February 2019, Mt. Baker, Washington

When I met my husband 6 years ago, I did not realize how important skiing was to him. For our first Christmas, we went up to Whistler and Vancouver, Canada. We hadn’t planned to go skiing. We had so many other winter adventures planned- skeleton sliding, dog sledding, ice skating… But it turns out the mountain slopes were too much temptation for Tyler to resist.

I now know according to Tyler’s mother, that he basically knew how to ski before he could walk. So since he had successfully taught me to rock climb, we opted out of me taking a lesson on this impromptu idea. Turns out, growing up in West Virginia doesn’t give one much need for waterproof gloves, so shortly I couldn’t feel my hands. It also turns out my husband did not know how to teach something so basic to his being.

“I don’t know how to stop! How do I stop?”

“You just… stop!”

Fast forward a few years and what Tyler had originally thought was an activity we could bond over turned into him even saying he wouldn’t care if I chose to try snowboarding. Snow. Boarding. That sentence was basically blasphemy to a backcountry skier.

But for some reason, after Seattle got its Snowpocolypse of 2019 (basically 8 inches which sent the area into a panic) I felt ready to try my hand at skiing again. Only this time, I was getting lessons.

Why Mt. Baker you ask? Baker is one of Washington state’s beautiful volcanoes that I constantly try to forget is still active. On sunny days when I drive the I-90 bridge from Seattle to Bellevue, while I love looking south to Rainier in all its glory, I’m also captivated by the gaze north of the lake- to a perfectly triangular, white point that almost blends in with the winter sky. It’s a few hours north of the city towards the Canadian border which makes the prices much more reasonable but also apparently confuses those cell phone towers. It’s also somewhere I had never been.

Being the planner that I am, I was slightly annoyed that they did not take sign ups prior to the day of. But with the “Best for Beginners” lesson costing 50$, for my skis and boots rentals, a 1.5 hour lesson, and a beginner lift ticket, I couldn’t pass up that deal. I also paid an additional $11 for a helmet. (“Wear a helmet, don’t be stupid”- Macklemore, also probably my mom at some point)

We got to the Mountain Shop by Heather Meadows Lodge right when they opened at 8am sharp so I could sign up for my 9am lesson. After I told an unenthusiastic cashier that I was brand new to skiing and needed the most basic of lesson I was ready to be fitted for my boots and skis. Unfortunately, not everyone else had my idea of promptness, so while I waited for the other 4 people in my lesson, I had some time to try to figure out how to put my skis on and slide around a bit. I took beginner lesson 1- which starts with everyone not even in their skis. You learn about the basics of what stance you want to ski in and spend some time walking in a circle on the edge of your boots to mimic edging in the skis. Once we finally got to put our skis on, we learned how to edge up an incline, how to turn while skiing down a small slope, and finally how to stop! My lesson concluded with us making our way over to the handle-tow to join the masses of children who were also new to the slopes.

By the end of the lesson, I decided I was ready to use that beginners’ lift ticket that came with my lesson. The beginner ticket only allowed you to use slope #2 which had a few green runs. Amidst all the kids who had been practicing much longer than me, the adults who were only on this run to get back to the lodge, and the other newbies, I slowly started making my way down the snow. I turned back and forth over the whole trail but finally felt like I was in a bit of control of myself.

The next day, I bought a normal ticket with no lesson. I went back to those familiar greens on lift 2 with a bit more confidence. I was even able to slowly make my way down a blue run! Was I graceful and confident? Absolutely not. But I am able to start zooming now on the snow. Zoom zoom!