Perseverance: A Tale of One Determined Skier

Elijah Lofgren

Dr. Antlitz

ENGL 1013-3

December 9, 2006

The February sun gleamed on the snow covered landscape. The view was a vast expanse of green pine trees laden with dazzling white snow, broken only by trails zigzagging down the mountainsides. Skiing season was in full swing at Winter Park Ski Resort in Colorado. One of the new arrivals, fourteen-year-old Anna, wore a light purple jacket, dark purple scarf, and a pink ski cap. Excitement and anticipation flowed through her every vein; this was the day that Anna was going to learn how to ski!

Making her way to the bunny slopes, Anna stepped onto the carpet lift and rode up the small incline. Reaching the top, she stepped off and poled her way over to the right. Standing at the top of the short slope, she looked at the bottom a few dozen yards away. Small children, in a display of perfect balance, were zooming straight down without even the aid of any ski poles. “If they can do it, I should be able to as well,” thought Anna. Carefully and cautiously, she began to creep down the slope. The very picture of determination, she focused her gaze on the tips of her skis, carefully making sure that they didn’t cross. Knees bent and pressed tightly together, she wasn’t going to fail for lack of trying.

Heading down the slope, Anna started to gain speed. A few seconds later, she reached the bottom of the slope and crashed right into someone, knocking both of them into a heap. Feeling really bad about knocking someone down, Anna was determined to learn how stop without crashing. She continued to practice on the bunny slopes, and eventually she was able to glide to a nice slow stop. However, because she only practiced on the short, straight bunny slopes, she never really learned how to turn.

Anna soon grew tired of the bunny slopes and decided to join her older sister Miriam on some of the real ski slopes. Miriam, dressed in a dark green jacket and a rainbow-colored ski cap, was eager to try out something more exciting than the boring bunny slopes.

Riding up the Zephyr Express, Anna and Miriam soon reached the top of the March Hare ski trail. March Hare was steeper and longer than anything Anna had imagined. Anna was scared, and she didn’t want to go fast. In order to prevent herself from going fast, Anna decided not to ski straight down. With straight down eliminated and the impossibility of skiing up hill, she only had one option: zigzagging right and left down the slope.

The journey down the mountain began. First, Anna skied to the right; then, not knowing how to turn left, she just fell. Standing up and steadying herself with her ski poles, she carefully turned to the left and skied to the other side of the trail. She completed her right turn without falling. However, soon she would have to turn left again. Plop! She fell again. Over and over again, every time it was time to turn left, she fell.

“Miriam, I can’t go on!” moaned Anna.

“You have to. There’s no other way down,” replied Miriam.

Reluctantly, Anna picked herself up off the snow once again. Miriam noticed that Anna was improving, although not quite in the area that Anna really wanted: turning without falling.

“You keep falling. Then, when I turn to help you up, you’ve already popped back up to keep going,” stated Miriam cheerfully.

All Anna did was give a wry smile and shakily stand up again. It became a routine: fall over, pop back up, fall over, pop back up. Conversation died down, and the pair made painfully slow progress.

Eventually, the two sisters turned onto Cranmer Cutoff and continued their slow decent. Sometimes Anna’s skis popped off, and Miriam stopped to help her through the tricky process of putting on skis while standing on a steep, slick slope. The last leg of the journey started when they came to Parkway. Compared to the bunny slopes, Parkway seemed to go straight down. Three hours later, Anna and Miriam finally reached the bottom of the slopes. Discouraged, Anna thought to herself, “I’ll never be able to ski well or go very fast.”

Anna didn’t give up, however. Practicing over and over in the days that followed, she finally learned how to turn. Soon she was ready to try the same trails that she had fallen on so many times earlier.

Instead of inching along, Anna zoomed down March Hare. Anna kept her speed under control by gracefully weaving back and forth, this time without falling. Turning onto Cranmer Cutoff, Anna quickly passed through familiar areas where she had fallen so many times before. Parkway became a fun challenge, and Anna actually glided down the steep slope without falling.

Through perseverance, Anna had conquered her fears. Feeling a sense of accomplishment, she reflected on how far she had come: “Now the slope that took me three hours to go down, I only took half an hour!”

WORKS CITED

Lofgren, Anna. “Re: Questions about Skiing.” E-mail to the author. 8 Dec. 2006.