I recently had the opportunity to go to Big Sky Montana. If you have never been, put this place on your list of places to see. The landscape was breathe taking. I also understand that in the summer months the scenery is just as majestic.

I, however, did not go to see the landscape, although it was an added bonus. I went to go skiing. The last time I went skiing was when I was 13, and by the span of time, I can tell you it was not a good experience. I had lessons, but I could not stop to save my life. The tuck and roll became my main stopping move.

In Big Sky, I elected to take lessons again and told them that I was a beginner, with no prior experience. I wanted to learn again for the first time. Out on the mountain our instructor went through the same stopping basics. Make a wedge, Pizza! They would yell. My skill level from when I was a child returned. No wedge making for me. Then the instructor changed their vocabulary, pretend you are walking like a duck, or pigeon toed. This visual was a lot easier for my body to create. Pretend that you are standing on your big toe, then push out and drive hard with your heel. Stopping now became a breeze, my muscles were not use to it, but I could stop. The next step was to turn.

Make the wedge and move one leg in front of the other. If you want to turn to the right, bring your left leg forward. Like magic I was turning. Now go down the hill back and forth I was ordered. First trip down, no problems. Go again, several times I repeated this process and I did not fall once.

The lesson was over and we called it a day. I was excited to join my friends the next day down the slopes.

As soon as we could we hit the slopes. My friends guided me to the drop off point and verbally told me what to expect. A steep decline then it will flatten out. If you are going to fast turn to the right and go parallel to the mountain, this should slow you down.

I nodded, affirming in understood what they said. I started to inch my way over the small bump that would then go to the steep decline. Went down the decline and then I feel, snapped the ski off one of my boots. Great start to the day I thought.

But I knew, I had to get up quickly and continue on. So I did, I was not going to let the fall get the best of me. My friends helped me put my ski back on and I was ready. Side noted: I was not told how to fall or get back up in the lesson the day before. Now that I was on flatter surface I was ready to go again. Since gravity was not available, I had to pull myself with my poles across the snow. No worries, this actually helped get some of the nervousness out of my system and give me ski legs.

I made it down the hill and was ready to go back up, the next challenge, getting on the lifts. This was my first time getting on the lift, thankfully my friend, Rob, was there to help guide me. He also asked the attendants to slow the lift down so I could get on and off easier.

This next trip down the mountain was different as we were higher up and the the trail was unfamiliar to me. Thankfully, my friends, once again, said follow me. I did. There were times where I would pick up speed and I would lose my balance. This would either make me spin out of control and call or I would stop suddenly and would need to readjust myself. Either way, I was still in the mindset of fall down, get up fast. So the delays and minor hurdles were just that. I kept going.

We repeated the same run two more times. On the third time, the weather changed and snow really started to come in, it was almost like a mini blizzard, visibility was cut dramatically. But I was still able to see in front of me and I was comfortable with the trail. This time I made it all the way down with no falls. VICTORY!

The run we took before lunch took us down a different path. The path was wider but it also had steeper declines. I got nervous on this path because I was not familiar with it and I did not know where I was going. My friends took off in different directions and I tried to catch up but I couldn’t. I found the snow several times on this run, but just like the previous falls, I jumped back up and headed down the slopes.

When we finally made it to the bottom, we detached our skis, loaded them on the rack and headed to lunch.

Overall: I feel several times, but I feel because I got back up quickly and did not even think about the fall I kept my momentum and continued moving forward. The day was fun and I cannot wait to get back out there again. The lessons learned: follow someone with experience, a person who has been down the slope before. Be prepared to fall, when you do, get up quickly and keep on going.