Winter sports can be an exercise in humiliation. If you get into them too late, you can very easily be one-upped by 6-year-olds at a skating rink or ski slope. I ice skated for the first time in my life last year, and I was pleasantly surprised that it was so functionally similar to rollerblading. I could glide easily by the end of my first hour of skating. I don't think I will become Kristi Yamaguchi as a 23-year-old novice, but it's nice to know that I can pick up new skills, especially new a…