Downhill skiing

Frequent readers of this blog know that I have tried downhill skiing before in a small slope outside Umeå. I am back from a four days experience in Kitellfjäll. It is situated in the 400 km north west of Umeå and it is a part of Skanderna which is a very old mountain chain. I’m not a very experienced skier so I started with a smaller slope and yes I had fairly good control over the icy surface. I can’t say that I wanted to try the bigger slopes but you don’t pay 2 000 kr to spend four days in a beginners slope. So it was time to turn up the heat, to take the big lift up to the highest slope. I have to admit that I’m a little afraid of heights and I felt weak even if the view was breathtaking. My brother and his two friends started descending one of the slopes and waited for me before it started to go sheer down. I said to myself “fine I can do this I know how to break and I can always do that if I’m going too fast...-I’m approaching the others and it is time to slow down but nothing happens (!) panic, I have to stop my velocity at all cost so I decide to go for the only thing I can think of, to fall. The problem with that breaking technique is that you have very little control over where you’re going. I tumbled straight into one of Erik’s friends and knocked him over and continued for another 10 meters. Too experience such a fall during the first day is not good for your ability to sky and I lost everything I had learnt so far. I wished myself back in my student room in Umeå but I was still on that damn mountain and I had to get down somehow. I was too afraid to ski down so my kind and helpful brother and I walked town that slope and it took us almost half an hour. This might sound like a total disaster but the trip to Kittelfjäl turned out to be great. I’m still a pretty lousy skier but I learnt a lot and mountains mixed with good company is a combination I really can recommend.