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Donald Teaches Raquel How To Ski!

It was a beautiful Valentines Day Sunday, February 14, 1999.  Donald and Raquel were at Shawnee Mountain Ski Area in the Poconos.  This would be Raquel's first skiing experience and it didn't start out well.

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After 30 or 40 seconds of intense training involving the physics of the skiing art.  Donald felt she was ready to tackle the big hill.

She only had to learn how not to go backwards.  This could prove to be a problem on the steeper slopes.   But Donald's philosophy in ski training is that once your on the top of the mountain, the terrifying fear experienced by the novice skier will improve the learning process.
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image05.jpg (22467 bytes) Here Donald tries to stab Raquel with his pole.  He's found that this technique inspires new students to chase him with the intent to beat the crap out of him, thus improving their confidence on skis.

Well they're off to the top of the mountain.

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Two of the small dots, near the top, are Donald and Raquel.  It took over 40 minutes for them to reach the bottom.  They must have been moving at a break neck pace of several inches per minute.  Although it was kind of like a race in that people on the bottom were giving 10 to 1 odds that they would not arrive at the bottom before spring did.


Although things started out very shaky, Raquel managed to get up the nerve to keep trying.   Before long she was skiing without help.  She made it to the bottom without a fall.  Everyone was impressed with how quickly Raquel was mastering the sport.

Here Raquel and Donald pose for a picture after successfully skiing the slope.

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Here Raquel and Donald, while posing for the above picture, get slammed into by another skier who has not negotiated the slope with the same level of success.

Later the slopes are getting crowed and with a good day had by all, it's time to go.

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But
they'll
be
back
real
soon.