My First Time Racing at Ski Camp
I could
hear the rumble of the lift as I reached the top of the mountain. I put more weight on my left so I could make
a left turn off the lift. The snow made
a crunching noise like paper under my skis.
"Ch, ch”, my skis quickly came off.
I slowly made my way to my coaches.
I felt like I was walking on the moon.
My cramped heavy boots dragged along as I trudged to the coaches. I plopped my bag next to my skis. I question my coaches Laura and Sig,
"Should I take a run or is Tom almost here?"
Just
then, Sig radioed to Tom, "Are you almost here?"
"I'm
just reaching the top," Tom answered.
"Okay
Julia, just wait here then, Top will be right up," said Sig.
I waited
a moment, just then Tom pulled over into our lane and yelled to the kids that
were there, "Tom's group, get ready, we are going to get going!" I
sweetly asked Tom, "Are we going down to lane 18?" He replied, "Yes". I hopped with joy! It was like my skis flew on. I wanted to bolt but Tom demanded,
"Julia, stay here and wait for the rest of the kids." "Okay," I replied with a sigh. As soon as everyone in Tom's group was ready
he announced, "Okay everybody, we are going to lane 18 for our first run." As soon as he finished speaking, everyone
took off together as if it was a race to lane 18.
We
quickly approached lane 18. As I
prepared to make my first run, by putting the end of my poles to the tip of my
skis, I looked at the bottom of the trail
and saw in the far distance little specks waiting and moving. I was the last one to go and I wanted to
finish this first run in order to get to a more difficult trail. Then, with one huge thrust I was off like a
rocket. I could feel the rush of the
wind, it whispered in my ear,” Go faster, Go!”
My goggles were pushed up from the wind.
A tiny tear rolled from my left eye, down my cheek, and collected under
my goggle. The wind was so fierce it
felt like I was standing in front of a fan.
It took my breath away; I tried to gasp for air. I saw that I was quickly approaching a large
merciless rock. I swiftly veered to the
right. The snow was rutted where the
skiers before me had gone. There where clumps of white snow deposited every few
feet. I twisted my stance to try to
avoid them. I could feel the sun beating down on my helmet. Even though I was on a mountain covered with
snow, it wasn’t as cold as I thought it would be. I could feel beads of sweat starting to form
on my arms. Before I made the next turn
a stabbed by pole into the snow. I made a sharp turn which gave me a burst of
speed. As I neared the bottom it felt like the turns came faster and faster, as
if I was speeding through time. As I
approached the bottom, I could see the kids that went before me. They were cheering for me in unison. “You are
almost there!” I felt a rush of
excitement come over me, like a wave on the shore. I was so excited about this first run. As I approached the bottom, I twisted both my
legs to one side and swung my weight on my right ski in order to come to a
sudden halt. A cloud of snow came out
from under my skis. It muddied the view
in front of me, making it hard to see.
My friend Ashley declared, “Great job, Julia!” A huge smile spread across my face. “Thank
you,” I replied.
Finally,
my coach zoomed down the trail and stopped in front of us. My coach exclaimed, “Wow, that was an
amazing first run! Now that you are warmed up, let’s head over to Suicide Six
for our next run!” All I could think was “Oh no, this should be interesting!”
