12.23.2014
I was about six years old when I first learned to ski. Since then, I have skied in many different types of terrain and weather. Moguls and trees no longer cause me distress, and having been raised in Edmonton where the weather likes to dip down to negative 40-something degrees Celsius, cold weather just means taking more breaks to warm up.
However, nothing could have prepared me for what was to come.
It was a skier’s worst nightmare. Freezing. Rain. It stuck to my goggles like a kaleidoscope of distortion. It was as though the world was painted over in cubism, but Picasso’s colour palate was only white and shadows. When I took off my goggles, my eyes and cheeks were pelted with frozen water droplets. There was no winning this battle against Mother Nature.
Instead, I was forced to try and use my body heat to melt the ice off my goggles with my hand and then scrape it off. With the cool breeze covering me with a thin sheet of ice, I had very little body heat, so my dad had to scrape my goggles for me for the three to four runs I did that day.
My lack of body heat was making me tired, and I felt like I wasn’t in control while I was skiing through the trees. At one point, I managed to get the front of my skis stuck in a snow bank in an attempt to slow down. It worked, however it was somewhat difficult to excavate my skis afterwards.
With my own safety in question, I decided to call it a day. As I went down the 7-minute gondola to the condo, I moved my phone, which was telling me my phone needed to cool down at this point (silly phone, so confused), inside my jacket. I wasn’t able to turn it on until it had warmed up after I had turned the fire place on in the condo.
Although Day 3 wasn’t a very big ski day, I managed to finally warm up and rest up for an impromptu Day 4. After all, what better way to spend Christmas Eve than by playing with your early Christmas present on the hill!
Day 4, the last day in the Revelstoked series, coming soon!
