Skiing in the Desert

After a flight that was delayed for two hours, Celeste and I made our way (kid-free!!!) to Dubai on an airplane that made very strange and worrisome noises. We managed to land without incident, though, and made our way into the "City of Captivating Contrasts" in the United Arab Emirates.

Our first stop was to the Mall of the Emirates to Ski Dubai. It's an indoor ski slope inside the mall. As we entered the mall, we passed stores like Gucci, Prada, Armani and other places that we didn't even dare step foot inside. We headed pretty much straight to the slope.

When we got to the front of the line to buy our tickets, there was a big sign that said, "You must be able to complete these minimum skills to gain entry to the ski slope. 1. Stopping. 2. Controlling speed. 3. Linked turns. 4. The ability to use the ski lift." I looked at the pictures and said, "We can do all that! Who needs skiing lessons???"

Yeah, well....apparently we did because our first attempts on the ski slope were quite comical and probably a little dangerous. We started out on the baby ski school slope and it didn't go so well the first few times. Let's just say that we became intimately acquainted with the snow several times. We fell, we slid, we lost ski poles, we looked ridiculous....but it was fun!

We met a girl from New York who was there on a business trip and buddied up with her. She was a little more daring and encouraged us to try out a slope beyond the bunny slope. Eventually we did go down the medium slope a few times, but not very gracefully. It's amazing how quickly you gain bravado when doing something like this. In no time at all I went from busting my butt on the bunny slope to seriously considering going on the huge slope. Never did, but in my mind I thought I could probably handle it.

Of course, there were tons of little European kids who blew us out of the water, but we kept plugging away and by the end of our two hours at Ski Dubai, we managed to go down the middle slope without falling. Yeah!

On the right is the medium slope that we went down. On the left is the end of the big slope. It winds up around the corner and out of sight.

Celeste at the beginning of our ski adventure.

Celeste making it up the people mover.

As we initially got all of our gear from the attendants, the person at the counter asked me what my ski level was. As I had not been on the slope yet, my warped mind caused me to say "moderate," so the rest of Celeste's visit, she teased me about how I was a moderate skiier, among other things. In reality, my "moderate" skiing consisted of me forming a snow plow with my skis, making it look like I had to pee really bad and flailing my arms like a windmill, ski poles attached. Not pretty---but lots of fun!