The smell of fear part 2

And it happened again! I cannot believe it! It wasn't the same skier but it was the same misjudgement which led to the same kind of trauma.

Our holiday operator organised a trip to another ski resort not far from where the first incident occurred, half way through the week-long holiday. I wanted to have a look at this other resort as this may be a potential future destination so I went along for the day trip. When we got to our drop off point for the day we were told by the guide that to get to the main ski area we would need to take the gondola up to our first ski point and then we would have to ski down a couple of blue runs and take a couple of chair lifts, but we were not to worry as she would be with us to ensure we knew where we're going and to arrange a meet up point for later. At this announcement, one of the skiers sitting behind me got hysterical and said she was 'going to kill that girl' (that girl being the guide) and that had she known this she wouldn't have come on this trip at all. She couldn't possibly ski down on blue runs. Having said this she didn't decide to wait in the coach or the coffee shop by the gondola departure point but decided to come along with the group, while she vocalised her displeasure about the situation to the guide. I was surprised by how rude and unreasonable she was but I guess fear can do strange things to a person. She was there by her own choice so why was she taking it out on the guide?

As we proceeded on our way she screamed at every turn and whenever anyone passed her, i.e. she screamed quite a lot. Our guide tried to make things easy by keeping the group together- availability of familiar faces and human shields from other skiers- and taking the descent in stages. At every stop this woman complained about how it was very hard on her and that she was feeling quite unwell from having to do this. She also kept saying to her husband that she wanted to head back and make their own way back to our base resort. We got to the central ski area and went our separate ways after we arranged a meeting point and time to head home later that afternoon. I was relieved to not have to deal with her again until later, and be able to enjoy the spectacular skiing and views on offer. It was, however, more of the same on the way back; she didn't head back on her own as she had threatened.

I'm not entirely sure what she was expecting but its a bit over-ambitious to go away for a day to a ski area that one isn't familiar with when one can't be confident of managing an easy ski run. The guide was there to take care of the travel arrangements, not to teach the skiers how to ski so why is this the guide's fault? The resort we were based at had a couple of blue runs and the rest were all reds and blacks. The one we visited had more blue runs and was probably more suitable for beginners. However, if the lack of familiarity is a worry, what the skier needed was probably lessons and more practice somewhere she could repeat the actions without having to worry about the routes. If she had thought things through and considered what was best for her she probably would not have come on the visit. But she didn't think it through. Mountains can be unfriendly places if one is ill-prepared; it could have been an expensive mistake to make.