Monday, April 25, 2005
Snowboarding 102
Another snowboard report...
Having taken one snowboarding lesson at the COP, practiced on the the bunny slopes at the COP twice and come down the Big Hill at the COP three times, last week I went to a real ski resort and decided to attempt to snowboard down from the Continental Divide, Mount Lookout, which is 8954 feet tall!
The Continental Divide (at the top of the mountain)
The HERBs had invited me for a day at Sunshine last Thursday and I had waxed my board and booked the day off. On Wednesday, though, they cancelled as Richard had to work after all. Undeterred, I decided to go anyway, and hit the road at about 10:30am. It was a long drive to the resort (90 mins on Highway 1) and then it took another 30 mins to get suited up and ride the Gondola to the top, but once I was there I got almost 5 hours on the slopes.
In the Gondola
Snowy Hills
I spent most of my time on the green and blue runs on 'Strawberry Hill', which is where P had her first and only (so far) traumatic ski experience in December (see Monday, December 06, 2004 'Ski Saturday'). I too had a pretty scary time going down Strawberry on skis back then, but this time on a snowboard it seemed a lot less scary and after a few runs I had the measure of it and was practicing my turns and edging with no problem. The runs at Strawberry are excellent for snowboarding, as they have plenty of different routes possible, lots of trees and turns and have a steady downwards slope to keep you moving. Remember, if you're on skis you have the poles to push yourself along the flat boring bits, but on a board if you stop you're sunk, so you need a bit of a gradient just to keep moving.
The Strawberry Lift
Strawberry on the way up
At the top of Strawberry
Check the trails here.
It was so warm that I had to reduce myself to 2 layers of clothing, losing my jumper and going with T-shirt and waterproof jacket only. Even that was still a bit too warm, and I spent most of the day with the jacket open. I had to remove the insulation and the ear-muffs from my helmet before I got heat-stroke! My new knee-pads worked a treat, though and I didn't pick up a single bruise all day long (although maybe I'm just falling less, or falling better). My helmet saved the day when I fell badly on one blue run - I went down hard enough to daze me a for a few seconds and the helmet has an impact mark on it now! I also discovered that my boots have an extra strap hidden inside which goes across the front of your ankle to stop your heel rising up, and this makes a lot of difference when you're trying to get the board up on its edge at speed.
The Superpipe
Trails in the Snow
I also learned a few important lessons about the chairlift -
1. don't fiddle with your gear when you're 30 feet up in the air in a little metal chair. I was messing with my gloves and managed to drop one right onto a blue run. Luckily, I managed to board all the way down to within 2 feet of it, but it was hard work.
2. always check your leash, which is a little safety device which keeps your board attached to your leg in case your boots or bindings come loose and the board falls off your leg. A loose board on the slopes is like a runaway train, as it tends to point downhill at once, and then accelerates very quickly indeed, reaching an impressive speed before slamming into someone at the bottom of the slope. I was so keen to get on the chairlift that I just buckled myself into my bindings and then hopped on. Only when I was halfway up did I realise my leash was undone, and my board was only secured by the bindings on my left foot. I was glad to get to the top of that lift...
I did have some trouble with my cheapo goggles deciding to come apart half way through the day (fixed them up) and I couldn't be bothered wearing my chunky wrist protectors (too much hassle taking them on and off). It was amazingly bright up there and I'm fairly sure I would have ended up snowblind without some sort of eye protection. I boarded most of the day with my 'daypack' on (containing food, water, extra clothes, phone, keys and wallet) but when I took it off for a while (stowing it in a locker) suddenly I felt a lot lighter and more balanced and was boarding a lot better!
The lifts stopped running at 4:30pm, so for my last run of the day I decided to head up on Angel chair to Lookout Mountain. The lift takes you up about 3/4 of the way to the Continental Divide, at a ridiculously steep angle and then there's a long green run all the way back down. I thought it would be a fun way to finish the day, but I had miscalculated slightly...
On Angel Chair
Up to Lookout
Ridiculously steep
Up on the Divide, winter is still in full swing, with snowy mountains as far as the eye can see. At the end of a Thursday in late April there are also very few people up there, and so I was almost alone on a run I'd never come down before. The air is also a bit thinner and it's a bit colder than it was below.
The Rockies in late April
Route 34
The green run down (Route 34) wasn't much fun, as it was right on the edge of the mountain, and if you slipped right you were heading straight down a steep black run, so it was a constant effort to keep the board going down and to the left. After the first steeper bit, the run levels off and is almost flat, which is OK for skiers but not so much for boarders. It might be OK if you could keep up a good speed, but my legs were getting cold and very tired, kind of like jelly, and once I fell over I lost all my speed and found myself stuck on the flat. I had to take one leg off the board and skate my way to the next hilly bit, which was about 1/4 of a mile away. So there I was, shuffling along on Lookout Mountain, not another human being in sight, completely silent, surrounded by the icy peaks. It felt really lonely, like being on another planet and I started to wonder if I had the strength left to make it down. I stopped to rest for a minute and noticed that all the lifts had stopped running and the chairs were swinging in the breeze. Hundreds of feet below in the tiny village, they had turned the lights off in the Day Lodge and taken all the tables and chairs inside. There were no people in sight. It was definitely time to go home.
Fallen down
I'm lying on the snow...
... but I'm looking at the sky
I made it to the next slope and started off on the board again, but my legs were aching and every few hundred yards I flopped back on the snow for a rest. Not really falling, but just landing on your bum for a minute or two until your legs stop burning again. After about 15 minutes of this, I saw a skier in red approaching. He was one of the Ski Patrol and he was wondering if I was a bit tired and would I like a snowmobile ride down to the village? Of course, this is how they rescue grannies and the like who can't make it down off the mountain, and I politely declined. He told me that I was the last rider on the mountain, and that he couldn't go home until I went home, but I assured him I would be down in 5-10 minutes, and headed off downhill again. I seemed to have gotten a second wind, and I got up some more speed on my edge for this section. Then I came around a corner and almost collided with a groomer, basically a sort of snow tractor which smoothes the snow out for the next day's skiing. I managed to slow down and steer around it, and then headed down to the village on the freshly groomed snow. This bit was just marvellous, lovely freshly-groomed flat snow, no bumps or ruts at all and it seemed like the board was on auto-pilot, humming along down the hill. I could have kept going all day! Finally I made it back down the hill to the village, finishing up by swinging the board around onto it's heelside suddenly, bringing it to a complete halt in a spray of snow! Wow!
At the end of the day
Heading home again
So I'm definitely getting better at snowboarding. At the end of the day I was wrecked and I was still sore for a day or two afterwards, but I'll be back again. One thing is that I forgot how strong the sun is at the top of Sunshine, and I think I got a slight case of sunstroke and definitely a bit of a tan by the end of the day. So next time I'll have to bring the sunscreen!
J
Having taken one snowboarding lesson at the COP, practiced on the the bunny slopes at the COP twice and come down the Big Hill at the COP three times, last week I went to a real ski resort and decided to attempt to snowboard down from the Continental Divide, Mount Lookout, which is 8954 feet tall!
The Continental Divide (at the top of the mountain)
The HERBs had invited me for a day at Sunshine last Thursday and I had waxed my board and booked the day off. On Wednesday, though, they cancelled as Richard had to work after all. Undeterred, I decided to go anyway, and hit the road at about 10:30am. It was a long drive to the resort (90 mins on Highway 1) and then it took another 30 mins to get suited up and ride the Gondola to the top, but once I was there I got almost 5 hours on the slopes.
In the Gondola
Snowy Hills
I spent most of my time on the green and blue runs on 'Strawberry Hill', which is where P had her first and only (so far) traumatic ski experience in December (see Monday, December 06, 2004 'Ski Saturday'). I too had a pretty scary time going down Strawberry on skis back then, but this time on a snowboard it seemed a lot less scary and after a few runs I had the measure of it and was practicing my turns and edging with no problem. The runs at Strawberry are excellent for snowboarding, as they have plenty of different routes possible, lots of trees and turns and have a steady downwards slope to keep you moving. Remember, if you're on skis you have the poles to push yourself along the flat boring bits, but on a board if you stop you're sunk, so you need a bit of a gradient just to keep moving.
The Strawberry Lift
Strawberry on the way up
At the top of Strawberry
Check the trails here.
It was so warm that I had to reduce myself to 2 layers of clothing, losing my jumper and going with T-shirt and waterproof jacket only. Even that was still a bit too warm, and I spent most of the day with the jacket open. I had to remove the insulation and the ear-muffs from my helmet before I got heat-stroke! My new knee-pads worked a treat, though and I didn't pick up a single bruise all day long (although maybe I'm just falling less, or falling better). My helmet saved the day when I fell badly on one blue run - I went down hard enough to daze me a for a few seconds and the helmet has an impact mark on it now! I also discovered that my boots have an extra strap hidden inside which goes across the front of your ankle to stop your heel rising up, and this makes a lot of difference when you're trying to get the board up on its edge at speed.
The Superpipe
Trails in the Snow
I also learned a few important lessons about the chairlift -
1. don't fiddle with your gear when you're 30 feet up in the air in a little metal chair. I was messing with my gloves and managed to drop one right onto a blue run. Luckily, I managed to board all the way down to within 2 feet of it, but it was hard work.
2. always check your leash, which is a little safety device which keeps your board attached to your leg in case your boots or bindings come loose and the board falls off your leg. A loose board on the slopes is like a runaway train, as it tends to point downhill at once, and then accelerates very quickly indeed, reaching an impressive speed before slamming into someone at the bottom of the slope. I was so keen to get on the chairlift that I just buckled myself into my bindings and then hopped on. Only when I was halfway up did I realise my leash was undone, and my board was only secured by the bindings on my left foot. I was glad to get to the top of that lift...
I did have some trouble with my cheapo goggles deciding to come apart half way through the day (fixed them up) and I couldn't be bothered wearing my chunky wrist protectors (too much hassle taking them on and off). It was amazingly bright up there and I'm fairly sure I would have ended up snowblind without some sort of eye protection. I boarded most of the day with my 'daypack' on (containing food, water, extra clothes, phone, keys and wallet) but when I took it off for a while (stowing it in a locker) suddenly I felt a lot lighter and more balanced and was boarding a lot better!
The lifts stopped running at 4:30pm, so for my last run of the day I decided to head up on Angel chair to Lookout Mountain. The lift takes you up about 3/4 of the way to the Continental Divide, at a ridiculously steep angle and then there's a long green run all the way back down. I thought it would be a fun way to finish the day, but I had miscalculated slightly...
On Angel Chair
Up to Lookout
Ridiculously steep
Up on the Divide, winter is still in full swing, with snowy mountains as far as the eye can see. At the end of a Thursday in late April there are also very few people up there, and so I was almost alone on a run I'd never come down before. The air is also a bit thinner and it's a bit colder than it was below.
The Rockies in late April
Route 34
The green run down (Route 34) wasn't much fun, as it was right on the edge of the mountain, and if you slipped right you were heading straight down a steep black run, so it was a constant effort to keep the board going down and to the left. After the first steeper bit, the run levels off and is almost flat, which is OK for skiers but not so much for boarders. It might be OK if you could keep up a good speed, but my legs were getting cold and very tired, kind of like jelly, and once I fell over I lost all my speed and found myself stuck on the flat. I had to take one leg off the board and skate my way to the next hilly bit, which was about 1/4 of a mile away. So there I was, shuffling along on Lookout Mountain, not another human being in sight, completely silent, surrounded by the icy peaks. It felt really lonely, like being on another planet and I started to wonder if I had the strength left to make it down. I stopped to rest for a minute and noticed that all the lifts had stopped running and the chairs were swinging in the breeze. Hundreds of feet below in the tiny village, they had turned the lights off in the Day Lodge and taken all the tables and chairs inside. There were no people in sight. It was definitely time to go home.
Fallen down
I'm lying on the snow...
... but I'm looking at the sky
I made it to the next slope and started off on the board again, but my legs were aching and every few hundred yards I flopped back on the snow for a rest. Not really falling, but just landing on your bum for a minute or two until your legs stop burning again. After about 15 minutes of this, I saw a skier in red approaching. He was one of the Ski Patrol and he was wondering if I was a bit tired and would I like a snowmobile ride down to the village? Of course, this is how they rescue grannies and the like who can't make it down off the mountain, and I politely declined. He told me that I was the last rider on the mountain, and that he couldn't go home until I went home, but I assured him I would be down in 5-10 minutes, and headed off downhill again. I seemed to have gotten a second wind, and I got up some more speed on my edge for this section. Then I came around a corner and almost collided with a groomer, basically a sort of snow tractor which smoothes the snow out for the next day's skiing. I managed to slow down and steer around it, and then headed down to the village on the freshly groomed snow. This bit was just marvellous, lovely freshly-groomed flat snow, no bumps or ruts at all and it seemed like the board was on auto-pilot, humming along down the hill. I could have kept going all day! Finally I made it back down the hill to the village, finishing up by swinging the board around onto it's heelside suddenly, bringing it to a complete halt in a spray of snow! Wow!
At the end of the day
Heading home again
So I'm definitely getting better at snowboarding. At the end of the day I was wrecked and I was still sore for a day or two afterwards, but I'll be back again. One thing is that I forgot how strong the sun is at the top of Sunshine, and I think I got a slight case of sunstroke and definitely a bit of a tan by the end of the day. So next time I'll have to bring the sunscreen!
J
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