Sliding down your fears

Chionophobia. The fear of snow.

As I take my first step on the Badaling part of the Great Wall, the blistering cold hits me. I adjust my scarf, tighten my jacket, and take another step. Slipping back to where I started, my hands desperately reach for the side. How could the Chinese have built a wall this steep? Another step. My lips start trembling and my eyes move to the ground. Snow; nothing but snow. I feel my heart hammering against my ribs. How did I end up in this place? Another step. Blackness appears before my eyes. Another step. Make it stop. Another step.

A last step.

Just like that my feet remain rooted to the spot, unwilling to move another inch. Tears streaming down my face I announce to my friends that I can go no further and wave them goodbye as they walk up the slippery stairs towards the first watchtower. Time passes, and while I come back to my senses, my friends return.“We invented a new Winter Olympics discipline, Great Wall sliding, wanna join?” Hesitant to try it at first, gliding down the treacherous slippery parts of the Wall I had managed to climb did seem safer than walking. I nod, and when I sit down, my friend announces: “These are the Winter Olympics.”

Ready, set, go.

My head empties, and for a minute the cold disappears. Out of the corner of my eyes I see that my friends have already begun hustling down, and my body reacts on its own. I slide down, rushing to get my ass down in front of the other. Snow pops up all around me, but it does not matter; the only thing that does is the ensuing laughter. We were using one of China’s finest monuments, its Greatest Wall, as a glide, and it felt wonderful. And even though I did not win our newly invented Winter Olympics, enjoying myself in the snow did feel as a first step in conquering an explicable irrational phobia.

The Great Wall of China turned out to be my favorite glide, and you can definitely slide it too. In order to do so it is essential that you visit Beijing in the winter, preferably February. Wait anxiously for a day with weather so bad that they stop sending buses to the Wall at some point. Go to Badaling, as the lesser known places will probably be unreachable due to the weather, and climb the Wall. Don’t forget to wear slippery shoes to give you an edge in the upcoming sliding battle. Glide, laugh, and have a friend film it.

Then again, if you are a chionophobic as me, climbing the Great Wall of China might be a hard first step towards the joy of gliding it.