In the mid 80s several couples all went to Lake Tahoe for a little get away.

I wasn’t an accomplished skier when we got there. To tell you the truth I had never had a pair of skis on. Several in our group had never skied either, including my wife and my brother, so they enrolled in Ski School.

Only one couple with us were accomplished skiers. John and Belinda Kemper made it sound easy. So rather than waste time with ski school I got my equipment on and headed to the top of the mountain. I had never seen a ski lift. Whatever John and Belinda did, I tried to follow suit. I Tried.

Getting on and then off of that lift is the last thing that even looked like I knew what I doing that day. Somehow, still unknown to me, even today, I made it to the top and dismounted the lift chair without them having to shut the whole thing down.

Those dang ski boots were about the right length, only about half wide enough. It felt like my feet were in a vise.

I looked up and the Kemper’s were gone. For some reason I assumed we may all kind of go down together. I guess that wasn’t a very good assumption on my part.

I would ski for a few feet and fall. Then get up and try again. I could see pretty quick I wasn’t going to ski down, so I needed to figure how to get off the mountain otherwise. So about the time ski school was finished for the others I came walking off the mountain with the skis slung over my shoulder.

I say came walking off the the mountain, but you can’t walk off of a mountain exactly. So the combination of walking, tumbling, rolling and sliding was used. I can’t remember but I think it took about 3 hours to get to the bottom. I even thought about leaving the skis behind a time or two.

When I went in and took off those boots it was truly one of the best feelings I’ve ever experienced. I even had considered it up on the mountain, but for whatever reason I figured that wasn’t the best idea.

I spent the next three days in the casinos while the others skied. I have never even thought about trying to ski again. That’s an activity I wasn’t cut out for.