First skiing of the season

Today marked our first skiing of the 2011/12 season. The snow has been slow to put in an appearance this year, and the girls were very excited to discover the local resort is finally open. I have to confess to being fairly keen on the whole thing myself.

This season will be Sofie's 4th, Emily and DH's 3rd, my 2nd, and today was the first time we have started a season with all 4 family members on skis. I only started skiing mid way through last season, so it was great for all of us to share that first day excitement together.

Much to their horror we insisted the girls (and I) start off on the magic carpet, as both of them have new skis, and we wanted them to have a chance to get used to them before hitting the main piste. Sofie actually appreciated this gentle introduction,...

...and Emily, well she went very fast, demanded to be taken up the proper hill, and shouted a lot.

When we did move over to the chair lift it was like a scene from one of those comedy videos you see pointing out all of things you shouldn't do! We ended last season with everyone seamlessly getting themselves on and off the chair, but today it was like none of us had even been on one before.

Emily tried to cram through the same gate as DH and almost got left behind, the lift operator had to help her on and slow the chair just for us (not embarrassing at all in front of a whole queue of people), Sofie skied in front of DH and almost got sat on, and I was absolutely no help to anyone. At the top Sofie dropped a pole, and I think we just generally looked totally incompetent.

But once we hit the real piste Emily proved to be the shock of the day. She got to the top of the first big hill, pointed her skis down, and simply shot off. Sofie skied it slowly and in control, DH raced after Emily, and I just dithered about in total denial.

So we all slowly found our place back on the snow, and ended up having a lot of fun. Emily is insanely manic - scary and bold, and in serious need of some lessons. She was desperate to head further up the mountain and ski harder things, and frankly no one wanted to go with her. She might only weigh 16kgs, but that child is simply flying. Rest assured that ski lessons are in her very near future.
Sofie was calm and cautious. She enjoyed herself and skied slowly and in control. It will undoubtedly take a few more days on the mountain for her confidence to return, but today she had fun.
DH always seems to just pick up where he left off, and looks (to me) calm, in control and to be skiing well.
And in all honestly I struggled a bit. I can't seem to turn right anymore, and was nervous about the high speed skiers and snowboarders whizzing past me (not all of the resort is open so there are some really good skiers on some really easy runs). I felt wobbly and hopeless, and was overtaken by a friend's 4 year old. I wasn't anywhere near as good as I was at the end of last season, and my grand total of 12 days skiing experience showed. But the weather was beautiful, and when I stopped worrying and looked around I remembered what it is all about. The views were amazing, and it was great to be back in the mountains - our mountains.

We were together.
We bumped into people we know.
We were outside.
It was beautiful.
And there were snow ploughs. I may (or may not) have mentioned how much I love snow ploughs.