XC Skiing

Last night I was invited to go cross country skiing and I was way excited because I've never been before and I like trying new things. I usually take to things pretty quickly so I didn't think it would be a problem, plus how hard can it be to walk across snow in ski's right?....IMPOSSIBLE. I have never felt so uncoordinated in my entire life. The trail we went on was just a big uphill, and then it came to a big field that we crossed, and then more uphill. We went at night, so not only was it dark and you couldn't really see, but the snow was icy because there hadn't been a recent snowfall. So you'd be going along, and you could see well enough to see the trail, but not well enough to see the dips and divets in the trail and you'd hit one of those, and one of your ski's would lose grip and you'd start sliding backwards and the only way to stop yourself is to fall. When we made it up the first hill and came to the meadow, i though for sure I'd be okay on flat ground. Nope! There were tracks from snowshoers and other skiers that had been up there in the days before and you'd get stuck in those and lose your balance and just tip over. Going down was just as bad, since it was so icy, using the snowplow technique to slow yourself down didn't work at all and your ski's would get caught in other tracks and you'd start flying down and once again the only way to stop was just to bail out on the side of the hill. Eventually, I got tired of bailing out on the way down and attempting to get up so much that I sat down on the back of my ski's and sledded down. Even though I spend the majority of my time face planted in the snow, it was actually really fun! A few things I learned from this experience, never get too cocky about your natural athletic talent, because it doesn't always come into play. Also, i realized how much I love snowboarding as opposed to skiing. I was also made aware of the fact that I make a lot of noises when I fall. I was teased a lot for my random noises. But everyone should try cross country skiing! It's way fun!