Just that really. Did my first ever day of skiing today, there were three in our beginners group. Me and a young couple who have never skied. The man was a natural and the woman was a more anxious beginner. I was sort of in the middle, confidence and ability wise. The instructor was very nice and seemed quite capable, but went a bit fast in terms of expectation re our progress and detail of instructions, the latter being more significant to me. It’s supposed to be a three day course. My boots were too big so the back rubbed, so I have tiny scabs on my ankles despite coming prepared with plasters and applying them mid-day. The skin was so sore I sat out the last hour of the lesson. The back of the boot is so big the whole heel lifts up about an inch when I walk, especially uphill. I went back to the ski rental place and the next size down all cramped my second toe so they advised to stick with these and buy a pair of thick socks which I have done. The rental place is associated with the ski school and they had three different brands for me to try in both the original size and the next size down and all of the next size down put pressure on my second toe.
Also I felt we were progressing a little quickly and we were moved onto a (very small by skiing standards) incline after lunch that crossed the path of the bottom of a ski run, and the path out from the chairlift. (We never did any runs, just little inclines near the runs). There was a kind of dip in the incline so you accelerated for a bit, and it was a bit icy by the afternoon. The instructor was trying to teach us to stop into a left turn say, then start off again and turn the other way etc. I picked up so much speed I think I panicked and fell backwards to try and stop myself (I think that’s what I was thinking at the time - that’s what she said I did!) rather than putting my weight onto my outside ski, and tumbled down and landed on my shoulder which got very sore, and is still a bit sore now. She told me I should’ve slowed down and demonstrated how, by pointing my toes inward, but she hadn’t told us that before! I knew only to stop that way, not control the pace of the skis. The other woman in the group and I asked to go back to the very gentle run after this, but my skin was too sore to do anything on it. The instructor’s original plan was to move us straight into the green slope after the bigger incline described above - I wouldn’t have stood a chance on that one.
I am just dreading tomorrow; picking up all the heavy gear, getting on the gondola in these unfamiliar boots which feel hard to balance on when walking in them alone, having the instructor have to split her attention (though this is of course fair enough as a group lesson is what I paid for!), and most of all I’m dreading my ankle skin being as sore as yesterday when i trudge back up inclines, and the snow surface being so hard as when I fell yesterday afternoon. Also the difficulty of the slope increasing more than I am prepared for.
Furthermore I don’t know if I can think and put together all the instructions when going fast - I’m not generally an adrenaline, think under pressure type person. It was basically a couple hours of instruction in the morning - how to stop in one direction by pointing toes inward, and how to turn or stop into a turn by putting weight on outside foot but inside blade - is that all most people need to attempt the first slope? I suspect it probably is - I don’t know how much my worry is clouding things.
Am I being a wuss? I mightn’t get the opportunity to ski again, but I am possibly overly scared of injuring myself. I feel if I had nice fitting boots and a one on one lesson (way out of my price range now - one afternoon of about 2.5h without rental or lift pass is 1.5x the cost of the whole three full day group course with rents and lift pass) I might stand a chance but for now I am so worried about my ankle skin being sore, the pain on the scabs from trudging back up the small inclines, and having the slope incline increase largely in difficulty and not being prepared for that, rather the increase in difficulty being incremental. I feel I’m being precious and don’t want to regret not going, but am worried about doing myself an injury and not feeling safe.
Should I muddle through or is it okay to just stop? As I say don’t know if I’m being a wuss.