When the Sun Shine We Shine Together
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Minus 20. Snow flakes falling. Three aussies. Inadequate clothing and footwear. Severely overloaded with luggage. In front of them brightly coloured, fast moving carriages suspended on a thin cable and travelling upwards of 2000 plus meters above rugged, rocky, snow covered outcrops, before vanishing off in to the unknown. This is us. This in the only way in and out of our 'home' for 7 months. In we pile. People, LUGGAGE, snowboards and our excitement. The view is astonishing. We are cutting through the Rocky mountains on the way to our village nestled amongst these colossal formations. The mountains with their sheer size are daunting; the starkness of the alpine landscape is apparent yet beautiful. It is big, bold, remote and an environment to be respected.
When we first arrived at the village with the remainder of the staff for the season the ski hill was not open to the public, nor were any of the lifts running. We had this winter playground to ourselves to explore and get to know one another. We were all keen to give our new boards a bash, and to try and get lucky and not give our old bodies the same treatment. Some had, some hadn't done this before. Heck, I had never even made a snow ball before. It was a hike up a steep snow covered mountain carrying this board that you were to strap to your feet with no real easy release mechanism or any brakes. The snow was hard and icy, the decent steep and fast. In hindsight perhaps I should have received some tips on how to ride before giving it a go but this didn't happen. I now know you are meant to ride the board on one of the edges to slow yourself down and not to angle your board flat and straight down the hill. There I was, standing strapped in, no escape, looking down at a big white hard punishment. Pretty much like riding an oiled oven tray down a refrigerator. With the cheers from the crowd, off I went, flat boarded, pointing the nose straight down the hill with absolutely no clue as to how to stop. I guess I was to figure this out in about 5 seconds, or let the mountain figure it out for me. I flipped, I flew, I rolled several times, my legs bent behind my head, and I stopped covered in snow like I has just been caught in an avalanche. This didn't hurt. Let's do it again. This time I caught an edge, flew through the air like a graceful swan, and then carried on with the swan dive face first in to the mountain with my eye socket breaking my fall. This one hurt a tad more.
Learning to snowboard is like crashing your car at high speed in to a tree daily.
It does get easier, the falls lessen. At first you can fall up to 20+ times an hour. It's frustrating. Making self esteem issue worse are the 3 year olds on their ski's or baby boards carving it up around you as you sit on your sore ass disillusioned and broken in the cold, hard snow. When you get the hang of it it is amazing. You feel on top of the world. Then you start to think you are the shit and take more risks until the mountain yet again slams your arrogant over confident Aussie ass in to more cold hard reality.
Now time for the chair lift. They are to take you high up in to the mountain so you have further riding/tumbling time. Ok, again you strap one foot in to the board, the other you just leave dangling about to help you skate through the snow. So your front leg has a heavy long piece of wood attached to it and you are expected to hobble over to the lift and jump on to the seat as the chair come past. Oh no the lift doesn't stop, in fact it doesn't even really slow. Plus you have a narrow platform to take of from along with three of your buddies also hobbling along with plank of wood tied to their feet.
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