This week, Scott and I went skiing for the first time ever. What happens when you take a grown woman from the flat lands of Hamburg, Germany, up to the Loveland Ski Area (skiloveland.com) in Colorado and put her on skis for the first time? She has a blast, falls a few times and realizes that it’s really the ski lift that is the most intimidating aspect of it all.
Of course, because that German woman is me, I also had to film the adventure of skiing for the first time. Equipped with a GoPro on my helmet, I was hoping I’d bring you some awesome point-of-view shots of sailing, traversing or slowly creeping (it’s all a matter of perspective) down the mountain.
Unfortunately, in a perfect storm scenario, the GoPro chestmounts were sold out in town so I had to put it on my helmet, the camera was pointing down instead of straight ahead, we were too busy learning how to make it back down from the mountain to really check the camera’s position, the GoPro doesn’t have a playback option for me to check the footage and…. last but not least, I probably looked on the ground a lot more than up ahead. Typical beginner. Long story short, the GoPro footage showed more of my skis and shadow than the beautiful surroundings.
To make the best of it, I added a good amount of ski lift footage, a shot filmed by our awesome instructor Jim (aka Jungle Jim) of me skiing and spiced it all up with some (I hope you get the irony) metal music by my friend Jason Matherne. And I don’t mean his song “Bloody Hell” is ironic, it’s great. But uh… yeah, we’re not fast metalhead badass skiers… obviously.
A huge thank you to Harry, the ski instructor supervisor, who showed us the very basics in the morning and to Jungle Jim, who patiently taught us moves and confidence going downhill and skied backwards to film us, in the afternoon. We were both so impressed by how accommodating, friendly and patient everyone was with us first-timers. I highly recommend the Loveland Ski Area and to take lessons when you’re just starting out. A full-day beginner’s course costs $90. I definitely will try to make it out there again (with one of my visitors from Germany) before the mountain closes for the season on May 4th.
Additional thank you to Amanda Reed for letting me borrow her gear and Peter Verchick for lending me the GoPro again!
Last but not least, a special shout-out to the girl skiing in the long skirt (last shot) – you made me feel like I was in Brooklyn again, jogging alongside a hasidic girl in a long skirt and a wig. Multi-culti for the win!!!
For this excursion and video, I also shot a vlog to give a little background: Skiing! + Shooting! [Vlog 7 – English]
