OK, so i have arrived in the US of A... been to New York and slowly became accustomed with life in Denver, CO! In the first couple of months in the state, the family took me sightseeing... mostly into the mountains. It was incredible to see the mountains and the ski resort, especially coming from a coastal city. The real excitement came when the white stuff (i'm talking about snow) arrived... as i like to called it, in a truly South African accent... proper snow! I'd seen snow in England, but once you've seen snow in the Rockies, that stuff that falls in England is no snow... it's just white rain. 
In December of 2004 we made a trip into the mountains (for a week) to Steamboa
t Springs for my first skiing experience. I was so excited... had a half day lesson and off i went! Skiing is an amazing experience... the extremely cold wind rushing up your nose and the fear that you might do a face plant any second... it's fantastic! I caught onto the concept pretty quickly and soon i had mastered the green slops (beginners) but was not quite brave enough and my knee was objecting to graduating to the blue slopes (intermediate). Steamboat Springs is a beautiful cowboy town about 3 hours drive from Denver, a great place to learn to ski and have a little fun!
The slopes of Steamboat Springs
My next skiing experience came on 2nd January 2005... went with friends of the family to a ski area called Loveland... it's the closest ski area to Denver, it's not a resort... just a mountain with some great slopes! After doing a few warmup runs down the greens i decided to give the blues a try. Needless to say on my first run down a blue slope i landed on various parts of my body on a number of occasions... but i never gave up and eventually made a run all the way down a blue slope on my skis (however you spell the plural of ski)!
Earlier this year i also ventured into the mountains to part take in a little skiing. I didn't know what to expect because i hasn't skied in over a year and i was skiing at a new resort, Copper Mountain. But as it turns out skiing is like riding a bike... you never forget, to turn you pick the foot that is facing away from the mountain up and that's basically it!! Oh and to slow down (that comes in handy) you make an upside down 'V' with your skis... snow plough as they called it!
What could be better!
Skiing is great fun and a good sport to keep you in shape, so hopefully i'll have the opportunity to ski again someday! :)
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