance, and the mountain always leads.  ~Author Unknown

Forgive the title, but I tend toward the melodramatic when the Lech vacation ends and Russians replace us in the tages bar. Nothing against Russians; (they add a certain dramatic flair to the sauna) but they are not the faces of my friends...

Had an interesting last day with Lisi. (Ya just knew she wasn't going to let me off easy.) It was me and F and Sophie, age 10, who skies like the wind. There was no visibility and plenty of ice and bad skiers; so both Thomas and Lisi warned me to be extra careful. Lisi even told me that the first and the last days of one's ski holidays were notorious for accidents. Then she took away my poles and sped off.
After about an hour of me following 20 seconds behind everyone in the fog, Lisi pulled me aside and asked what the hell I was doing.
"? I'm being careful.."
Then she proceeded to give me a pep talk that sounded somewhere between that of Knute Rockne and George Patton. She told me that I was "such a good technical skier"; she told me that she could see the Harumi influence in me (that's when I started licking her face); but then she told me quite simply to step on it; this was no time to be comfortable-she wanted me to be uncomfortable- with the crowds and ice and fog and pistes littered with injured bodies...I should feel that discomfort. 

I am not making this up. First she tells me that the last day of skiing is the most dangerous; then she tells me to man up and ski faster. Chip chop and no you can not have your poles, and shut up about the ice. She is quite mad that woman; I love her so...

I have not even told you about the day she got me up early, mumbling something about a hike in an area far from here. The next thing I knew I was being pulled along with my skis on -like a deer after he has been shot... but is now water skiing. (So he is dead and scared.)
It's called a ski-do and I had never seen it before. One remains on one's skis and then a semi drunk looking local arrives in a "quad" with treads on the bottom of it and a large group of skiers grabs the rope. 

The guides are screaming something into the wind about DO NOT ACHTENFLUGEN or you will SCHNIZTZELCARPEN! ! 

'WHAT??" Don't do WHAT???
But there is no time for instructions because the driver takes off at high speed, turning this way and that on the icy, bumpy road. I am loudly praying that the person in front of me doesn't fall. Because if he does, I will have to react quickly enough to ski around him, or risk crashing. And then I will be left to die in the woods.
I survived this ordeal, only to find Lisi had planned a three hour walk over hill and dale; skins on, skins off; skies on skies off until i considered crying for my mother. Who am I kidding? I was crying for Frau Schneider. 

Despite the hell of it all, here is the reason why I do it- here is why people ski:

Skiing reminds you that your instincts are sometimes, exactly wrong:
To be safe in skiing, you have to throw yourself a bit down the hill; you have to lean off the cliff; lean towards the fear, even though you have doubt. 

And this I believe is called faith.

I was recently reading an article about happiness, and it seems happiness is a simple two part process (who knew?) 

Feel the pain

Dissolve the pain

Do not skip a step.

That's pretty much what I do with Lisi and Harumi:  I experience doubt and fear and pain. And then I get lunch.

So onward to 2016! 

Here's to more adventure, more love, more tiny victories over the mind and body, more time together;  

pain, 

dissolve, 

repeat. 

See you soon xx

ski-do skeptic

Me, my underage bartender and my nose ringed dancing partner....