Being born in Slovenia, this brings with it some expectations. One of them for example – that I should know how to ski from age 3… ideally even before that. Skiing is an integral part of Slovene culture and free time activities and also in sports, Slovenian skiers are very good on a global level and tend to occasionally snatch even the highest medals and awards.

Well my family was never big on skiing, so I did not get my first set of skis with the age of 3, I did not reach pro level by the age of 10, my story is a bit different. It all started with a big emotional scar in relation to skiing. I guess it was about 11 years old, when we had a ski-trip in our school (as all elementary schools tend to have in Slovenia). I remember getting a set of skis waxed and sharpened the day before and I did feel a bit unsettled, since I knew I had no idea on how to ski. The ski trips before were a bit of a torment for me in watching out not to kill myself or possibly anybody else. Basically, as far as my skiing ability went, was to crouch on the skis, ride downhill in a straight line and hope for the terrain to flatten that I would stop. Period. That was it, plow was something I could to on a relatively flat surface I guess, and I never felt secure on the skis.

So basically, this ski trip was the day when we drove to Pohorje, north-eastern Slovenia and the teachers divided us in age and experience groups. Somehow, I did not end up in the 11 year/beginner group, but they put me together with the 14year old experienced skiers. Me being me, of course followed and did not complain. So, they said – ok, follow us, and went to another ski slope. To get there my “downhill” capacity was good enough, and then the trauma began to carve into my mind. First – the challenge was to get to the top, there was a surface lift (anchor formed) from which I always fell, mostly because of my paranoia. So, we tried about 10 times and by the time I finally got up, the group formed back and said – ok, now we will go to the next ski slope. Follow us… Sure, I can do that I thought, so I was the last one in line, everybody went, and I once again followed with my downhill skill I kept up well, until the moment, when everybody turned right, and I ended up hitting a tree. After laying in the snow in pain with all my stuff scattered around the tree for 15 minutes, the professor came back since he noticed I was missing. Basically, the day ended in a collar bone injury and me waiting in the medical facility for the ski-trip to end. That was the day I promised to myself I will never ski again.

Well as we all know, never say never. My next ski experience was when I was about 20 something, I was taking part on an international Mensa meeting in Slovenia on a smaller ski-resort called Kobla. I took part since I knew not everyone will ski and I will get to meet a whole bunch of interesting people. How I was wrong… of course even those of us who did not ski, did go to the “ski-cup” competition to cheer the competitors. There I was basically with no ski pants or jacket, being persuaded, that I should try since it´s not that hard. So … a part of me knew – try it, otherwise you will never know. And I tried. I still had no idea how to ski, but by that time you got the half-carving skis, which were much easier to maneuver as the ones I had as a kid. And I managed to ski, take some curves, and do a few rides down. And there it was, I was ready to compete… Of course, I competed, crashed spectacularly when trying to make the door, but still, completely unhurt, I found it still scary but not death-threatening as before from my childhood years, when I was terrified by just the thought of skiing.

On that day I did learn another lesion about skiing though – sunscreen. I got completely sunburned to my face and spend the next few days turning from red to violet and slowly back to white. Lesson learned.

A few years passed, with me avoiding any invitation for ski-trips since I really did not understand the fun about skiing and spending a few days of my life on vast ski-slopes. Until a few years ago another Mensa international event was happening on another ski slope in Slovenia, Krvavec. It was again a three-day event and I attended. This time I decided I will finally learned how to ski. On the first day I took an instructor and we stared from basics. After two hours I kind of had an idea about how to turn, how to stop, etc. On the third day I was still skiing scared, but I was skiing. Again, the competition happened and again I crashed. But it did not stop me in accepting invitations for ski trips from that point on.

After that I did a few few-day trips in Kronplatz, Schladming and a few one-day trips to Slovenian ski slopes. The last time was in 2016, when I skied on Krvavec in a fog where I could not see more 2 meters ahead. But I was skiing, didn´t matter that I did not know where I was, I felt good and I enjoyed skiing even before that. Once you get the feeling and understand that you can basically stop anywhere, skiing becomes real fun. Even black ski tracks were doable. So since I moved to Munich there was a lot of talk that we should use the opportunity to visit the ski slopes in Austria, which are usually an hour and a half away if traffic is light and I do plan a visit to Colorado in March where I definitely want to try out the slopes.

Understanding that still I was never really into skiing and after 2 years from my last ski day, I should brush up on my skills again, we decided to visit a local ski slope in the vicinity of Tegernsee, about an hour’s drive from Munich. This time I was sure everything will go well. Oh, how I was wrong…

My skiing was basic, but we hit the slopes immediately as you swim best when you get thrown into water. We did a few rides, so the couple I was with spent some time working on the ski-skills I took a ride by myself. And then it happened, a little girl in ski school somehow ended directly in front of me when I was taking a curve, it all happened so fast that I only remembering to yell out “Watch out” (in German, which surprised me), trying to avoid, but hit her full force. The girl was about 10 years old, and we crashed hard and you can imagine a 110+kg guy hitting a tiny 10-year-old is not cool. I fell as well and when I came to, she was lying on the ground whining, luckily people came around, protected the side and a group of doctors training were 100 meters away, so she immediately got attention. With 4 doctors present I sat down and observed, hoping that she did not break anything. They first checked if the remembered who she is, which day it was, etc. to establish that there is no brain trauma, then the upper part of her leg was hurt. She was very brave and stopped crying quite fast, but still mentioning that her leg hurts. This never happened to me, and I had no idea what to do but to feel bad. They put her in a stretcher and I went down with one of the doctors. She was taking part in a ski-school, with the ski instructor not being present, which surprised me a bit, but still, did not have time to think about any of that. After the ambulance took her to the hospital for x-ray, and after the police arrived to take statements, I started to understand that this may also have legal implications. However, my worries were with the girl if the will be ok, or does she have a broken leg. The speed was not great, but I gave my telephone number to the police officer to give to her parents so that if they wanted they would let me know if she is ok. I did not get any calls, so I really hope that it was just a bruise and that she will be fine and not traumatized by this ski accident as I was when I was a kid. She was one of the bravest girls I ever saw, surrounded by people she did not know, she did not cry and waited patiently.

It also ruined my day, even though the doctors and police assured me that accidents happen all the time and that probably everything should be fine. What I was surprised to learn was that in Bavaria there is a special attorney general just for ski accidents. 99% of the time they do not result in state prosecution, but sometimes if there is suspicion that it was intentional or due to reckless skiing with resulting injuries, then it may go to court.

Since speed was not high, I am convinced that she will be fine and that she will keep skiing. With the way she handled the accident I have no doubt that she will not let fear control her decisions about skiing. As I did not let mine control me. I went skiing again on the same slope the next weekend and it was great, no accidents, a wonderful day spent on the slopes.

The moral of the story? I guess you get it, but in the end for me – even if an experience is bad, it should not mean that you should let something go completely and miss out on the positive side.