I’m so psyched.  Yesterday was a breakthrough day for me on the ski slopes.  My patience has paid off.  My new boots are near perfect. They have Super Feet insoles to replace the factory insoles and I now know which buckles need to be buckled tight and which ones are practically for appearance.  I will tweak them a bit more but all in all I was pleased that my toes didn’t fall asleep and I didn’t fall at all.  For the uninitiated, ski boot buckles are almost impossible to close tight enough even when you are twenty years old.  At my age it is impossible.  The buckle at the ankle needs to be good and tight to keep your heel from moving in the boot.  I needed leverage to get that buckle closed properly. In the past I have been ready fora nap just with the effort of getting the buckles closed.

Amazingly enough there is no gadget that I could find on the internet that is made specifically for leveraging ski boot buckles.  So…crafty girl that I am, I put my thinking cap on and came up with the perfect tool – a paint can opener.  The only problem it is needs a cap of some sort because I need to put it in my pocket for adjustments on the slopes.  I can see it now, my Mother rolling her eyes at my funeral because my liver got impaled by a paint can opener during a nasty spill on the mountain.  She didn’t know about it or she would have warned me that it was dangerous, but now it would be too late.  I am thinking a pen top will probably work just fine.

Equipment issues taken care of, the next order of business was my courage.  You might remember from our last installment I was terrified the first time I skied this year after a head-over-heels disaster two years ago, that nearly cost me my knee.  I found out my favorite ski area – Sugar Bowl in Tahoe (sometimes I can’t believe I live 2.5 hours away from a world class ski destination – what was I saying about Illinois?) – not only  has free equipment rentals on general admission days which is every weekday, but also free group lessons.  I have been taking advantage of them and have learned so much about skiing and suddenly – I have my courage back.  Not the courage born of ignorance of what could happen to me because I was not skiing in control, but courage born of knowing how to turn, stop, counteract the urge to lean back instead of crouching forward when I felt like I was going to fall, all kinds of other little tips I have gleaned from taking lessons.

I’m thinking I may just take lessons forever.  It’s not like you aren’t skiing the whole time anyway.  I’m at level two; if I want to make that discount at age 70 I need to keep improving.  Could I be in the senior slalom?  Is there such a thing?  Should I start one?  The ski lessons go up to level 5… Speaking of slalom, on the bunny hill they have the cutest little slalom course you ever saw and I did it.  What a kick! I do it on WiiFit all the time but it’s not the same….

I really thought my skiing days had come to an end after the tragedy of two years ago.  After yesterday, when it all started to come together again, better than before, I feel like I’m 23 years old again, but with a smarter brain.  I hated to leave the hill, and am even sadder that there will be nothing now until November.  But I leave 2010-2011 ski season with a real feeling of accomplishment, confidence and excitement for the future.