Big Adventures, Little World

By now we were getting used to the early starts and our bodies weren’t hurting so much after the first few days either. We got out onto the mountain and the snow was coming in thick and fast and was becoming like a blizzard. It was much colder than the previous days as well, most probably because of the wind, and the cloud was low too which made visibility almost non existent some of the time. It didn’t seem to faze Sam at all though and off we went to the training area again, where we were practicing a new way to turn, and then setting up a series of cones for us to race through. The course was a series of 5 cones each side going down the mountain and we had to weave in and out of them and through the finish line, trying to beat someone else on the other side. Not only that though, we had someone filming us from the bottom to put together a DVD for the day’s lessons. It was good fun and by the end of it I was going all the way down the mountain without falling over at all! Yesterday’s blue run sure made a huge difference and I was really starting to get the feel of it all and felt a lot more confident at every turn. After the races we made our way back to the top of the blue run for another go at the same run as yesterday. This time we could barely see anything from the top though with the snow flying everywhere and the clouds right in the mountains. We were all a bit unsure but Sam assured us it would be fine and once we got down the mountain a little more we would be sheltered from it all a bit and it would be a lot better. As we made our way down the mountain we realised he was right.

Looking at the cafe in the blizzardy conditions from the snow school only about 50 metres away.

The improvement on yesterdays run was immense and we made our way down with fewer stoppages, which meant longer sections for putting our turns together. I was really starting to get the hang of it too and was starting to pick up a bit of speed as well. I spent some of the time following Sam, so going along in the same line as him which I found helped a great deal and made it so much easier to actually get the turns going and stringing them together. It was really all coming together and I was starting to thoroughly enjoy it more and more. Not that I didn’t enjoy it already, it just made me love snowboarding! By the end of the run we were zooming down the mountain, but all completely buggered after it as well. That afternoon we were off to the nearby resort again for some more activities. They called it El Tarter by Night and it’s the only way you could get up on the mountain after it closes. We were greeted with hot chocolates in the café, and then we went out into the snow to start the activities. First up there was tubing tubing down the mountain, which involved a giant tractor tyre tube. You would start at the top of the small mountain they had for it, then run a few steps up the tube, give it a little kick, and then jump on like Superman as quickly as you could before the tube slid away from you and then slide your way down the mountain. It was pretty insane looking but after seeing a few people do it and just literally throwing yourself into it, it was easy. And what fun as well! What a feeling it was sliding down the mountain and having no control whatsoever over where you are going. Then as you are getting to the end, all you had to do to stop was throw yourself off the tube. Simple really, at least it was snow to land on.

Sliding down the mountain on a tractor tyre tube.

Next up there was these little boards you could sit on and with a handle that went between your legs to hold onto. You kicked off with your feet to gain speed the slid all the way to the bottom digging in your heels to steer. It didn’t look like much fun, but looks can be deceiving, and in this case they were. It was great fun, and was even better when the four of us could line up and race against each other to the bottom. After about an hour or so of that and as the sun started to go down, we headed into the restaurant where he got hotdogs, chips and beer for dinner. Simple, but satisfying. Later that night it was the snowboard party where they showed the video that was made during the day. It was really quite strange watching yourself snowboard down the mountain and it looks a hell of lot slower than it feels when you are out on the snow. It was good just to hang out and have a few drinks with the instructors and the others from our group as well. There was even a raffle where Elese and I nearly won a snowboard! We’d bought 5 tickets but without knowing who got the extra ticket, they gave us a sneaky extra one. There was 4 prizes, of which we won 2 of them (5 Jagerbombs at the bar and a free Pizza and beer at the restaurant) but unfortunately we were 1 ticket number off of winning the snowboard. Not to worry though, we still had a lot of fun which capped off a great day!