by Carol Piñeiro

I once took a class of CELOP students on a ski trip in the 1980’s to Nashoba Valley, a small slope west of Boston. None of them had ever gone skiing before, so we got a “ski package”, which included equipment rental and lift ticket along with a lesson. They tried really hard all afternoon, but it was difficult for some of them to go down the “bunny hill” without falling. However, most of them learned how to put their skis together in a wedge to stop, and a few of them even learned to “slalom”, or go back and forth as they went down the hill.

Before we went into the ski lodge to have dinner, they asked if they could go up on the ski lift just once and try going down the hill. I told them it was dangerous if they didn’t know how to ski well, but they kept pleading until I agreed. When we reached the top, they were surprised at how high it was, but they started bravely down the hill. Instead of doing the slalom as they had been taught, however, they went straight down, some falling or almost running into other skiers. Several of them were shouting “aaahhh!!!” at the top of their lungs, so people would get out of the way. They were going so fast that it was hard to stop when they got to the bottom. Miraculously, no one was hurt!

When I reached the bottom, the ski patrol was there, asking who was in charge of the group. I told them I was, and they said that what we had done was dangerous, so we couldn’t ski anymore. Actually, none of us wanted to ski anymore, so we returned our equipment and went into the lodge to eat dinner. As we relaxed by the fire, some of the students even fell asleep because of all the exercise that day. Eventually, we drove back to Boston, and they were really happy to get to their dorms and go to bed. We had a lot of fun, but that’s the first and last time I’ve taken a class to the slopes!