Quote of the week: “If you don’t do it this year, you will be one year older when you do.” – Warren Miller
I finally did it! There was one thing that I told myself I had to do at least once while I was in Denver: Skiing!! This past weekend my roommate and I went skiing at Loveland Ski Area which is about an hour outside of Denver. We headed out around 7 to beat the rush and to get there as soon as possible so we had a lot of time. The drive to Loveland is gorgeous with the rocks surrounding you and the houses that are all along the mountainside. It is honestly worth simply driving to see all of the things surrounding you. The weather was terrible which was partially good, because it meant that the locals were not there so it was less busy. Waiting for rentals was the longest part because if you do not make reservations, you have to wait until there is time for people to be available. So, note for next time – make a rental reservation.
It took about an hour to get all the rentals which was the easiest part of it all. We drove over to the valley, which is where the beginner slopes are, because I have never been downhill skiing before. So… I desperately needed those. The most difficult part was getting up the slight hill to the rainbow carpet for the bunny hills. But once I got up, it was not too bad.
When I originally thought of bunny hills I thought of barely any slope and super easy. Oh boy, was I wrong. The bunny hill was still relatively steep and you still needed the skill to maneuver around all of the kids and others learning how to ski. So in the 3 runs I did down the bunny hills, I can confidently say I fell down at least once. But when it really got hard is when we went up to the first green. When I went up, I was terrified of what was in front of me. But I did it. And while I was not able to traverse for pretty much the entire day, it was a ton of fun. Skiing is something that I could see myself doing a lot in the future, although I have to admit it is an extremely expensive hobby.
The staff at Loveland were really nice. The original skis that I was given worked fine for a while until I fell really hard and they came off like they are supposed to. But then they decided not to clip onto my boots. So, I took them in to get them fixed before we took a quick break to warm up a little bit because it was freezing due to the wind and snow. When we went back out, they still would not clip in, so I had to take them back. And I was just given a new pair of skis because they could not figure out what was wrong with them. The new pair had just been waxed which made it a lot harder because they were much more slippery. The more slippery the better most of the time, but for someone who really does not know what they are doing – AKA me – it made it a lot harder for some things. About halfway through our day we took a break and had some hot chocolate to warm us up because it was freezing outside.
Because it was not super busy it made it easier to get a lot of runs in, even after they shut down half of them due to the high winds. In the five and a half hours we were there, I got better but definitely did not completely figure it all out. The last run was my best, even though I fully got stuck halfway down, but once I got back up the rest of it was amazing!
There is something magical about skiing. You are going so fast, with the wind flying against your face, and honestly there is not much to stop you, other than trees and falling. But the freedom I felt was different, there was a little bit of worry, but not enough to stop me from continuing to fail almost every time I went down the hill. It was different. It was incredible.
The cutest thing to watch while skiing is the parents teaching their young children to ski or snowboard. Excitement and joy are the two things that you can see on kids’ faces when they are going down the mountain. It is crazy to me how young they learn, but also it is much easier to learn those types of things when you are young. The parents use straps that are hooked onto the kids with harnesses to hold onto them as they are going down the mountain to keep them from going too fast. I wish that this was something I could have taken a picture of, but sadly it was not.
After five and a half hours of skiing we were very tired, but it was very worth it and I enjoyed every second of it. And the skyline of the city was gorgeous.
Thanks for reading, until next time,
Aurora Franzon 2024