I Learnt to Ski in 4 hours - ft. crashing into a wall...

This is unfortunately not me. I've never actually been skiing before. This pro here is a guy called Phil and he was going to be my instructor today. For the last month I've been living in this tiny hut in the Austrian Alps and of course one of the things I wanted to do whilst I'm here is learn how to ski and today I was hoping to do just that. We've had loads of snow here the last week so now is the perfect time to learn how to ski or maybe I will learn and find out that I can't ski. We're going to walk down to the village, meet up with some ski people and hopefully by the end of today I'm going to go down a hill on skis. Now I've never in my life been skiing before so today hopefully we're going to see big progress. I'm going to go from a non-skier to a ski person all in one day. Let's do this. I'm excited. I need the skis now. I've got to walk down this big hill down to the village. I should really have brought my plastic bin bag. Yesterday I went down this hill on a bin bag. It was great fun. Anyway, I will see you down there. That must be one of the world's longest icicles. Whoa. First thing to do was head into the local ski shop and pick up some equipment. It's Saturday morning. It snowed quite a lot last night and I think most of the Austrian population are heading out to go skiing. I've seen loads of people with skis. Silver spot. First I've got to check in. At the bottom it says skier type. Yeah, I am definitely very bad. Well, actually right now I am zero. You shouldn't hurt but the tighter the better. Okay. Okay, so please stand up. Feels really strange. First step. I have got ski shoes on. Ski boots? Ski boots. Second step. We're gonna need some skis. They are absolutely necessary for skiing. Yeah, that feels good. I'm safe. Lastly, I need an instructor to teach me how to ski. Let's go skiing. Everybody meet Phil, my instructor for today. Right, so we're loading up the van with all the skiing stuff and then we're gonna go drive up. What way are we going? On the right. Oh, that way. Is skiing tiring? Yeah, it is. In the beginning it is. Okay, how long have you been a ski instructor for? Four years. Yeah. And is skiing your main hobby? Yeah, in the winter time it is. And what do you do in the summer when there's no snow? I work in construction. Okay. Yeah, it's two very different things. We have arrived. We made it to the ramp, to the hill, to the slope. I'm a little bit nervous. Phil talked me through the importance of tightly done up ski boots, wearing gloves not to scratch up your hands on the ice and also showed me how to fit my ski boot onto the skis. Whoa, I've got one ski on. And also how to detach my ski boot from the skis. Whoa. These skis are for either foot. There's no left or right. Both of them can be used on either of my feet. The ski boot goes in here, but the ski boot will detach if you fall, which is important to not hurt yourself. I started by putting one ski on and scootering along, pushing with one foot, then swap to the other foot. And soon both skis were on. And I guess you could now say I'm skiing. Next, I learned three different ways to move uphill with skis. I realized that skis, although slippery on the underside, the edges are sharp, which is necessary for digging and cutting into the snow to move uphill. It reminds me of learning to drive a car for the first time. You know, when you just feel like it's going to be impossible. Whilst I was struggling to just simply stand up, fellow skiers were passing me, making it look so easy. I was right at the start of the learning process, which although feels tricky, it's in fact where the quickest progress is normally made. This is my learning graph. So much improvement is made at the start of learning a new skill. You go from nothing to something very quick. With this comes excitement and motivation and gives you the courage to keep going. But if skiing is like any other skill I've learned, soon the improvements will slow and possibly so will the enthusiasm. First incident. Oh dear, that doesn't give me confidence. Next, Phil taught me how to stop by making a kind of pizza shape with the skis, pushing them in at the front and out at the back. Learning how to stop is very important. This is the kid's ski slope. I'm going to try and ski down that. When you panic, you just end up forgetting everything. It's going well so far. After hitting the absolutely huge hill, I learned how to go left and right. A very important thing to learn in order to avoid crashing into things like trees and other skiers. This was done by putting weight on one leg and angling the ski to slow it down, which in turn made me change direction. Yeah, good. Whilst looking back at this footage, I realized that I looked like such a fool, so clumsy and off balance. It felt like I was doing so much better than it looks here. I will admit that falling down in front of all these kids, who were at a much higher level than me, was quite embarrassing. I felt incredibly clumsy and awkward at first, but it's amazing how quickly your muscles and body gets used to it. It's good fun as well. Sliding down a hill is a fun activity. I can see why almost everybody here goes skiing. I want to get better now. I want to be able to go faster and down a steeper hill. Break time. Apparently, we're going up there tomorrow. How did I do for my first time skiing? Don't be nice. You did really good. You really did good. Usually, people don't learn it that fast, but you did really an amazing job. Thank you. Go get an instructor who tells you good stuff like that. Let me know in the comments whether you think I did good. Phil here is showing me some of his skiing adventures. What? That's insane. We're going to get you there. Two more days and we're going to get you there. Two days, I'm going to be doing backflips on the hills. They're in. Perfect. Pressure, push it up a little more. Yes, you see. Then on the right, push it up. Yes, good. Two hours learning to ski. It goes incredibly quick, but it was good. I made improvements. I went from zero to- 100. Not quite 100. Maybe five. I'll give myself five. Thanks, Phil. You're welcome. I'll see you tomorrow. Yes. For more skiing. Day one of skiing over. I'm currently hiking up to the hut. It's a beautiful day today. It's real sunny and snowy. Apparently, ski boots have to be kept inside overnight so they don't freeze. I'm going to relax for the rest of the day, take it easy, and get a good night's sleep ready for some more skiing tomorrow. I have arrived home. Check out these icicles. That's incredible. Cheers. Good work, Alex. Good work skiing. See you tomorrow. I've just got given these red pants. Apparently, they're going to make me better at skiing. Look at that. That's just incredible. I got my red pants on, ski boots, helmet in case I crash. Let's go skiing. Day two started by doing some practice on the kid's slope before learning how to get on a ski lift. Phil has told me we're going up the lift. I'm a little bit scared. If these people can do it, then I'm sure I can. Or maybe I can't. I had visions of getting caught on the lift and getting stuck or being dragged along and losing control. I think this is half the fun, to be honest. If you're on a ski lift, it's better than walking up the hill. We're at the top, which means we've got to go down. This is going to be my last time skiing for a year, maybe forever. No, don't say that. No, hopefully not. I'll admit that after a couple of lessons, I'm still absolutely terrible at skiing. There were people beside me going backwards down the hill and flying past me at immense speed, and it was amazing to watch. I should apologize to all those skiers who I got in the way of on the slopes today. But I can now completely understand why people go skiing. It sure is a freeing feeling sliding down a slope in and out the sunlight, which shines through the spruce trees and the views of the mountains in the distance are just wonderful. This will definitely not be the last time I go skiing. Good skiing. Nice job. Thanks for teaching me how to ski, Phil. You're welcome. It was good. You did really good. Thanks so much to Marcus and Phil at Silversport in Vierberg for making my first skiing experience an enjoyable one. Cheers for watching, everyone. I hope you enjoyed. Skiing part two is coming out next winter. See ya.