Day 3 - white, wet, and painful

I mentioned that Cate was a wonderful guide planner. Each day lots to do and see so we didn't miss anything out. She planned safe enjoyable trips out in Oslo and I planned Day 3.

Cate: "Is there anything you want to do while we're here that we've not planned?"
Karen: "Well, I do want to go see the ski jump thing and maybe even ski if possible"
Cate: "Okay, but I've only been skiing once and that was as a small child."
Karen: "That's okay - I've never been but always wanted to go. Besides, they'll have ski instructors there to teach us how to ski."

Oh the fatal words of the ill informed.

So Thursday we trekked up to Vinter Park ("Winter Park") which was a ski resort / area / park / place after checking with Tourist Information that it was open and we could afford it. (Oddly enough this was cheaper than some of our meals - go figure!) When we arrived at Vinter Park we were told that because it was the end of the season the beginner slopes were closed and the ski instructors we no longer working that season. We could hire skis though and go down the "easy slop" that was open. To practice, there was a mini-incline-hill-thing that we could go on first. (This mini-incline-hill-thing was just the bit between the lodge where you paid for skiing and the actual slopes - so not even a beginner's beginner slope - if that made since). For Cate and I it was a challenge enough.

You can see the mini-incline-hill-thing here. The black path was what you could walk up to get to the slopes. Cate and I walked up this, I put my skis on and promptly fell on my back side. This is where I learned that getting up with skis on your feet is impossible without the help of a kind, sympathetic stranger.

Cate took some photos of my second trip down the mini-incline-hill-thing, which for the record I never fell on. I just fell at the top of it before I started skiing. I'm such a pro!
You can see I had trouble with my balance, but I managed to stay up-right. For this one at least.
And I'm even smiling!
So onto Cate. This is at the top of the mini-incline-hill-thing putting on her skis.

Still pretty much at the top of the mini-incline-hill-thing on her back side.

Now Cate had the sense to keep to the mini-incline-hill-thing so she could build more confidence in her ability to stay up right. For me twice down the mini-incline-hill-thing without falling was enough to want a bigger challenge. So off I went to buy a lift pass to do the "easy" slope. (This "easy" slope I later found out is actually an intermediate slope. Yikes!) As I headed off to the slope I did leave instructions with Cate to send rescue for me if I wasn't back in an hour.

Okay, so obviously this isn't me skiing down the slope, but it's what I should have looked like. My first attempt down the slope wasn't all that bad for a non-skier who had never been taught. I fell 3 times: twice on the slope and once at the end when I couldn't stop so I skied into a tractor. Pure class if you ask me!

The ski lift on the way back up the slope was just incredible. So peaceful and beautiful and oddly enough not terrifying to me (as I'm a bit scared of heights - like I don't do ferris wheels at the fair scared of heights) I found Cate happily skiing down the mini-incline-hill-thing when I returned. When I tried to coax Cate into joining me for a trip down the slope (I lost my hat in the first run, so needed to go and retrieve it) she had the sense to decline again. and keep to the mini-incline-hill-thing.

On my second run down the mountain I didn't fall until the end ... I couldn't get the hang of stopping. That could be down to not being taught how to stop, but hey ho. At least this time I managed to fall before colliding with the tractor.
I figured out that I fell on the first run when I got nervous about going too fast or not being able to tell where the path was taking me, so this run I just went with the flow. I was petrified beyond words, but exhilarated and loving it at the same time.
Unfortunately there was no sign of my hat. I loved that hat as well!

When I got back from this run (feeling slightly cool for making it down the mountain without falling) I convinced Cate to not only pose for a couple of cheesy skiing photos...
...but also to go down the slope with me! Wa'hoo!!!

Because of my successful second run, I decided to try and control my speed by slaloming (you skiers - is this a word? or the right word? Basically I mean instead of going straight down the mountain, zigging back and forth from left to right).

This didn't go so well as I ended up on my backside as Cate skied past. But as I was trying to get up, noticed that Cate had fallen fate to the same luck not too long after she passed me.
Cate was a trooper. Once she was down, she got back up.
And after a tiny bit of skiing was back down
and then up

and then down again and then up
and then down.
Luckily on this occasion, one of the ski patrol was around to help her back on her way. But notice that the ski patrol person is headed down the mountain, where is Cate headed?
to the left - straight into the fence around the ski lift. Apparently at this point she was cursing my name as I was at the bottom taking pictures.

At this point she had had enough skiing, but was still pretty far up the slope. What's a girl to do when you don't want to ski but have to get down somehow?

Isn't it obvious? You side step your way down the mountain!
(Sorry about the angle - just tilt your head to the left a bit)

Towards the very very bottom, Cate was a star and finished in style.

Here's Cate skiing down the bottom of the slope. We knew we were armatures as the miniature children zoomed past us!

Cate had the opposite problem to me though as she finished slope: she was going to slow to reach the ski lifts (versus me going to fast and crashing into them), so off with the stupid skis and walk the rest of the way!

I ended up with a total of 2 falls on my final run down the mountain (one pictured above and one at the end to stop myself - I might mention here that my final landing position nearly broke my legs into bits the were twisted and tangled in such a precarious way I was in agony trying to get up! Oh the fun!!!)

I wanted to get a video of me snowing. How impressive is this (although blurry) - I'm skiing and holding a camera videoing!!!

Back to the changing rooms to recover and dry off. Luckily we had the sense to bring a dry set of trousers with me.
Yes, we skied in jeans and were soaking by the end of it. Honestly I didn't think to ask if they had ski clothes to hire, but I didn't see any. We weren't cold (it was 10C /42F on the slopes) unless we were sat in the snow trying to get up after a fall.
Check out the wet jeans The top of my thigh was the only bit of my legs that was dry.
The train ride back provided very beautiful scenery. (Unfortuately the windows were a bit scratched so the picture quality isn't great)

Cate on the train back to the hostel
We had a 25 minute train ride to the city centre and then a 5 minute tram ride to the hostel (we could have walked the last bit but we were exhausted and we had to make the most of the travel cards we purchased!) The tram doors didn't open for us in our stop so we ended up walking the same distance just from the stop after ours. Oh well, it allowed us to see some more scenic views.
We were much to tired to think about doing anything that evening, so we chilled in front of the portable dvd player and watched What Women Want

THE AFTER EFFECTS OF SKIING

My abs we SO sore for the week after I went skiing. They killed me for the next coupld of days while still in Oslo. Cate enjoyed making me laugh at her skiing debochary because it hurt me to laugh. I would litterally double up in pain pushing in my stomach while laughing. Painful laughing, now isn't that an oxy moron?

My legs also suffered. I was quite proud of my bruises though. This is obviously where a ski hit my inner thigh by my knee on my left leg.
As you can tell my right leg was much more impressive. There is a line on my inner thigh by my knee which is most probably from a ski, but I have no idea how I got the impressive bruise that covered half of the left side of my thigh. It was pretty spectacular. (This picture is a week afte I went skiing as well, so it was much worse than this originally).
I guess I need to take ski lessons before I ever go skiing again.