Here are some reasons why skiing is fabulous

On Christmas Eve I set a new year goal which was to try skiing in 2023. A little bit more than a week has passed after the new year, and I have achieved this new year goal.

My friends and I have visited two different ski resorts in Sweden, the first one is called Kungsberget, and the other is skistar in Sälen. I must say, we did the right choice in terms of the order of visiting these two different places. The ski pistes in Kungsberget are easier for beginners, which is perfect for me who has never skied before. The pistes are labeled with different colors and it represents different ski levels, from beginner to advanced. We spent five days in Kungsberget and at the end of the trip, I learned how to brake and do a little bit of turning.

On the first day, we were trying to practice by ourselves. So we would get a good sense of how to do the movements and get used to the equipment. The ski boots were definitely not the most comfortable shoes to put on, as they are so heavy and tight. I had pain in my calf from the first day. But of course, it was worth it. Not sure if I put on too many clothes, I sweated so much on days 1 and 2. Or it could be because I was too nervous and my body was too tense. I was so afraid to fall at the very beginning. The first time when I try the slope, it sped up so much in a way that I felt like I might lose control, so I chose to fall by myself to prevent the speed from going even faster. It took so many falls for me to learn how to brake.

For me, the most important thing as a first step is to learn how to break, because that can give me a good sense of control. If I feel that I will lose control, I will fall, 100%. So learning how to break took me a whole morning. On the second day, we went for a ski class, and the teacher gave me some good advice on how to position myself properly when skiing, and also he recommended I give more trust to the ski itself and fix my stability. I took his advice and trained more on my stability. I spent so much time in the level 1 piste to learn how to control my speed first, when I got a good sense of how to control my speed, I practiced how to make a left and right turn. On the level 1 piste, there were so many kids, and their parents were teaching them how to do the turns as well. Sometimes I overheard them and applied the techniques as well, and I highly appreciate that!

When I felt that I had a good feeling about how to make the turns, I went to test it on the longer and steeper piste. In the beginning, it was hard, I thought I got it, but when I went to the steep piste, I still couldn’t control my speed and therefore I couldn’t practice the turns. So I kept repeating in level 1 piste the whole afternoon until I can manage to do the turns properly. At the end of the trip at Kungsberget, I managed to make some turns.

The pistes in Sälen were way more difficult but there were much more choices. The whole town was full of pistes. And it snowed the whole time during our 4 days stay. It was colder but we covered ourselves well. We tried some easy pistes on the first day to warm up ourselves. On the second day, we tried the more difficult pistes which were way more steep, big, and long. And crazily we even tried the fun rides skiing from the top of the mountain to the bottom. That was an unforgettable experience. I don’t remember how many times I had fallen, and I think I overestimated myself, but I made it all the way down and survived. I learned a lot from the fun ride and it felt good to challenge myself!

Ski was such an energy-taking sport but the feeling of flow and the content and achivement you get when managing it is fabulous, and I like it a lot. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, and it wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be. I was also thinking it would be so cold to ski in the snow, so I didn’t even expect to do it more than 1 day, but it turned out that I enjoyed skiing a lot and I made full use of the days to ski on both of our first and second ski trips. And when you ski, it won’t be as cold as you thought it would be.