Finally we had a decent dump of snow in the Pyrenees, and Mrs WTP and I went skiing at Mijanes. Unbelievable - a Saturday, fresh deep perfect snow, sun, no wind, and no lift queues.
I have to admit this was a bit of demon purging. I have skied on and off, since I was 20, but Mrs WTP had had a go 10 years ago and got nowhere. 5 operations on her right knee, 53 years old (last year) and not particularly fit, I spent hours teaching her, as did a couple of private instructors. Only to get a PD diagnosis (and appear to progress very rapidly) and wonder if I would ski again.
Well - I did, and so did Sue - gaining speed and confidence, and really enjoying it. I had a few issues dragging my left stick (no, honest guv) and flapping a bit getting the pole strap over fat ski gloves, but mostly no issues at all.
And I felt really good yesterday and today. Big dopamine / seratonin rush? Who cares? Great fun, great exercise. For at least one year more
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WinnieThePoo
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Congratulations ! That's really great. I envy you Winnie...
I live in the French Alps and It's my present dream. I always figured that I would spend a lot of my time skiing when retired. Then PD and now femoro-pattelar arthritis. Will check that with a surgeon soon.
I hope you can get to ski. Can you ski already, or was it your dream to learn? Hopefully you can overcome the arthritis. Sue's problem was chewed cartilage and 5 knee operations which means her knee swells and becomes painful easily. Ironically, the real problem is learning - "skiing badly". The classic learning technique is a snow plough which puts a lot of torsional stress on the knee. Whereas better skiing technique involves using the knee joint in the plane it was designed for, and is much less stressful. So we just took it slowly, and worked on getting better technique before she tried to do too much.
Toe curls, calf cramp, and the lack of left wrist strength holding a pole probably spooked me a bit but weren't really an issue. No solo black runs I think though - I'll wait till I have some competent skiers with me for that.
... I wanted to teach ski... I met my wife on the slopes in my 20s. Since then we would go skiing even in Summer - on the glaciers in the Alps. Later we choose to go in Banff (Alberta, Canada). A week was never enough.
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