So while I might not be an Olympic skier, it's nice to tell people that my first time skiing was in the Swiss Alps. The Alps are a mountain rage that cross from France to Italy to Switzerland and into Austrian and Slovenia. The Alps cover 65% of Switzerland's surface area and are a huge draw for both tourists and expert skiers. Though-out history, the Alps have played an important part in Switzerland's role in Europe due to their control of the mountains.
The art of Alpine skiing (or downhill skiing) originated in the European Alps, which differs from Nordic skiing in that both the toes and the heel are attached to the ski. For most of history, skiing was a way for mountain peoples to travel from one place to another, and modern ski resorts have only been around since the 1800s. After the promotion of winter tourism in Switzerland in the 1860s, skiing soon became a popular winter recreational sport for vacationers.
We stayed at Balmer's Hostel in Interlaken, Switzerland, which was only a 30 minute bus ride from the slopes. As one of the top ten hostels in Europe and the oldest privately-owned hostel in Switzerland, I thought it was an excellent place to feel the atmosphere of the town of Interlaken. A little quirky and very fun, Interlaken is the perfect mixture of Swiss professionalism and laid back vacation town. Interlaken's rise to one of the premier resort towns in Europe began during the 1800s after landscape artists noticed the town's great beauty and began selling prints around Europe. After slowing a bit after both World Wars, tourism has constantly been high in this little mountain village.
As embarrassing as it is to admit, I spent about 95% of my time skiing laying on the ground or trying to get my ski back on and only about 5% was actually spent skiing. I'm going to use this as an excuse to get my family to take me skiing soon, so perhaps I will have to come back soon and show Switzerland how much I've improved. I was really jealous impressed with how some of the members of the group picked up skiing almost immediately and were off the bunny slopes to the actual mountain ski paths. I decided to quit after about 3 hours of practicing because they were closing the bunny slopes, and I just didn't feel comfortable yet going down the actual mountain, but three members of our little ski group did without too many major incidents. So I mainly used to rest of afternoon as a picture taking opportunity. Ex:
The thing that surprised me the most about skiing was that it gets HOT up on that mountain. I know that people had warned me that it was going to be hot, but I was not prepared for it to be 60 degrees up there. Also, I would advise anyone that is going skiing to bring sunglasses. The reflection of the sun on the snow is almost blinding, which created another problem for those of us with sun-sensitive skin: the ski sunburn. I don't know what was more attractive about it; the fact that my entire body, except my face, is winter-y pale, or the fact that my sunglasses gave me a raccoon-like appearance. But it was definitely worth it, sunburn and all (:
What I learned from this whole ski experience was that not everyone can pick-up skiing their first time (some of us need days of ski school), little kids are going to be better skiers than you sometimes, just accept it, and to try new, and sometimes uncomfortable, hobbies! Also, I'm being serious; I think my parent's need to take me skiing next winter for more practice.
-Samantha Tosh
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