Continuation of last blog

Speaking about ruts:

Ruts can be good or bad depending on your perspective. Ruts can be bad if they are deep. Because, for starters, you can't see very far when you are in a ditch. It is possible that you could get stuck and not be able to get out. You only have one track to ride in making it an incomplete view. It is better to see from a perspective above. You could see where the rut will take you and the curves or crashes that may come in the future.

For instance, when I cross county ski, I liked the ruts. The tracks are already packed down and the gliding is smooth. I feel secure when the paths are straight with a gradual down hill slope. But, I learned about the danger of the rut too. When I first began, my skiing adventures were with my husband. We took lessons at the same time, but he was better than me. My first experience was a smashing success. I enjoyed the views, the trees, the crisp wind in my face. I liked the birds singing and the sound of the swish of the skis on the snow. As I came around a corner and began a steeper down hill run, I noticed the evidence of crashes on the tracks below. Because of the momentum of my run, I was unable to get out of the tracks before I too was taking the direction of the crash victim.
I found myself lying spread eagle on the ground totally disoriented. That is not a good place to be when people are following you. Help! I rolled off the trail and quickly tried to return to the upright position so I could continue my decent just as another more experienced skier came behind me. He passed through the crash site with no problems. I decided that the best way to navigate in a rut was to follow experienced skiers. That meant I really needed to know the person who was ahead of me. I prefer that to be my husband. He rarely falls and has way more experience than me because he has skied more often and on different kinds of trails. He convinced me to follow him on another ocassion. The trail was labeled EXPERT, I did not like the sound of that. I was anything but an expert. I had only just begun my rut navigating. I was glad the snow was soft (better for crash landings). But due to my trust in my husband's assessment of skiing trails I consented. I was able to navigate the climb to the top of a ridge and ski smoothly along behind him, until he began the down hill run. The trail became wide and flat with no tracks. I started decending very fast and tried to slow down by snow plowing.(that is where your skis point like an arrow downward and the back of your skis are spread wider than the front) In this case my arrow became and X and I was continuing to go down hill faster than desired. I tried to uncross my skis and in the process stuck the back part of the skis in the snow behind me. This managed to stop the decent of the skis, but not me. I suddenly fell forward and then back with my skis spread apart and my knees making the point of the arrow. Ouch! I saw the sky and trees but I couldn't get up. My husband was at the bottom of the slope wondering what happened. He climbed back up the hill and helped me get up on two feet. I was able to ski down the rest of the way,(because I had to). I was very glad when I made it to the car and could sit down. Today I have a knee that tells me the weather, mostly because I got out of the ruts too soon for my experience. The moral of this story is that ruts are good when you are inexperienced just don't get stuck in them.