Melissa wrote in news:75ko29r7x26b
:

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Hi Tinkerntom,

On 15 Jan 2005 18:58:56 -0800, you wrote:

He figured that if he went to the highest lift, and found the
steepest run, that by the time he got to the bottom, he would know how
to ski.

That reminds me a bit of my very first experience on skis, though I
did happily accept a bit of training help from a friend who was an
experienced skier.

I was 15, and a group of us went for a weekend at the local ski
resort where one of our friend's parents worked. Only two of our
group of five could already ski, so it was up to them to help the
rest of us get started.

We spent the first day on the rope tow (I think they called it the
"bunny slope" or something like that), and we practiced a few basics.
I felt pretty good after that first day, so the next day, I took the
chair up to the "intermediate" slope. It was great! I skied all day
and even into the night under the lights. Several nice runs, and I
never fell.

If you don't fall you're not trying hard enough.

Since Tinkertom specifically mentioned Keystone I can offer a similar
Keystone experience. In the mid 70's I was working for a band that was
playing at a hotel near Keystone. I had been skiing for five years or so
but no one else in the band had any experience. I gave them some pointers
on the bunny slope down near the parking lot and then went up the chair for
a couple of runs before coming back to check on their progress. One of them
(Bruce) seemed to be getting it so I suggested we take the chair up and take
the long meandering beginners run down. Once on the chair up into the trees
and away from the parking lot the beginner commented that "this is real
skiing...not that flat spot near the parking lot". We spent the rest of the
day up on the mountain skiing progressively more difficult slopes until he
was skiing intermediate runs with ease. Four weeks later we were skiing the
advanced upper bowls of A Basin along side a woman from the ski patrol. He
was ski patrolling himself a couple years after that, married the woman from
the ski patrol, who learned how to play the bass and played in Bruce's band.

BTW, to Tinkertom...where is the triple black diamond run at Keystone? When
I skied there they only had one black diamond run and it was pretty marginal
for that classification.