Sonora Skiing – 1/25/2017

Every year, Avery Elementary takes their 5th grade class on a field trip to Hidden Valley to ski. I did this two years ago with Corvin. I told Danelle she had to take Sonora cause I don’t like skiing much. Fast forward two years later and Danelle is teaching school and can’t get time off to take Sonora. So I took the day off of work and headed out to be with her.

I was hoping that Sonora would take the lessons and have enough of skiing. But she wanted to continue after the lesson, so I bought a lift ticket to go with her. I went up the super easy slopes as many times as she wanted to trying to build up my own confidence. This isn’t like riding a bike (that is fun) and I didn’t get any better in the two years since my last skiing.

Eventually we went down to the “bigger” easy area with the rope lift. Sonora did great her first try going all the way to the top and I followed right behind. Once at the top, we both looked at each other with a medium amount of fear. I started after her and watched helpless as she went straight down gaining speed and terror. I attempted to plow my way down going faster and my fear growing as well. I remember thinking “I HATE THIS” over and over again till I finally started slowing down at the bottom. When I eventually caught up to Sonora, she was crying from fear. I asked her if she wanted to leave (hoping she would say yes), but she said we could stay and try something different.

There was one super short lift that we ended up going on multiple times and she eventually was able to get off at the end without falling.

Like all nightmares, they eventually come to an end (unfortunately this one was real). Sonora and I went to Panara Bread company for dinner before finally ending a day of bonding. This day makes me glad I only have 2 kids! With luck I’ll never have to ski again!

Hogan Haake