Skiing, or why I hate the t-bar

I had the day off yesterday, so I headed up to Elsigen for the day. I didn't have the best day skiing the last time I went, I hoped it would be better this time. It started out okay, I got to the top of the mountain, put on my ski boots, skied down to the first lift--a round pull lift thing--took a blue run down to the next lift--the dreaded t-bar. And then I realized: I've never gotten on a T-bar by myself. Jen was with me last time and she handled the tricky catching and placing part of the lift-riding.

There are no proper chair-lifts at Elsigen. They only have horrible contraptions that pull you up the hill while you stand on your skis.

I tried to remember how she did it. I skied up to the middle of the path. Looked back, reached for the bar and couldn't get it. I skied out of the way and let a few more people go, then I tried again. Reach..pull...damn missed it again. This went on for several minutes. It took me 4 tries before I gave up on proper t-bar placement and just wrapped my arms around the stupid thing and hung on for dear life. What a bad idea. Possibly the worst idea I've ever had--but I was desperate and people often get themselves into horrible situations when they are without other apparent options. The t-bar is designed to go behind your bum, which makes it easy to lean your weight into it while you're being pulled up the mountain. When you're hanging on to the t-bar with your arms, you have to pull your bum and legs behind you by yourself through sheer force of will. It is very difficult. My arms felt like they were going to be ripped out of the socket, and my poor pride hurt like nothing else. I could tell everyone was laughing at me. If it had been anyone else, I may have laughed at them (not any more though). It was a very long lift, when I got to the top my arms were numb and I was covered in sweat from the exertion.

I had better luck with the t-bar after that first failure. The next time, I took off my mittens to catch the t-bar. This helped--it's hard to grab something slippery and metal with wool mittens. I simply couldn't get a good grip.

I mastered the blue run quickly--in about 5 runs, then decided to move onto the red slope. It was fairly cloudy, which made it hard to see any depth-contrast of the snow. I could see white in front of me, whether it was steep or not I had to find out when I got there. The sun came out later in the afternoon and I could actually ski a bit faster, because I could see where I was going. That was fun.

I wanted to go out again today, but I can't seem to lift my arms above my head properly. Also, it's snowing, wouldn't be good skiing weather up on the mountain, schade.