In sports, fitness, and goal setting they say it is not important how many times you fall, but how many times you get back up and try again. Recently, I experienced a very big fall.
I am 41 years old. Recently, I tried downhill skiing for the first time.
Nagano is a beautiful area for skiing. So I thought that it would be a waste to live here and not learn how to ski. After all, sitting indoors by the heater all day gets pretty boring during a long winter.
My only prior experience in skiing was over 30 years ago. I went cross-country skiing in the Cascade Mountains. It was fun, but for some reason or another, that was the only ski trip my family ever took.
It has been something I have wanted to do for a long time. My oldest son knows how to ski, but my six-year-old doesn’t. So we decided to go to a ski area with some beginner’s slopes. We chose Sugadaira.
At the start, we practiced walking up the hill a couple of different ways. Then I tried sliding down from short distances. Of course, I fell down the first time but managed to get back on my feet.
Then I skied and stopped several times in a row without falling. So we decided to get on the chair lift and give the big slope a try.
I had never been on a chair lift before. As the chair slowly moved me up the mountain, I felt really good. The scenery was great, the air was clean, and I had the feeling that I was really going to enjoy skiing. It felt like I had found a new favorite sport.
Nobody really explained how to get off of a chair lift. So I figured out that you basically step off the chair right onto the hill. I didn’t know what to do with my poles and ended up losing balance and falling pretty quickly.
After that, I got up without a problem. There was a small cross-country type hill next to the chair lift exit. I managed that hill without falling. It was really fun. Then I went to the big hill.
I was there with my mother-in-law and my oldest son. She went down with him for safety. But she probably should have left him alone and stayed closer to me.
As I approached the hill, I felt pretty confident. Pretty soon, I was going faster than I was comfortable with. Then the slope dropped more steeply and my speed doubled.
The people I was with had told me to zig-zag down the mountain, but I really had no idea what I was doing. Eventually, I fell forward over my skis, snow covering my glasses entirely.
I have fallen lots of times, but never with ski poles. I avoided major injuries to my head, and back, but one of the ski poles stayed attached to my wrist and ended up pushing back against my thumb.
I knew that I was injured. A skier behind me was nice enough to hand me the pole I had lost. After I gathered myself, I made it down the hill holding both of my poles in my left hand. The way I should have exited the chair lift. I was unable to move my right thumb or make a fist without significant pain.
I asked the people at the desk for some ice. They gave me an empty bag and told me to gather some snow in it. It did the job. I spent the rest of the ski trip icing my thumb and watching my children go down the hill safely.
Unfortunately, the thumb injury made it hard to do other things like lifting, playing guitar, and writing - also tying my shoes, washing dishes, and driving. But, I am not about to give up. It’s been about a week and a half and I can play guitar and type without pain.
I’m still not lifting heavy weights with my hand, but I’m ready to give skiing another try. Maybe as soon as this weekend.
After all, it’s only a failure if I give up.
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