The altitude difference was definitely getting to me! The thin attenuated air was definitely becoming difficult to cope with, as I was a flatlander from down south in the States, and was surprised by the intense physical exercise that skiing in Salt Lake City, Utah had presented to me. As I dragged my skis to the top of the actually very small “Bunny Hill”, I felt that skiing was one of those things that I just wasn’t going to be able to grasp. The Brighton Ski Resort instructor waved from the top of the hill encouraging me to make slow steady turns, and traverse down the hill in a controlled manner. I was an ambitious child hungry for success and had seen skiers on the TV quickly move down the slopes, making mercurial turns with just the slightest rotation of their feet, and I felt compelled to see if I could make these movements as well. How difficult could it be?
I pointed my skis downward, perpendicular to the hill and began to inch forward as the downward momentum of my body pushed me over the crest of the hill. As I began to gain speed, the young children, old adults, and any other amateurs in between began clear out of my path, trying to evade collision with my reckless person. I tried rotating my skis to the side, to slow myself down, but as a neophyte in skiing, I was not at all adept in the skills of breaking or turning. The only direction that I was able to travel was straight down.
As I neared the bottom of the hill, there was a small ridge that sloped down into the parking lot. As I faced the very evident possibility of wrecking someone’s car, I felt that I had to stop myself before the situation got out of hand. I put my hands beside my thighs and brushed my fingertips along the finely grained snow, lowering my body until it was completely touching the ground. I then turned my skis, and dug them into the ground, and I could feel myself slowing down. As the skis slowly came to a halt, I found myself at the precipice of the ridge overlooking the parking lot. I felt relieved that I had circumvented disaster, and I understood in any skill activity it takes small activities and practices to eventually build up and come together to achieve one’s goals. As I began to take skiing lessons with the instructors at the ski resort, I increased the amount of skills I knew, and began to complete harder and harder course.
At first I raced through Old Maid and Little Mary, the greens on the courses. Then after 2 days, I was able to do the blues, and I even tackled one of the easier black diamond’s, Hardback, by the end of my tenure at the Brighton Ski Resort.
Brighton Ski Resort provides a great opportunity for first-time or amateur skiers to enjoy the outdoors and enjoy the winter weather in northern Utah. This ski resort has knowledgeable and persistent instructors who are committed to helping skiers achieve their goals. The resort has a variety of trails, providing a wide array of interesting paths, giving winter sports enthusiasts of all ranges of the spectrum the opportunity to have a great time.
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