A Somewhat Interesting Day at Ski School

Can you imagine being stuck on a ski lift for 3+ hours? Well, I couldn’t either until it actually happened to me. It was an average day, I was at ski school in Breckenridge, Colorado having a great time. We had just eaten chicken nuggets and fries for lunch and were getting ready to go down our first slope of the afternoon. I love to be the first, so naturally me and my partner brought forth all of our energy and trekked up the little slope before the ski lift as fast as possible. Everything was great! I felt myself relax as my body touched the icy bench that was going to take us to our next hill. Then, the next thing I knew we were moving up the mountain. Out of nowhere we lurched forward, our bodies hit the bar protecting us from falling and I realized that we had stopped. We were about 30 feet from the ground and I felt the urge to jump. Just then I heard the voice of the ski lift patrol yelling up to me that the lift was stuck and he could not fix it. He also yelled and told me that one of my group members didn’t feel well so he had to go back down to the base. “Oh great” I thought to myself, “it’s freezing cold outside and I’m stuck with nowhere to go.” To make matters worse it even started to snow. I was bummed and annoyed when I felt clumps of wetness splotch down on me realizing that this was going to take a while. 

As minutes ticked on I felt a deeper dread in my body. This was going to take an unbearable amount of time. And I was right, my instructor was gone, the rest of my group was down the mountain and I was stuck sitting there doing nothing but talking with my partner. Even though it was fun for a while, I found it very hard to entertain myself for what ended up being the next 3 hours. We were so close to the snowy cushion of whiteness below us but we had been strictly forbidden to jump, which as you know, I really wanted to fo. Finally, after what had felt like an eternity, something amazing happened, the lift started to move! It was an insanely long process, we moved forward 1 foot, lurched forward, and waited another 5-10 minutes before continuing. At one point, the lift broke down again and we waited for another hour for it to continue. However, after this grueling and exceptionally long process, we managed to make it to the next tower. O, how it felt so good to step in the sauna like patrol center. My toes could finally start to warm up and I could shake all the wet snow from my eyes. I was so happy to be out of that now dreaded lift. 

How did it all end you may ask. Well, after another 30 minutes of waiting a ski patrol car FINALLY showed up and me and my partner had a long awaited ride to hot coco and treats waiting for us. After such a long day, being out of the snow and indulging in salty and sugary goodness felt like luxury in my stomach. In the end, that was a tiring, frustrating, and around great day. This is one day that I will never forget.